Chapter I: Part 1

The Travels of
Mathew Dudgeon, Gentleman.

A True Relation of the
Travels and Perilous Adventures
of Mathew Dudgeon,
Gentleman:

Wherein is truly set down the Manner of his
Taking, the Long Time of his Slavery in
Algiers, and Means of his Delivery.

_Written by Himself, and now for the
first time printed._

London:
Longmans, Green, and Co.
New York: 15 East 16^{th} Street.
1894.

THE STORY OF GABRIELLA DI CAPELLINI
THE STORY OF PABLO FRAXADO Y RIBADENEYRA
THE STORY OF YOUSEF IBN ALI.
EL MELEK EN ASSAD, OR EVIL IS REWARDED BY EVIL.
THE STORY OF MOHAMMED BEN KHOSROES, OR EVIL IS REWARDED BY EVIL.
THE STORY OF ABOU ALI, OR GOOD DEEDS ARE REWARDED BY GOD.
THE STORY OF GHERIB AND BÄIDA.
THE STORY OF WOLFRAM VON RABENBACH
THE STORY OF HELIODORA.
THE STORY OF UMEIMEH.

I am descended from a family of position, which has held from time immemorial a considerable estate in the neighbourhood of Portsmouth; and perhaps it was the accident of living so near to the sea that gave me a taste for seafaring life. Often have I wandered down as a child to where the old sea-dogs were sunning themselves with their pipes, and there have listened with all the strength of my little ears to their tales of the foreign countries they had seen, the wonders of the sea and land, the birds, the beasts, fishes, and monsters hardly to be described, and of their perils and adventures; some, I fear me, not strictly veracious, but none the less entertaining for all that.

