ga's house till orders came from the pacha, and that we
wanted for nothing. This letter I wrote exactly as they wished; but
commanded them to look well to their ships and boats, and by no means to
let any of their men come ashore. Taking this letter with them, they
examined two or three of my men apart as to its meaning.

[Footnote 327: Or interpreter, now commonly called dragoman, druggeman,
or trucheman, all of which are corruptions from the Arabic
_tarijman_.--Astl. I. 366. a.]

They could not at first get any one who would venture on board, so that
my first letter was not sent. But at length a person, who was born at
Tunis, in Barbary, and spoke good Italian, undertook to carry a letter,
providing I would write to use him well. I wrote again as they desired,
which was taken on board and answered, saying, that all the Turks were
slain or drowned, save one, named _Russwan_, a common soldier; in this
answer they expressed their satisfaction to hear that I was alive; as
Russwan told them he believed I and all the rest were slain. We
continued in this misery till the 15th December, never hearing any thing
from the ships nor they from us. The aga came several times to me,
sometimes with threats and sometimes soothing, to have me write for all
my people to come ashore and deliver up the ships; but I always answered
him as before. He was in hopes our ships would be forced, for want of
water and provisions, to surrender to him, knowing they could not have a
wind to get out of the straits till May, and would by no means believe
me that they were provided for two years.

In the mean time they in the ships were at their wits end, hearing
nothing from us ashore, and not knowing well what to do. They rode very
insecurely in an open anchorage, the wind blowing continually hard at
S.S.E. inclosed all round with shoals, and their water beginning to
fail, as we had started fifty tons in our large ship to lighten her when
we got aground. While in this perplexity, an honest true-hearted sailor,
named John Chambers, offered to go ashore and see what was become of us,
putting his life and liberty at stake, rather than see the people so
much at a loss. He effected this on the 15th December, being set ashore
upon a small island with a flag of truce, a little to windward of the
town, having one of our Indians along with him as an interpreter. On
being carried before the aga, who asked him how he durst come on shore
without leave, he said