Having then resided at these islands for the space of five years, or thereabouts, but sorely against my will, this long sojourn gave me a knowledge of the country, and an acquaintance with the language, manners, and customs of the inhabitants, greater, perhaps, and I may say it without vanity, than any other European has ever had. Wherefore I have been led to enlarge with so much particularity and exactness my description of the islands, well knowing that none before me has written to the same effect: and perhaps it will be long ere another will make so long a sojourn; for, indeed, men go there but rarely, and then against their will, by reason of the great hazard and peril attending the voyage, which induce them to avoid the islands as much as they can. In the next place, they have been little known up to now; and if misfortune should carry any other person there as it carried me, it is unlikely he should meet with the same favourable treatment and liberty that I experienced. This will gain me an excuse with my readers if I have been somewhat lengthy and tedious in this description of the Maldives; but I have thought that since God had granted me grace through the means of my misfortunes to learn so many particular things, I was obliged to share my knowledge with the public and my country, to whom my good intentions at least will be acceptable, showing that I am not ungrateful for the favours of God in that He hath granted me to know all these things, and at the last hath been pleased to deliver me miraculously, in such wise as I shall now relate.