Being a younger son of a younger son, I was bound to seek some profession; and it was only natural that when asked by an indulgent father what I would choose to be, I answered him that I should like to be apprenticed to the sea. Now, my father had a brother, a Turkey merchant in London, married, but childless, and to him I was accordingly sent. He lived next to his office and warehouse in a commodious mansion situated in the Barbican, and, greatly to my disgust, I was kept to my desk at his office learning the business of a merchant, in order that I might take charge of some of his ventures as supercargo when sufficiently acquainted with the business, in place of going to sea at once and witnessing the marvels I had been told of by the old tars of the Hard. Of my early apprenticeship, however, it is not my intention to discourse here, and I will merely say that I made many voyages for my uncle both to the East and the West Indies, gaining much experience, going through many perilous adventures, twice being shipwrecked, and winning the esteem and confidence of my uncle by the skill and ability I showed in the conduct of his affairs. At the age of twenty-nine, I married a wife, and settled in a house at Southwark, and soon after my uncle died leaving me a large portion of his property together with his business. After my marriage I had settled at home, but after my uncle’s death, when I became for the first time master of myself, the old longing came over me, and laying out about two thousand pounds in goods that my experience had taught me were suitable, I embarked them in the Antelope, Captain Manwaring, who was an old friend of my uncle’s, his ship then lying in the Thames bound for Smyrna, with several other merchants, and goods to great value on board. The parting with my wife was exceeding painful, as indeed it would be to any man of right feelings. My wife, poor creature, held up bravely until the last moment, though I knew that her heart was full of forebodings at the departure for so long a period of her dear husband; and the more so, since I had never yet left her; and the stories I had related to her of my previous voyages and perils had filled her soul with perhaps unnecessary alarm; but little Tom, our child, jumped and crowed in her arms, delighted at the confusion and bustle around. I kissed her, and bade her be of good cheer, but she only sobbed the louder until little Tom, struck by her sorrowful mien, paused in his merriment and gazed so wistfully in her face that she fell to kissing and hugging him, and forgot half her pain. Seizing this opportune moment, I motioned to the boatmen to cast off, at the same time swinging myself aboard the vessel, and we parted before she could look up. The wind favoured us very much, blowing fair from the north, which was of service to us, both in getting out of the river, wherein the tide also helped us, and in sailing down the channel; but I went into my cabin, and thinking of my wife, her sorrow, and the many calm delights of my dear home, fell into a troubled sleep, wherein I dreamed that Tom was grown into a big man handsome as his father, and the delight of his aged parents. Nothing worthy of recounting occurred for the first week; the wind continued fair, having gone over somewhat to the west. Ever and anon we spoke homeward-bound ships. Ah, how my heart rebelled within me and a longing seized me to return! How at such times the picture of my poor wife sitting alone with her little son would fill my thoughts, and how a wondrous melancholy seized me: all this I will not relate, it would but tire the reader, and ’tis but a common feeling to those that depart for a long time from home. We put in at Porto where some of our merchants had goods to unload, and took the opportunity to get fresh victuals and water; and then setting sail again, in a day or two we had passed the mighty Rock of Gibraltar. But here the wind, which had hitherto been favourable, was against us, and we made but slow way. It was the third day after we had passed Gibraltar that we saw a ship to windward of us, crowding all the sail she could carry. We began to misdoubt that she was an Algerian corsair, or piratical vessel, and our captain, swearing a great oath, ordered the helm to be put over, and the decks to be cleared and prepared for our defence. We had a long eight, and three four-pounders, with of course small arms; these were all loaded, and every man had his place appointed to him, while we watched anxiously betwixt hope and fear until we should be satisfied by their colours. Some imagined her to be French by the make of the ship, while others urged us to be of good cheer, for they knew her for a Dutchman from Hamborough. Our distrust, however, made us seek a Spanish port, till at last French colours came out, which we answered with our English ensign, and she fired a gun as a command to us to strike our sail. Our captain, however, who was well acquainted with such tricks of pirates, would not trust appearances, and now began an all-absorbing race, in which as we feared, the lives of some and the liberties of all were at stake. Unfortunately, it was yet early in the day, and we had no hope of darkness presently prevailing to favour our escape if they should prove to be the faster sailors. For some time, indeed, the distance between us appeared to remain about the same, but it soon became apparent, notwithstanding our great desire to the contrary, that the stranger vessel was gaining upon us. At half a league’s distance they discovered themselves to be Turks by hoisting of their bloody ensign, which they put up instead of the white, and we perceived a puff of smoke presently followed by the noise of a ball rushing over our heads. What a terrible sound was this! Many of the merchants fell to praying, and even I felt some inclination to duck my head as it came hurtling by. I observed a fellow who before had suffered from some disease in his legs and hands, much like unto the gout, which made him unserviceable all the time of the voyage, when he saw the danger he began to skip about, and handle the guns as if nothing had ever ailed him. Again came another shot which ploughed up the water close upon our starboard quarter, and yet another which cut our mainmast in two. With astounding quickness our men cut away the wreck, but, alas! we had lost all chance of escape, and about noon the pirate came up with us, saluting us as she did so with a broadside. Upon this we turned about and bore down straight upon him, greatly to his astonishment as I afterwards found, causing him to fear that we were an armed vessel and not merely the peaceful trader he had taken us for. But what was the use of arms, or of mine and the crew’s bravery? Fight we did, for above an hour, and it was furious and bloody while it lasted; some when their limbs were all bruised, their bones shattered, and their bodies torn by splinters, did obstinately continue to handle and manage the guns. Broadside after broadside they poured into us, the air was thick with smoke, and for the yells of these fiends and the roar of the cannon we could scarce hear the captain’s orders. We had drawn together, and as a puff of wind blew the smoke aside for an instant we perceived some of the enemy lashing the two vessels together. In a moment they were down upon us, springing from the shrouds, pouring over the bows, leaping and vaulting like cats. Inch by inch we disputed their way, but at last perceiving that we had no hope of escaping from them, and that our vessel was in a sinking condition, we called for quarter, which the Turks were glad to grant, for they had lost many men; and moreover, they wished to take us for slavery and ransom. One thing occurred during the fight which I did then look upon as of evil omen: at a broadside which we both fired at the same instant, one of their shot met one of ours in mid-air, and in the encounter split in two pieces, one of which flew back upon our captain and killed him. Truly it was a marvellous chance that he should thus be slain by one of his own shot!

