Part 6 (1/2)

”Unhappy man!” I exclaimed; ”what could lead you, when it was not your profession, to perfor request of the wounded man His arm had already swollen to an enormous size He wanted some one to cut it off for hiypt, when I was in hospital, I had seen several aht perhaps succeed That at any rate it would be better than the blow of a hatchet All was agreed; I armed myself with the carpenter's saw; and the operation was done”

I went off immediately to the Aeon worthy of confidence as then in Algiers M

Triplet--I think I recollect that that was the nauished art whose aid I invoked--ca of the wound, and declared, toon well, and that the Englishman would survive his horrible injury

The same day we had the wounded men carried on litters to Mr Blankley's house; this operation, executed with sos of the Dey in our favour, and his sentiments became yet more favourable towards us in consequence of another nificant one

One day a corvette was seen in the horizon ar her way towards the port of Algiers; there appeared i of war, in full sail; a combat was therefore expected, and all the terraces of the toere covered with spectators; the brig appeared to be the best sailer, and seemed to us likely to reach the corvette, but the latter tacked about, and seelish vessel fled before her; the corvette tacked about a second tiiers, where, one would have supposed, she had soed her course, but held herself constantly beyond the reach of shot from the corvette; at last the two vessels arrived in succession in the port, and cast anchor, to the lively disappointerine population, who had hoped to be present without danger at ato two nations equally detested in a religious point of view; but shouts of laughter could not be repressed when it was seen that the corvette was a merchant vessel, and that she was only armed ooden ilish sailors were furious, and had been on the point of ainst their too prudent captain

I have very little to tell in favour of the Algerines; hence I , that the corvette departed the next day for the Antilles, her destination, and that the brig was not permitted to set sail until the next day but one

Bakri often came to the French Consulate to talk of our affairs with M

Dubois Thainville: ”What can you want?” said the latter, ”you are an Algerine; you will be the first victim of the Dey's obstinacy I have already written to Livorno that your faoods are to be seized When the vessels laden with cotton, which you have in this port, arrive at Marseilles, they will be ie whether it would not better suit you to pay the sum which the Dey claims, than to expose yourself to tenfold and certain loss”

Such reasoning was unanswerable; and whatever itthe sum that was deranted to us; I embarked the 21st of June, 1809, on board a vessel in which M Dubois Thainville and his fa before our departure froiers, a corsair deposited at the consul's the Majorcan mail, which he had taken from a vessel which he had captured It was a complete collection of the letters which the inhabitants of the Baleares had been writing to their friends on the Continent

”Look here,” said M Dubois Thainville to e,--you who generally keep your room from sea-sickness,--break the seals and read all these letters, and see whether they contain any accounts by which weof misery and despair in the little island of Cabrera”

Scarcely had we arrived on board the vessel, when I set myself to the work, and acted without scruple or remorse the part of an official of the black chamber, with this sole difference, that the letters were unsealed without taking any precautions I found awood signified to the Spanish Governht be delivered

Immediately on our arrival at Marseilles these letters were sent to the minister of naval affairs, who, I believe, did not pay much attention to them

I knew almost every one at Palined hat curiosity I read the missives in which the beautiful ladies of the town expressed their hatred against _los malditos cavachios_, (French,) whose presence in Spain had rendered necessary the departure for the Continent of a ht I not have embroiled, if under a mask I had found myself with them at the opera ball!

Many of the letterstoto constrain the frankness of those who had written the enjoyed to the sah laden with bales of cotton, had soency, and was the reputed escort of three richly ladento France

We were off Marseilles on the 1st of July, when an English frigate calish captain; ”but you will go towards the Hyeres Islands, and Adill decide on your fate”

”I have received,” answered the Barbary captain, ”an express commission to conduct these vessels to Marseilles, and I will execute it”

”You, individually, can do what lishman; ”as to the merchant vessels under your escort, they will be, I repeat to you, taken to Adave orders to those vessels to set sail to the East

The frigate had already gone a little distance when she perceived that ere steering towards Marseilles Having then learnt from the crews of the merchant vessels that ere ourselves laden with cotton, she tacked about to seize us

She was very near reaching us, ere enabled to enter the port of the little island of Poht she put her boats to sea to try to carry us off; but the enterprise was too perilous, and she did not dare atte, 2d of July, 1809, I diseo froiers to Marseilles in four days; it had taken e It is true that here and there I had made involuntary sojourns

My letters sent from the lazaretto at Marseilles were considered by my relatives and friends as certificates of resurrection, they having for a long tieoer to pay my allowance to my authorized representative; which appears the more cruel inasmuch as this representative was my father

The first letter which I received froratulations on the termination of my laborious and perilous adventures; it was from a man already in possession of an European reputation, but whom I had never seen: M de Humboldt, after what he had heard of my misfortunes, offered in of a connection which dates frole cloud ever paving troubled it