d by some of the natives, who
started from the bushes with loaded guns, and if he had not been
protected by Corsican guides, would have certainly blown out his brains.

Nay at Leghorn, which is within a day's sailing of Corsica, and has a
constant intercourse with it, I found people who dissuaded me from going
thither, because it might be dangerous.

I was however under no apprehension in going to Corsica. Count Rivarola
the Sardinian consul, who is himself a Corsican, assuring me that the
island was then in a very civilized state; and besides, that in the
rudest times no Corsican would ever attack a stranger. The Count was so
good as to give me most obliging letters to many people in the island. I
had now been in several foreign countries. I had found that I was able
to accommodate myself to my fellow-creatures of different languages and
sentiments. I did not fear that it would be a difficult task for me to
make myself easy with the plain and generous Corsicans.

The only danger I saw was, that I might be taken by some of the Barbary
Corsairs, and have a tryal of slavery among the Turks at Algiers.[84] I
spoke of it to Commodore Harrison, who commanded the British squadron in
the Mediterranean, and was then lying with his ship the Centurion in the
bay of Leghorn. He assured me, that if the Turks did take me, they
should not keep me long; but in order to prevent it, he was so good as
to grant me a very ample and particular passport; and as it could be of
no use if I did not meet the Corsairs, he said very pleasantly when he
gave it me, "I hope, Sir, it shall be of no use to you."

[Footnote 84: In the "Gentleman's Magazine" for 1750 (vol. xx., p. 42),
we read, "The Phoenix, Captain Carberry, of Bristol, was taken on
Christmas eve by an Algerine corsair off the rock of Lisbon, on pretence
that his pass was not good, and ordered for Algiers with an officer and
six other Turks; but in the passage Captain Carberry with three English
sailors and a boy recovered the vessel, after flinging the Turkish
officer and two other Turks overboard, and brought it with the Turkish
sailors prisoners to Bristol." In the same year the English consul at
Algiers wrote to say that some Algerine Corsairs had taken five English
vessels because their passes were not good. The consul had complained to
the Dey, "who said that he would give such orders that nothing of this
sort should happen again, and then swore by his prophet that if any one
c