Our vessel was in so evil a plight that the Turks quickly removed our cargo into their own; and when they saw the rich lading, they readily pardoned us the injury we had done them. Their prisoners were loaded with chains and also taken aboard their vessel, the dead and badly wounded were left on board ours, which was then sunk. In searching us for valuables, they found in my pocket a small case of instruments which I, who had some knowledge of surgery, usually carried by me; for in my former voyages I had found the necessity of this and had attended some lectures under the celebrated Dr. Harvey. Belike for this reason I was not fettered like the rest, but inasmuch as they were in want of a surgeon, I was set to heal those wounds I had been so anxious to make. We were as civilly treated by the Turks as we could expect, but they were very inquisitive to find our several conditions and what they might hope to receive from us in the matter of ransom, either from the property we had in our own country or from the kindness of friends. I gave myself out for a poor supercargo in charge of goods for my master, a tale which they, poor fools, believed; at least, for that time. In my quality of surgeon they gave me plenty to do. I myself had a nasty cut upon the side of the head, but my wound was not a serious one: the ruffian’s scimitar had glanced from my skull, which, luckily, is of good thickness; and beyond the blow, which somewhat dazed me at the time, I had merely lost blood, which in this climate is sometimes beneficial, so that despite the foul air and filthy state of the ship, I was soon in a fair way of recovery. I confess it did my heart good to see the number of Turks that had been laid low by our brave crew, besides many we had sent to their paradise if they could find it; nevertheless as surgeon I did my best for them. The Turks were mightily pleased with my address, and even he who wounded me swore, that if it were not that he hated doing a thing by halves, he was almost glad that he had not killed me. They agreed that I had a pretty talent for fighting, and some of them begged me to forswear my religion and become one of them. On the one side they put before me the glory of their profession, the riches I might get, and the honour in which I should be held; on the other, they showed me how, if I would not become a renegado, I should be held in slavery, perhaps sent to the galleys, and, since I was a poor man, I could not hope to be ransomed. All this and more I steadfastly refused: how could I forsake the religion in which I had been brought up, and which I knew to be the true one, to become a follower of their false prophet Mahomet? And, moreover, I foresaw that if I fixed myself thus in their country, I should never dare to purchase my freedom as I hoped to do, and should have more difficulty in compassing my escape.

When they saw that I was determined, they ceased to importune me any more. I was, as I have said, left unfettered, nevertheless I was not allowed to communicate with my companions, save once in the day when I was permitted to dress their wounds; and thus shut out as it were from all my kind, I had the more leisure to think over my former estate and to curse that greed of riches that would not be satisfied with what I had got, but still would crave for more, as also that insatiable love of adventure that had brought me to this present pass. In bitterness of heart I would retire to some quiet corner of the vessel and there con over the pleasant images of my past life. I would bethink me how I had first met that sweet girl that was to become my wife; how I would visit her mother, and commend her cakes and ale--hypocrite that I was!--how I would relate my various adventures with that modest spirit which is so inseparable from me, and furtively watch the flush of surprise and pleasure that mantled in her innocent cheek. Nor did I fail to note how awkwardly she would arrange the things, desiring to gain time and linger in the room; how ever and anon she would fetch her breath at some marvellous or hairbreadth escape, how her colour would come and go, her breast heave; in short, how she would discover every mark of deep and tender sympathy. Again I would bethink me of that anxious time when she began to accompany her parents, a welcome guest, to the houses of the neighbouring gentry, the centre of an admiring circle. Yet still she used to blush when I appeared, and her face would brighten; but withal, so blind was I, that in place of seeing and rejoicing in these marks of my success, I only saw the wretched cringing crowd of sparks about her, and paled with awful fear that her inexperienced heart might be carried off by one of those experienced and faithless liars. With pictures such as these I well-nigh lashed myself at times to desperation, and had serious thoughts of casting myself headlong into the sea, and so ending my miserable life.

The pirates lingered about in these waters, sometimes avoiding ships that seemed of greater strength than themselves, at others chasing those that appeared to be mere traders. Several of these they took, though none of any great value, being mostly laden with oil, wine, wood, and such-like commodities of great bulk and little use to the Turks; but they got some Christian provisions, welcome enough to me that was not used to their diet of dried bread and a small bean called lentil, or rice and poor John, and a dish they greatly favour which they call pillaw. One day, however, they had the good luck to take a rich galleon laden with silver for the King of Spain, after a hard and desperate fight in which their ship received so great hurt that the pirate captain, satisfied with what he had already got, determined forthwith to return to Algiers. We had not sailed a few hours when we encountered a Spanish man-of-war that laboured to come up to speak with us; but the pirates had no longer any stomach for fighting, and so, hoisting all the sail they could carry, they made away as fast as they could go. Seeing this, I stealthily made fast a cord to a great sail that lay bundled up at the poop, and as dusk was coming on dropped it overboard so as to drag and deaden our way, which played to some purpose; but greatly to my disappointment I observed when it grew dark that the Spaniard had lost sight of us, and saw by his lights that he was sailing away, not knowing that we had altered our course, for we showed no lights. Then finding that there was no hopes of our capture, and fearing that the sail might be seen in the water, I cut it adrift; for I knew that should I be found out, I should most certainly be slain, and perhaps tortured; though I was yet to learn how horribly they put to death those that do offend them.

