"Here,for example,"he said,"the former master of this house succeeded in trading ,and handing over his business to another,and spending the rest of his years in peace , he took to equipping ships .He expected to get mountains of gold ; but the ships were robbed ,and his treasures were lost . Now they all lie at the bottom of the sea,and he has found his riches disappeared like those in dreams. In short,examples of this are countless"
"这儿，举个例子吧，"他说“这座房子从前的主人做生意发财了，很有钱。到那时，他非但没有停下来把生意交给别人，自己怡享天年，而是从事船运（自己觉得这里翻译得不好）。他期望能得到一座金山；可是这些船却被抢了，他的金银财宝全没有了。现在™全沉到了海底，（不知道是什么沉到了海底，是抢他东西的人和财宝，还是别的）他发现财富就像梦一般。简而言之，这样的例子数不胜数。”

前面翻译得还好啦，equipping ships 装备船只，跟船运差不多吧，没这方面的知识，不知道有什么区别，后面说沉下海的应该是他的船吧，船只就是他做生意的本钱，船沉没了他就也什么都没有了嘛，就像梦境般消失