minutes' hard pulling brought us
alongside a large craft, on board which, I being so weak, they were fain
to hoist me with Ropes. By this time I had sunk into a kind of Lethargy,
and, being conveyed below and put into a cot in the Master's Cabin, fell
into a slumber, which lasted for very many hours.

The Captain of this ship was an English Renegado, named Sparkenhoe. He
had served as Midshipman and Master's Mate in a King's ship; but having
been, as he conceived, unjustly Broken for hot words that passed
between him and the Captain,--this took place at Gibraltar,--had
deserted, and hid himself on board a Merchant Brig bound for Tangier. At
last, being fond of a Roving Life (and having the misfortune to kill the
Captain of the Merchant Brig in a dispute concerning some Bullocks they
were shipping), he had turned Mussulman; and after living some time
among the Buccaneers of the Riff, had come to Algiers, and been made
Captain of a Merchantman trading to the Dardanelles, and doing a bit of
Piracy when opportunity served. 'Twas full five-and-twenty years since
he had Run from the King of Great Britain's service; and although his
Blue Eyes and enormous Red Whiskers still gave him somewhat of a Saxon
appearance, he had very nearly forgotten his Mother Tongue, and only
retained English enough to enable him to mingle a few Billingsgate Oaths
with his barbarous Levantine Lingo.

This fellow, whom I heartily despised, for he had kept all the Vices of
his former Religion, and had acquired none of the Virtues of his new
one, was civil enough to me, and informed me that all he could do for
me, in return for the Bribe he had received from his Employers, would be
to deliver me to a Slave Merchant at Constantinople, who would place me
out in Domestic Service where I should not be ill-treated. But he very
strongly advised me to turn Turk or Renegado, as he himself was, saying,
that in such a case he would land me perfectly free at the Porte, where
I should doubtless find some profitable Employment. This I scornfully
refused; whereupon he shrugged his Shoulders, and said that I was a
Fool, but might possibly think Better of it in Time.

After three weeks' coasting among the Isles of the Grecian Archipelago,
and so into the Sea of Marmora, we steered into the Dardanelles 'twixt
the Castles of Europe and Asia; and the same night the Slave-Dealer
comes off in a private Caique--as the Turks call their Canoes,--and the
Renegado delivered