The next morning we anchored in the Bay of Algiers, where some officers, of the Dey, or King of that country, came on board to take note of what prize we had gotten. Among these was a renegado, an Italian, that had amassed great wealth by his apostasy. This man was a trader in slaves, and knew well how to make his advantage: therefore taking us captives aside as though he would not be overheard by the Turks, he pretended that his conscience smote him for having abjured the Christian faith, and held out hopes to us that he would attempt to escape to his own country, and rescue with him as many slaves as he was able. To this end he begged us to tell him of our conditions, and which among us had men of substance and worth among our friends, in order that he might communicate with them and so save them and assist the poorer sort to escape, whether by ransom or otherwise. There were some sixty of us, English, Spaniards, French, Italians, and a few Greeks, mostly of the poorer sort, and some of them were caught by his deceitful words; but I began to suspect him, and privately warned my countrymen, so that we all gave ourselves out for poor men and unable to provide a ransom, as unknowing of friends of worth. Whereupon he purchased all those who had told him of their wealth, and made their lot as slaves harder than the worst Turk would do in order to urge them the more to pay their ransom. Me too he suspected, but being in doubt, he would not bid a sufficient sum for me, and I therefore was taken ashore like the rest with a chain about my neck to be sold as if I were a horse or a dog. There was a vast crowd all round the landing place; some brought there by their curiosity, others would-be buyers, and others again, the relations of those we had slain in fight, who strove to come near in order that they might wreak their vengeance upon us: and indeed, it had gone hard with us had not these wretches been driven back by our masters. Nevertheless, one among them made a slash at one of us that had chanced to slay his brother at the taking of our vessel, and sliced off a part of his cheek, which he snatched up and greedily ate, all bleeding and raw as it was, declaring that it was the sweetest morsel he had ever tasted. In this guise we were led up to the market-place, with nothing on us save a cloth about our middle, when several grave Turks examined us, as we are accustomed to examine horses in our country, and one that thought to make profit by my skill in surgery, which had been extolled to him, bought me for two hundred pieces of eight. In this way, for a time, I escaped the hard labour of my fellow captives, for in place of being put to building, carrying of burdens, or to the galleys as were they, I was sent about the town curing such as were sick, in which I had indifferent success; but that not satisfying the greed of my master, he would have me work in his garden also.

In this garden were many slaves, among which was an Englishman, that may have been a proper youth at one time, with good features and pleasing countenance, but now all so sunken that he looked a poor pitiful creature enough. I spoke to him with kindness out of the abundance of my good nature, the which pleased him so much that he did whatsoever of my work that he was able for me, while I sat by and smoked; for though our work was hard, our meat poor, and our lodging not fit for beasts, yet the Turks cannot conceive that a man may live if he do not smoke, and therefore they supply their slaves with an inferior sort of tobacco, which is marvellously cheap in these regions. One evening, after the labour of the day was over, he appeared to be wondrously tired, for he was a weak creature that had hardly yet attained to manhood, and for that reason had been put to the lighter labour of the garden, I observed the tears rolling down his cheeks, and asked him whether perchance he was thinking of his home, and if he had any hopes of obtaining his ransom? ‘My ransom,’ he replied, ‘I doubt much whether even if it were offered to me I would accept of it; nor do I know what it is still holds me to this hated life if it be not the misery that I am enduring. Hear me,’ he said, ‘hear what it is that I suffer, and then say whether any man would care for life were he so wretched as I, and tormented as I am! To begin, then, I never knew a father, and my mother died while I was still so young that I have hardly any remembrance of her. Her brother, to whom she commended me on her dying bed, brought me to his wife, who, like a true woman, took pity on the helpless thing, and they bred me up as their son. About two years afterwards a daughter was born to them, and we grew up together as brother and sister, although we knew of the relationship between us. As brother and sister we loved each other and wandered hand in hand over the surrounding country, rejoicing together in the air and sunshine, watching together the habits of the birds and beasts, and making posies for each other of the wildflowers. Insensibly with my years my love for her changed, and I rejoiced that I was not really her brother and began to look forward to a closer and dearer tie. On her side, I doubt that her thoughts ever changed towards me, or that she ever thought of me otherwise than as of a brother. Afterwards, perhaps, when she too had learned what sorrow was, then she also, if she looked back, may have divined somewhat of the love which I had so hopelessly cherished for her. For the present, indeed, it was sufficient for me to be near her, to see her, to breathe the atmosphere in which she dwelt. Can I ever forget the time when she, then scarcely sixteen, called me aside one day and spoke words of sisterly esteem and love. Ah! how I trembled, and would have fallen on my knees and told her then how I worshipped her, but the words seemed to dry up in my throat and I could not. I think I must have had a feeling of what was coming, and therefore it was that I could not speak; and I was glad afterwards that it was so. She told me that she loved the son of a gentleman in our neighbourhood, who was far above us in rank. Poor girl! She blushed and hesitated, pure soul that she was; and all her difficulty hurt me, for I could not bear to see her even in that pain. She told me that her parents had forbidden her to see him, and that she wished me to help her to disobey them. Alas! alas! I was to betray all that was dearest to me also. Yet I took her message to him, and I saw them meet. He gave me light words of thanks and put a tester in my hand, and I threw it on the ground and felt that I could have murdered him, but her image was between us, and I thought that he might make her happy. She trusted that evil man and left the home of which she was the life. Would that I had murdered him! Could she but have known in that glamour of faith and love what sorrow she was bringing on her parents! I felt like a traitor to them, a snake that they had nursed in their bosoms; but they still continued to treat me with kindness though I had told them all, for they knew that I also had loved her. How carefully they tended everything that had been hers, as if they were persuaded that one day she might still return to them: her pet birds, and her little dog Hope, who would wander seeking for her all about the cottage and be pricking up his ears at every passing footstep. Often have I seen them pass on tiptoe by her room as though she slept there, and they were feared to wake her! Often, ah, how often! have I watched the tears roll down her mother’s cheeks as she would sit in the ingle nook thinking of what might have been! I could not bear to leave them, and yet I could not bear to stop; until at last her silence determined me to set off in search for her. To this end I wandered through France, until one coming from Italy gave me to believe that she had died at a town called Perugia; and I was on my way thither when I was captured by these corsairs. Now it seems indifferent to me whether I return or not; or whether my lot be life or death.’ When he had finished, I clapped him on the back, and bade him be of good cheer, for if she were dead, she was dead, and there were quite as good fish in the sea as ever came out of it. But, as I have already said, he was a weak creature, and perhaps ’twas as well that he lived not much longer, as I shall relate in due course.

