396 NIGHTS IN THE GALLEY. 



get away under pretence of sailing in a boat kept on purpose for my 

 sister's use; but while my father remains here that is impossible' 

 because he would not allow you to go on the water/ 



" ' If/ said I, ' we should be so fortunate as to escape, I hope you 

 will quit this sort of life, and, as you speak English so well, enter 

 with me on board of a man-of-war, arid then you will have lots of 

 fighting, and an honourable cause ; and as for your sister, we can 

 easily manage to get to Port Mahon, and I hear there is a convent 

 there, which would take her in till you can manage to do something 

 for her.' 



" ' No/ said he, ' that won't do, my friend; I am as fond of Greece 

 as you are of England ; and as to what you say about my present life 

 not being an honourable one, is only because you have seen the 

 worst part of it. There are, as I told you, numerous bands of what 

 you call pirates ; and among so many, there must of course be some 

 very bad, but it does not follow that they should all be so. Now my 

 father's band, I am sorry to say, is among the very worst, and I have 

 long been disgusted with the murder of our prisoners, and the general 

 barbarities pursued against our enemies ; this has made me wish to 

 quit my father's band as soon as possible, and join one that is headed 

 by a cousin of mine, a few years older than myself, at a little place 

 called Sfakia ; he is a noble generous fellow, to whom I am much 

 attached more from hearsay than personal knowledge, as I have not 

 seen him since I was very young, about ten years ago, in consequence 

 of his having quarrelled with my father about some prisoners that 

 they took between them, and who had made a brave and determined 

 resistance. This so enraged my father that he insisted upon putting 

 them all to death in cold blood, and one he actually cut down with 

 his sabre. My cousin would not permit of such cold-blooded murder, 

 andtold my father he was the chief of honourable men, and not mur- 

 derers. My father still insisted on their death; my cousin swore 

 that he would defend them with his life. Upon this my father at- 

 tempted, with the assistance of his band, to possess himself of the 

 prisoners, but my cousin succeeded in defending them ; and from 

 that time he retired to Sfakia, where he has remained ever since. 

 Well, these cruelties to all our prisoners have long made me wish to 

 leave this place ; but I have been prevented doing so on Zuthea's ac- 

 count, who my father treats on some occasions so harshly as to make 

 me fear to leave her. I have not hitherto interested myself about the 

 prisoners, because they have generally been either cowards or such 

 treacherous villains that I could place no trust in them ; we never 

 had one of you noble Englishman here before but once, and as it 

 is a fine night, and Zuthea is spinning, we need not be in a hurry to 

 return home,|so I will tell you how we took him and got his ransom/ 



" ' I should like very much to hear it, for, beside the pleasure I 

 shall feel at hearing of any of my countrymen while I am so far 

 away from them, I like passing the time away by telling stories, as the 

 shore-going people say ; but we sailors/ saysl, ' call it spinning yarns, 

 and on board a ship we every night after supper meet in a place 

 called the galley, like your kitchen, and there we smoke our pipes 



