mselves generally
standing in the midst of the Gardens. Now I quitted the Street of
Baba-zoun by the Street of the Shroffs, or Money-changers, designing to
reach the Gate of the River; but the Streets are all so much alike that
I lost my Way, and went blundering on from one Lane into another, till I
almost despaired of finding my Road back again. I should be too late for
the Dey's Supper, thought I; and although Jack Dangerous was never given
to Trembling, I began to feel very uncomfortable concerning the Notice
that Mahomet Bassa, who was never known to have Pity on any Human Being,
Man, Woman, or Child, might take of my Absence. For these accursed
Algerines are most cruel in their Punishments. Trials are very swift,
and Sentence is always executed within half an hour afterwards. Small
Offences are punished with the Bastinado, or the Rhinoceros Whip. For
Clipping or Debasing the Public Coin the old Egyptian punishment of
cutting off the Hands is inflicted, although the Dey, in one of his
Furies, has been known to have the Base Money melted and poured down the
Coiner's Throat. If a Jew or a Christian is guilty of Murder, he is
Burnt alive without the gates of the City; but for the same Crime the
Moors and Arabs are either Impaled, hung up by the Neck over the
Battlements of the City, or thrown upon Hooks fixed upon the Walls,
below, where they sometimes hang in Dreadful Torments for Thirty and
Forty hours together before they Expire. The Turks, however, out of
respect for their Characters, are sent to the Aga's house, where they
are either Bastinadoed or Strangled; and when the Women offend, they are
not exposed to the populace, but are sent to a private House of
Correction; or, if the Crime be Capital, they are sewn up in a Sack,
carried out to Sea, and Drowned. And for especial Criminals is reserved
the Extraordinary Barbarous punishment of Sawing Asunder; for which
purpose they prepare two Boards, of the same length and breadth as the
Unfortunate Person, and, having tied him betwixt them, begin sawing at
the Head, and so proceed till he is divided into Halves. 'Tis said that
Kardinash, a person who was not long since Ambassador at the Court of
England, suffered in this wise merely for maintaining, in the face of
the Dey, that the King of Great Britain had only One Wife.

All these Grim Probabilities did I revolve in my mind, as the Sun went
on sinking, and I could meet nothing but a few Rapscallion Boys that,
when I