I need not say that a man of my kidney could not brook, without indignation, this state of bondage, and that I was ever casting about for some means of escape--although I well knew that this could not be done without peril of my life. Yea, even to speak of it to my fellows in bondage was a matter of danger; for some, especially those of France and Italy, were so broken in spirit that they would confess a plot in order that they might win their master’s grace, and bring their fellow captives to a horrid death by torture in order that they might gain a slight indulgence for themselves. I have seen some who were caught as they attempted to escape, punished in the most horrible of fashions: those who were too valuable as able bodied slaves to be done to death, were given a hundred blows on the back, and a hundred blows on the belly, and then were sent into the galleys; and, indeed, I think from my own later experience, that the manners of death I am about to relate are not so terrible as this. Others were executed in divers fashions: for some they threw from high rocks upon a company of sharp pointed stakes, planted below, in order that they might die torn and crushed; one was spread with honey and exposed naked on the hot sands to the fury of the sun and the stings of venomous insects; one again was done to death in a more horrid manner, for he was flayed while he was yet living, and his skin used to cover one of their drums; while another had a stake thrust through his living body, and there, lifted on high in the midst of the town, he died soon after, more from the heat of the sun than from the agony of his wounds. But, methinks, the worst death was of one who in his rage cursed their prophet Mahomet; for they poured down his throat boiling lead. He could utter no cry: for all his throat was instantly burnt away, and there was nought but a hideous soughing of steam to proclaim his torments. God preserve me from the like sights again! Though I be not of a weak nature, such things make a man to think twice before he will attempt to escape and risk the like punishment!

