1G8 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 



to the rising of the sun to enjoy all that Africa might offei: of interest 

 to a European, when all at once I believed myself to he engaged in a 

 serious adventure. By the faint light of the dawn, I saw an animal 

 moving at the foot of my bed. I gave a kick with my foot ; all move- 

 ment ceased. After some time, 1 felt the same movement under my 

 legs. A sharp jerk made this cease quickly. I then heard the fits of 

 laughter of the janissary, wiio lay on a couch in the same room as I did; 

 and I soon saw that he had simply placed on my bed a large hedgehog 

 to amuse himself by my uneasiness. 



The consul occupied himself the next day in procuring a passage for 

 us on board a vessel of the liegency which was going to Marseilles. M. 

 Terrier, the chancellor of the French consulate, was at the same time 

 consul for Austria. He procured for us two false passports, which 

 transformed us — ]M. Berthemie and me — into two strolling merchants, 

 the one from Schwekat, in Hungary, the other from Leoben. 



The moment of departure had arrived ; the 13th of August, 1808, we 

 were on board, but our shi[)'s company was not complete. The captain, 

 whose title was llaiBraham Ouled Mustapha Goja, having perceived that 

 the Dey was on his terrace, and fearing i)unishment if he should delay 

 to set sail, completed his crew at the expense of the idlers who were 

 looking on from the pier, and of whom the greater i)art were not sailors. 

 These poor people begged as a favor for liermission to go and inform 

 their families of this precipitate departure, and to -get some clothes. 

 The captain remained deaf to their remonstrances. We weighed anchor. 



The vessel belonged to the Emir of Seca, director of the mint. The 

 real commander was a Greek captain, named Spiro Calligero. The cargo 

 consisted of a great number of grovps. Among the passengers there 

 were five members of the family which the Bakri had succeeded as 

 kings of the Jews ; two ostrich-feather merchants, Moroccans ; Captain 

 Krog, from Berghen in i^orway, who had sold his ship at Alicant; two 

 lions sent by the r>ey to the Emperor Napoleon, and a great number of 

 monkeys. Our voyage was prosperous. Off Sardinia we met with an 

 American ship coming out from Cagliari. A cannon-shot (we were 

 armed with forty pieces of small power] warned the cai)tain to come to 

 be recognized. He brought on board a certain number of counterparts 

 of passports, one of which agreed perfectly with that which we carried. 

 The captain being thus all right, was not a little astonished when I 

 ordered him, in the name of Captain Braham, to furnish us with tea, 

 coffee, and sugar. The American captain protested ; he called us brig- 

 ands, pirates, robbers. Captain Braham admitted without difficulty all 

 these qualifications, and persisted none the less in the exaction of sugar, 

 coffee, and tea. 



The American, then driven to the last stage of exasperation, addres- 

 sed himself to me, who acted as interpreter, and cried out, " Oh ! rogue 

 of a renegade ! if ever I meet you on holy ground I will break your head.'' 

 "Can you then suppose," I answered him, "that I am here for my 



