was not a goddess,
and to persuade them to embrace the true faith."

"Very right," replied the pacha, "there is but one God, and Mahomet is
his prophet. Well----"

* * * * *

As I understood both languages, I was employed as an interpreter, but it
was impossible to explain what the Missionaries intended to convey, as
the language of the islanders had not words that were analogous. A
council was held, and the answer which the Missionaries received was as
follows:--

"You tell us that your God rewards the good and punishes the wicked--so
does Bo-gee. We speak one language, you speak another. Perhaps the name
of your God means Bo-gee in ours. Then we both worship the same God,
under different names. No use to talk any more; take plenty of pigs and
yams, and go home."

The Missionaries took their advice, their pigs and their yams, and I
went home with them. We arrived at New York, where I claimed and
received from the Bible Society my pay as interpreter to the
Missionaries from the time that they landed up to the day of our return.
I never should have thought of claiming it, had it not been for the
advice of one of the Missionaries, who took a fancy to me.

With the money that I received I paid my passage in a vessel bound to
Genoa, where I arrived in safety, but without the means of subsistence.
But what doth the poet say, "Necessity is a strong rider with sharp
stirrups, who maketh the sorry jade do that which the strong horse
sometimes will not do." Having no other resource, I determined once more
to try my fortune upon the ocean.

* * * * *

"Allah wakbar--God is everywhere! It was your talleh--your destiny,
Huckaback."

"It was his kismet--his fate, your sublime highness," rejoined Mustapha,
"that he should go through those perils to amuse your leisure hours."

"Wallah Thaib--well said, by Allah! Let the slave rejoice in our bounty.
Give him ten pieces of gold; we will open our ears to his next voyage
to-morrow. Murakhas, you are dismissed."

"May your sublime shadow never be less," replied Huckaback, as he
salaamed out of the pacha's presence.

Chapter XIII

THE LAST VOYAGE OF HUCKABACK.

Your highness will be surprised at the unheard-of adventures that
occurred to me in my last voyage, and I think I can boldly assert that
no man, either before or since, has explored so much, or has been in the
peculiarly dangerous situations in w