Now, in my peregrinations as physician, I had been sent to a house which stood in a garden next to that of my master, in order that I might prescribe for one of the women therein. Think not, gentle reader, that I was allowed to cheer myself with a view of her fair countenance; for these followers of the devilish Mahomet, who drink no honest liquor but in secret, nor know any true religion, never suffer their women to be seen. When they go forth ’tis as a bundle of clothes with a veil over their features; nor, even when I was called upon to prescribe for their diseases, was I ever permitted to set eyes upon them. There they sat, behind a curtain, and the most I was permitted to do was to feel a pulse. I think now that my fair neighbour, for whom, as I have said, I was called upon to prescribe, did not suffer from ought, but had seen me through her meshrebeeyeh (which is a sort of Venetian window of small pieces of wood cunningly joined together, so that one may look through it from within, but may not be seen from without)--I say she may have seen me while I was at work in her neighbour’s garden. But what a thrill ran through me as I took that fair small wrist! I think that I pressed her hand, nay, I would almost swear that I did, but my mind was so perturbed that I cannot be sure, and I will not write what I do not know for certain to be true. I thought that I had offended her, for she quickly withdrew it, but she returned it again in a short space, and to my great wonder, as I withdrew, I found that she had pressed into my hand, for some sign, two small pieces of charcoal, a lump of salt, and a leaf. In great perplexity I returned to my quarters, cudgelling my brains to think what this might mean. That the women of the Turks cannot indite an epistle I knew, as, indeed, can few of the men. I therefore felt the more sure that these things conveyed some message, a message from one sympathising with me in my misfortunes! That was sweet, indeed, to one who had known nought but hardship, had seen nought but rudeness, and felt nought but blows since he had been in this accursed country. A message it surely was, but what? All night I lay awake thinking, until at last, in a flash, it became clear to me what she meant. The signs conveyed this:--‘Two nights hence, meet me in the garden at the borders of the sea.’ It could mean but that! The two lumps of charcoal stood for two nights hence, the lump of salt for the sea, and the leaf showed that she would meet me in the garden. Time seemed to move with leaden steps, and for fear that I should mistake, I was there as soon as ever we were free to retire for rest from the labours of the day. As I left my lair among the sleeping slaves, the moon was rising in all her splendour as though she were a town on fire: everything was silent, but for the incessant barking of the dogs, the occasional cry of the owl, or the distant howls of the jackals quarrelling over the carcass of some dead camel beyond the ramparts. A fitful light could be seen on the distant mole; but there was nought else to illumine the deep shadows that the moon cast as she rose. The deep masses of blackness, broken by the outlines of feathery palms and the tall spires of the mosques, from which the muezzin calls these heathens to pray, was set off by the white gleaming roofs of the houses. All this I admired as I stole along and ensconced myself in some tall bushes in the garden by the sea shore. Presently I perceived two female figures stealing down to the place where I lay concealed, which I doubted not were my Reyya and a slave; and in another instant she was in my arms.

O Love, thou subtle teacher of all that is sweetest in knowledge; breaker of bolts and bars; thou for whom difficulties only exist in order that they may be overcome; thou who suffusest the cheek with the blush of life, and makest the eyes more brilliant than the stars; giver of more than human subtlety, the only author of modesty, that chiefest charm of woman, and gallantry, the greatest virtue of man! By thy grace, although we were mutually ignorant of each other’s language, yet were we enabled to understand each word the other uttered, words breathing fire, and love, and truth, and enduring affection! Sweet indeed were those moments, and bright enough to gild even a captive’s chain! When I look back again upon that time, and see again in the shimmering light of the moon those drooping eyelashes that served but to render endurable to weak human nature the flashes of those coal-black eyes; flashes which otherwise would have consumed my innermost heart to dust! When I recall again that tender form melting in my enclasping arms, I feel again what it is to live, a dream of bliss lasting but a moment, yet not to be forgotten while still a breath is left in the decaying tenement on which devouring time has laid his palsied hand! But though I love to train back my thoughts to the memory of that time, to picture to myself its joys, and once again linger over its sweetness, yet is it tinged with the memory of the bitterness that was to follow upon our delicious intercourse, a bitterness too often inseparable, alas! from forbidden pleasures.

By the time that we had been tenderly enjoying each other’s society in these stolen interviews for about the space of a month (for nearly every night Reyya used to come down to the garden attended by but one female slave) and when we had learned to converse in a sort of lingua franca, I began to open to her my thoughts of escape. We had continued so long in our peaceful interviews, and so pure was her heart, that she had begun to think that this was to be her life, and had ceased to project her mind beyond the present moment. When however she understood that I had thoughts of escape, her heart seemed to stand still, she clung to me as one distraught, for she was the only daughter of a tender father whom she greatly loved, and it at once became clear to her that the time was come when she must elect between me and him. What tears she shed! Now would she pray me to stay and be one of them; and anon she would dissolve in an agony of grief as she foresaw how impossible this would be, for though even I should apostatize, how could her father unite her to a slave! Nevertheless love to a stranger is ever greater than filial love, and so her mind was after no long time settled in my favour, though with heaviness and sorrow; she agreed to assist all she could in furthering my escape, for she could deny me nothing. Fervently did I embrace the dear creature at this crucial evidence of her great love for me, and straightway I proceeded to mature the plans necessary for my purpose.

