r the West Indies, when
but six days from the Isle of Wight. His master, a Moor, gave him
partial liberty, and allowed him to keep a wineshop, in consideration
of a monthly payment of two dollars; and in the cellar of his shop the
slave secretly constructed a light canoe of canvas, while the staves
of empty winepipes furnished the oars. These he and his comrades
smuggled down to the beach, and five of them embarked in the crazy
craft, which bore them safely to Majorca. The hardest part was the
farewell to two more who were to have accompanied them, but were found
to overweight the little boat.

Several other narratives of successful escapes may be read in the
volume of voyages published by the Redemptionist Fathers, and
translated by Joseph Morgan. One at least is worth quoting:

"A good number, of different nations, but mostly Majorcans, conspired
to get away by night with a row-boat [_i.e._, brigantine] ready for
the cruise: they were in all about seventy. Having appointed a place
of rendezvous, at dead of night they got down through a sewer into the
port: but the dogs, which are there very numerous, ran barking at
them; some they killed with clubs and stones. At this noise, those who
were on guard, as well ashore as in the ships, bawled out with all
their might, 'Christians! Christians!' They then assembled and ran
towards the noise. And forty of the slaves having entered the
_fregata_, or row-boat, and being stronger than those who guarded her,
they threw them all into the sea; and it being their business to
hasten out of the port, embarrassed with cables of the many ships
which then quite filled it, and as they were desirous of taking the
shortest cut, they took the resolution of leaping all into the water,
hoisting up the boat on their shoulders, and wading with it till clear
of all those cables. Spite of the efforts to prevent their design,
they made out to sea, and soon reached Majorca. On hearing this the
Dey cried out, 'I believe these dogs of Christians will come one day
or other and take us out of our houses!'"[87]

Ransoms and escapes were more than made up by fresh captures. In 1655,
indeed, Admiral Blake, after trying to bring the Tunisians to terms,
ran into the harbour of Porto Farina on the 3rd of April, where the
fleet of the Bey, consisting of nine vessels, was anchored close in
under the guns of the forts and earthworks, and under a heavy fire he
burnt every one of them: then proceeding to Algier