_From ‘WATKINS’ Travels into Swisserland, Italy, Sicily,’ &c._
Lorenzo Musata, a native of Catania, in Sicily, was, in the year 1774,
taken in a Maltese ship by an Algerine corsair. When the prize was
carried into port, he was sold to a Turkish officer, who treated him
with all the severity that the unfeeling disposition of a barbarian,
rendered intolerable by bigotry, could inflict. It happened fortunately
for the Sicilian, that his master’s son Fezulah, (about ten years old)
became extremely fond of him; and, by numberless little offices of
kindness, alleviated his slavery. Lorenzo, in consequence, became as
much attached to the boy, as the boy was to him; so that they were
seldom separate from each other. One day, as Fezulah (being then
sixteen) was bathing in the sea, the current carried him off; and he
certainly would have perished, had not Lorenzo plunged in, and saved
him, at the hazard of his life. His affection was now heightened by
gratitude, and he frequently interceded with his father for his
deliverer’s emancipation, but in vain. Lorenzo often sighed for his
country, and Fezulah determined that he should return there. With this
resolution, he one night conveyed him on board an English merchant-ship
that lay off Algiers; and having embraced him with tears, retired with
all that exquisite glow of pleasure and self-approbation, which virtue
feels in acting with gratitude and generosity. The Sicilian returned to
his country, where he found that a relation had bequeathed him a small
tenement; upon which he settled, and enjoyed the sweets of competency
and repose, rendered infinitely more grateful, than they otherwise would
have been, by the remembrance of his past slavery. At length growing
tired of a sedentary life, he accompanied his kinsman, a master of a
vessel, to Genoa. On landing in the D’arsena, he heard a voice cry
out--‘Oh, my friend, my Lorenzo,’ and instantly found himself in the
arms of Fezulah. He was at first lost in surprize and joy; but how rapid
was the transition to grief, when he perceived by his chains that
Fezulah was a slave!--He had been taken by a Genoese galley on his
voyage to Aleppo. You have already seen that the ruling passions of
Lorenzo’s breast were generosity and gratitude; and to these he now
determined to sacrifice every other consideration. Having divided his
purse with his former companion, he took his leave, telling him he
should be again at Genoa within two months. And so he was. He returned
to Sicily; sold his little tenement, though to great disadvantage, and
with the money ransomed his friend, whom he sent back to his country.
Fezulah has lately visited Lorenzo at Catania, where they now are, and
has not only re-purchased for him his estate, but considerably enriched
him.
These actions might by some, who have more prudence than philanthropy,
be deemed enthusiastic; I must however, consider them as genuine virtue,
and am only sorry I cannot be an associate in the friendship of Fezulah
and Lorenzo.
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_ANECDOTE of the Celebrated JOHN de WITT._
This illustrious pensionary of Holland, when he was one day asked how he
could get through with ease the immense load of business, that would
oppress most other men; replied, by doing one thing at a time. Another
of his maxims, in the conduct of life, and of still more value than all
his political ones, was to be careful of his health, but careless of his
life. This great man well knew the importance of health to the mental as
well as to the corporeal functions, and at the same time was convinced
that in certain situations, where the duty to one’s country, to one’s
relations, to one’s friends, and to one’s self, demands it, that a
sacrifice of those is justly and honourably made, and that not to make
it is “propter vitam vivendi perdere causam.” The manner of life of this
great man, was so simple, that though his name appeared by the side of
that of emperors and of kings in many public acts, that he used to walk
from his own house to that of the States at the Hague, attended only by
a single servant, and that one man and one maid-servant composed his
whole domestic establishment.
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