There were eleven Englishmen among the slaves of the garden, including myself: six were seafaring men; one was a merchant from Bristol; one was an adventurer that had journeyed over nearly all Europe, offering his sword to the best paymaster; another was a young Cornishman of means, that had been travelling abroad to see foreign countries; while yet another was the youth whose story I have related. The seamen and the Cornishman I knew that I could trust: the former were blunt honest creatures that would brave the devil to obtain their freedom again, while the Cornishman was a gentleman of courage as I could see. But I somewhat mistrusted the soldier who cared not on whose side he fought; as also the merchant, whom I feared would prove to be fainthearted when it came to the pinch, and who, moreover, was an old man. The youth I could trust; but he would be of but little use, and I therefore said nothing to him on the matter. Taking first the seamen aside one by one, I communicated my design to them, and they all, like brave men as they were, agreed to risk everything with me. One was a master-carpenter, and I found him afterwards of great value to my purpose. Now I had noticed an old boat laid up among the rocks on the sea shore at the bottom of the garden, almost worn out, that had last been used for carrying ballast in the harbour. This I hoped that we should be able to repair, but we still wanted for oars and sails, provisions and water. I told Reyya of our necessities, and with her woman’s wit she supplied some of them in the following manner. Her father, who held some office in the fort at the foot of the mole, was wont to sail over the harbour to get there, thereby saving a long round by land. She feigned one day again to be unwell, and protested that she longed mightily to pass an evening on the sea; which her father agreed to, and with several rowers they put out and rowed along the coast. When they were gotten opposite to where our old boat lay, Reyya stood upright as if to gaze around her, and making as though she stumbled over the gear, which was a mast and sail and two pairs of oars that lay at the bottom of the boat, fell straightway into a violent rage, nor would anything satisfy her but that the offending matter should be cast out, which her father consented to, knowing the spot, and intending to send for them later. I, however, who had been on the watch, instantly conveyed them to another place, and scraping a shallow trench in the sand, there buried them so that they could not be found by others. Reyya also, little by little, brought us dried bread, lentils, rice, and a small breaker for water, which I thought might be sufficient for us until we had gained a Christian coast or had been picked up by a passing ship. When all was ready, I fixed upon a moonless night towards the end of their fasting time, which they call Ramadan. In this time, which endures for forty days, they fast while the sun is up, only eating at night time; wherefore they are weak, and moreover are occupied in their houses in eating and smoking at night, and are therefore at that time the less likely to keep good ward; although even then they still have galleys kept in readiness, and the slaves sleep in their chains at the oars.

As the time approached for our attempt at escape, I observed a strange fear and restlessness in Reyya: now she wished us to start at once, and anon she would implore me to put off our journey and to stay longer, but I would not listen to her in this. Nathless, I had reason to fear that the English slave, the soldier of fortune, had got wind of our affair; and once, indeed, made sure that I saw him spying; but when I examined about more narrowly I could find no trace of him. I therefore determined to pretend to take him into our confidence, and named a day upon which we would depart later than that upon which we had in truth fixed, so as to put him off the scent, and if he did betray us it should be in vain. In the first hour after sunset on the appointed day I took the youth aside and led him down to the boat where the rest were assembled, nor asking him whether he would choose to go, put him in. I looked around with anxiety for Reyya, but she was nowhere to be seen. With much perturbation of spirit I ran up into her garden, but she was not to be found there; and then hearing a commotion and running to and fro, I hurried down to the boat and gave the order to push off. Just as we did so, I heard the wails of women from her father’s house that betokened one dead; and as my companions silently plied their muffled oars and we steered along under the shadow of the shore, my heart was heavy and my mind filled with forebodings that the gentle Reyya was no more. Only long afterwards did I hear it said that she had been found with a dagger through her heart; but I never rightly came to know whether she did it with her own hand in the conflict of choice betwixt deserting her father or her lover, or whether she had been betrayed by the slave girl or the soldier slave, and had been slain by her father. ’Tis pitiful that this poor heathen creature was cut off in the flower of her youth and beauty to suffer those torments that the followers of the false prophet Mahomet foolishly believe we Christians are doomed to undergo. I would have saved her if I could, but much as I doubted of her fate, I had to put away all thought of her for the more pressing care of my own safety. We had hardly got the third of a league along the coast when we heard the boom of one of their great ordnance from the mole, we could see lights flitting about, and presently two galleys left the port. The savage yells of the Turks came floating over the calm water, and we heard even the thwack of the whips over the bare backs of the poor Christian slaves who were tugging at the unwieldy sweeps: but they went straight out to sea, which justified my foresight, and left us to creep along the shore as before for about four leagues, when as it began to be dawn, fearing to be spied from the land, and thinking that we had got a sufficient distance from the course of the galleys, we put out to sea. For the first part of the day we saw nothing, and began to have hopes that we had escaped the galleys and should make the coast of Spain, if we did not fall in with a Christian vessel before. But fortune was against us; for about the second watch, when we were resting somewhat from the labours of the night, we saw a galley making straight for us. Doubtlessly they had spied us from the masthead, and so seen us before we could see them. We rowed as hard as we could, but we were exhausted, when luckily a breeze sprang up, and hoisting our sail we made some way through the water. The wind came from the north-east, and I therefore headed our boat north, for I knew that with the wind three points on the beam, the galleys would be able to make but little way, and their oars would rather impede than assist them. They were already so near, however, that they would try their ordnance upon us; and though most of their shot fell wide or short, one, that was almost spent, struck the youth who had accompanied us, scattering his brains all over the place; and what was worst, stove in our breaker, letting the water run out into the bottom of our boat, where it mingled with his blood. Had it not fallen on the breaker it would, I make no doubt, have stove a hole through the bottom, and we should all have been drowned or taken. With the rising wind we drew out of reach of their shot, but I would not allow the body to be thrown overboard yet, for we sailed much better with so much ballast. In vain did we look out for some sign of a Christian vessel; nothing was to be seen but the hateful galley, and our only hope was that we might keep ahead of it, at least while daylight lasted, so that we might escape under cover of the darkness of the night. The wind now veered round a bit to the east, so, tying the shot that had killed him to our dead comrade, we heaved him overboard, and sailing almost before the wind made, as nearly as I could guess, directly for Valencia. As the sun set, the galley was almost hull down in the offing, but the wind only held an hour longer and it then fell calm.

