k in water. On the next day they anchored in the Straits
of Gibraltar for the same purpose. They next sailed for Cadiz, but a
strong west wind having set in, the ship was forced back to the road
of Gibraltar. After waiting there for three days they again started,
under the shelter of a Dutch fleet of eighteen sail, "which," says De
Pechels, "providentially saved us from falling into the hands of the
Algerine corsairs, some of whom had appeared in sight, and from whose
hands God, in His great mercy, delivered us." As if the Algerine
corsairs would have treated the Huguenots worse than their own king
was now treating them. The Algerine corsairs would have sold them into
slavery; whilst the French king was transporting them to America for
the same purpose.

At length the squadron reached Cadiz roads. Many ships were
there--English as well as Dutch. When the foreigners heard of the
state and misfortunes of the Huguenots on board the French ships, they
came to visit them in their anchoring ground, and were profuse in
their charity to the prisoners for conscience' sake confined in the
two French vessels. "God, who never leaves Himself without witness,
brought us consolation and relief from this town, where superstition
and bigotry reign in their fullest force." As it was in De Pechels'
day, so it is now.

At length the French squadron set sail for America. The voyage was
tedious and miserable. There were about a hundred and thirty prisoners
on board. Seventy of them were sick felons, chained with heavy irons.
Being useless for the French galleys, they were now being transported
to America, to be sold as slaves. The imprisoned Huguenots--men and
women--were fifty-nine in number. They were crammed into a part of the
ship that could scarcely hold them. They could not stand upright; nor
could they lie down. They had to lie upon each other. The den was
moreover very dark, the only light that entered it being through the
narrow hatchway; and even this was often closed. The wonder is that
they were not suffocated outright.

The burning heat of the sun shining on the deck above them, the
never-ceasing fire of the kitchen, which was situated alongside their
place of confinement, created such a stifling heat, that the prisoners
had to take off their shirts to relieve their agony. The horrid stench
arising from so many persons being crowded together, and the entire
want of the means of cleanliness, caused the inmates to become covere