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._
[Illustration]
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.
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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.
As soon as we had somewhat recovered, as I have said, we were
chained to the oar with the other slaves; and though we had in our
former slavery esteemed our lot to be a hard one, yet it was easy in
comparison with our present state; nor is there any torment in this
world that approaches nearer to the pains of hell. Those deaths that I
before have spoken of, though lingering and painful, yet release the
sufferer after but a few hours’ agony; but this doth last as long as
the slave lives: and some there are who have suffered thus for over
ten years, though not many are so strong as to live so long. Chained
to their benches by the oar, for the double reason that they may
not rise upon their oppressors nor seek refuge in death by jumping
overboard into the sea, there they remain night and day, until the
vessel returns into port again, when sometimes they are taken on land
while the vessel is laid up, and put to heavy work there. Their food
is at best but bread and water, nor have they any covering to guard
them from the scorching sun by day or nipping cold by night, save and
alone a short pair of cotton breeches; their heads are shaved, their
visage disbarbed; their filthy skin, scarred and broken, is pearled
with bloody sweat. At the sound of the whistle, the whole three hundred
of them must start up and row orderly and punctually and all together:
a dolorous labour, at which many do split their hearts. From prow to
poop there is nothing but execrations and passing of blows, the whip is
never resting, and the bodies of the slaves are stiff with congealed
blood. Their repose, when they have any, is at the oar; the upright
bench their pillow, not having so much room as to stretch their legs,
and that only for an hour or two at night, the one half rowing while
the other half slumber, so that their want of sleep is in itself a very
ecstasy of torture. If chased by Christian galleys which might relieve
them from their woes, then must they put forth all their strength to
get away; and should any poor wretch by reason of his weakness faint,
he is beaten until he be dead indeed. If again the Christian galley do
come near within speaking distance of the cursed ordnance, then are
they slaughtered by those who would release them: for being so many and
so close together, more of the poor galley slaves are killed or maimed
than of the devilish Turk. In all this dreadful cup of bitterness is
only one drop of sweetness: for should a Turkish galley be overcome,
they are made slaves upon the Christian galleys; and ’tis sweet indeed
to see them tugging at the oar, beaten, cursed, and spat upon, starved
if they will not eat hog’s flesh, and given no drink if they will not
first taste wine.