At dawn the galley was nowhere in sight, for we had changed our course, as soon as it grew dark, more to the westward, and the Turks most likely had been rowing all the time in the wrong direction. But there was still no wind, and we were all exhausted, insomuch that we could none of us row, but lay at the bottom of the boat and let her drift whithersoever she would. We had a sufficiency of meat, but no drink; and as the sun gained in power, we felt the want very sorely, but still no wind came. On the third day there was still no wind, and the sun seemed to be hotter than ever; our tongues swole in our mouths, we could hardly speak, and no one offered to row. Some would fain have lapped up what remained of the water at the bottom of the boat which had nearly all been sucked up by the sun, but the blood in it had putrefied and the stench was too horrible even for men parched as they were. One drank some sea-water, whereupon he grew even more thirsty, his tongue cracked and bled, and at last he went mad and jumped overboard, nor did anyone try to save him. I counselled those who had the strength to strip, and sink their bodies in the sea, while they hung on to the boat, and this somewhat refreshed them; but after a time a shark was sighted, and I promise you we quickly got into the boat again. Still we saw nothing, and by this time, so great were our sufferings, we should have welcomed even the Turks. Once, indeed, we did see something black on the water, and hope rose high, for we thought that it might be a cask; and even if it contained rum, or some such liquor, at least we hoped we might go out of the world drunk like gentlemen. One or two of us made a shift to move the oars, but as we drew nearer we saw to our horror that it was our dead comrade--the shot we had tied to his feet was not heavy enough to keep him under, and there he stood, as it were, up in the water black and swollen, with but a fragment of head, his arms waving to and fro in the lazy current.

After this we lay as dead, at the bottom of the boat, how long I know not, but it could not have been more than twelve hours, for another day’s sun would have killed us outright; and when we came to again, we found ourselves aboard a Turkish galley. Had they not picked us up, we had surely perished, yet it grieved us that we had not had the fortune to be picked up by a Christian vessel; and some of us that before had prayed, now blasphemed their Maker that He had again cast them into slavery: and, in sooth, it was hard to bear when we had as it were already three parts escaped. The Turks treated us well until we had somewhat recovered our strength, for we were all strong men, and valuable for slaves, though at present weak, seeing that we had been unable to eat owing to our great thirst. We were uncertain whether they knew us to be runaways from slavery at Algiers, for there was nothing about us or the boat to show whence we came. Many of the people about Calabria, Malta, and Sicily were attired as we were, and the boat differed in nought from the boats of those countries. We therefore agreed among ourselves to deceive them if we could, and to give ourselves out when questioned, as we presently were, for poor mariners from an English ship that had been blown out to sea while attempting to land at Palermo in a gale; and this story they appeared to believe, for I do not think that this was one of the same galleys that had come out to take us. We knew, nevertheless, that this would only save us until we returned to Algiers, where our master would know us again, as well as others that had seen us before; our only hope, therefore, was that we might yet be taken by a Christian vessel.