Beadle's Half Dime Library, No. 18

This issue of Beadle's Half-Dime Library presents "The History of Sindbad the Sailor," featuring the framing narrative and first voyage. A poor porter named Hindbad, laboring in Bagdad during Caliph Haroun Alraschid's reign, encounters the mansion of the wealthy merchant Sindbad and laments his own hardship. Sindbad overhears, invites him inside, and offers to explain how his riches came through suffering rather than fortune. He recounts his first voyage: after dissipating his inheritance in youth, Sindbad becomes a merchant, sailing toward the East Indies. The crew mistakenly lands on what proves to be a sleeping whale; when it submerges, Sindbad clings to driftwood and eventually washes ashore on an island. There he discovers grooms of King Mihrage breeding sea-horses with mares. After returning to the capital and conducting merchant business, Sindbad's original ship arrives at port with his goods intact, and he reveals himself alive to the astonished captain.