had
gone down--it appeared as if several had elapsed--when I felt a sort of
drowsiness come over me. Suddenly there appeared right over me a big
dark object. I guessed that it was the bow of a vessel. I sang out
with all my might. She was very nearly running me down. As she did not
quite run over me, it was fortunate that she came so close. A rope was
hanging over her side; I found my hands grasping it. It must literally
have been towed over me; I clutched it with all my might, and found
myself hauled up on the deck of a low latine-rigged craft running under
her foresail before the squall. The crew had red caps on, and loose
trousers, and talked a language I could not understand, so I concluded
that they were Turks or Moors, or Egyptians; they were very good-natured
though. They took me below and gave me some arrack, which was very
nasty, and they took off my wet things, and rigged me out in one of
their own suits. When I explained that my ship had gone down, they
understood me perfectly. Next they made me eat some lumps of meat off a
skewer, with some rice and biscuit, and then signified that I might lie
down on a mat in the cabin and go to sleep. I did not awake till
morning. I wanted to put on my own uniform again, but they would not
give it to me, and I began to fear that they were going really to turn
me into a Turk.

"For several days we sailed on. Where we were going to I could not make
out, for they would never let me see their compass. At last we made the
land somewhere on the coast of Syria, I am pretty certain; and, running
in, we found a fifty-gun ship, brought up in a roadstead a couple of
miles off the shore. The _Mistico_ went alongside and stores of all
sorts and provisions were hoisted up out of her, and then without my
leave being asked I found myself transferred, like the rest of the bales
of goods, to her deck. I had not had a particularly pleasant time of it
among the very dirty crew of the _Mistico_, so I thought that I might
have changed for the better. I was much obliged to them, however, for
saving my life; so we parted very good friends, and when the little
craft shoved off, I waved them an affectionate farewell. I soon found
that I had not much improved my condition. The larger the ship, the
greater was the amount of dirt and disorder. No one knew their duty, at
all events no one did it. How they managed to exist a day without being
blown up or foundering, I do not know.