I made a much longer stay than
I had intended, owing to an unexpected meeting with an old friend.

The fact is, I put off writing until I should again be in movement,
hoping that my letters might thus acquire greater interest. I will
resume my journey from France, in which country we parted.

The steam-packets leave Marseille for the south of Spain every tenth
day; and I happened to arrive a day or two after one of the departures.
Rather than wait eight days, therefore, I agreed for my passage on board
a trader bound for Gibraltar; by which arrangement, as the captain
assured me that the voyage would only occupy five days, I was to be at
my journey's end before the departure of the Phenicien, as the
steam-packet was called. The latter, moreover, made no progress
excepting during the night, in order to afford the passengers an
opportunity of passing each day in some town; and being anxious to
arrive at Seville, I should not have liked the delays thus occasioned. I
do not, however, recommend the adoption of my plan; for the five days,
as it turned out, became twenty-four, and the Phenicien arrived at Cadiz
long before I reached Gibraltar.

The captain's prognostic of course supposed a favourable voyage; and I
was wrong in reckoning on this, particularly at the time of year, and in
the Mediterranean. I was wrong, also, in confiding in my Provencal
captain, who, in addition to various other bad qualities, turned out to
be the most inept blockhead to whom ever were entrusted lives and
cargoes.

My fellow-passengers consisted of a Marseille merchant, who possessed a
trading establishment at Gibraltar; a young French officer, on leave of
absence to visit his mother, who was Spanish; and a Moorish traveller,
proceeding homeward to Tetuan. From certain hints dropped by the
merchant, who was well acquainted with the passage, we soon learned the
probable character of our captain, as he belonged to a race not very
favourably spoken of by those whose goods and persons they were in the
habit of conveying; and these predictions being soon partially confirmed
by the man's incivility, we began to look upon him as our common enemy.
One of the accusations brought against his class was, a disposition to
reduce the supply of provisions within undue limits. This, however, we
could not lay to his charge, as the adverse winds rendered necessary an
extreme prudence in our daily consumption. My principal anxiety arose
from want of confidence