AUTORIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 171 



A loud slioiit of laughter from tlie multitude encircling us greeted 

 tliis answer, and put an end to tlie questions. 



" I swear by the d 1," exclaimed the judge, " that I will discover 



sooner or later who you are!" 



And he retired. 



The Arabs, the Moroccans, the Jews, who witnessed this interrogatory^ 

 understood nothing of it; they had only seen that I had not allowed 

 myself to be intimidated. At the close of the interview they came to 

 kiss my hand, and gave me, from this moment, their entire confidence. 



I became their secretarj'^ for all the individual or collective remon- 

 strances which they thought they had a right to address to the Spanish 

 government; and this right was incontestable. Every day I was occu- 

 l)ied in drawing up petitions, especially in the name of the two ostrich- 

 feather merchants, one of whom called himself a tolerably near relation 

 of the Emperor of Morocco. Astonished at the rapidity with which I 

 filled a page of my writing, they imagmed, doubtless, that I should write 

 as fast in Arabic characters, when it should be requisite to transcribe 

 passages from the Koran ; and that this would form both for me and 

 for them the source of a brilliant fortune, and they besought me, in the 

 most earnest way, to become a Mahomedan. 



Very little reassured by the last words of the judge, I sought means 

 of safety from another quarter. 



I Avas the possessor of a safe-conduct from the English admiralty; I 

 therefore wrote a confidential letter to the captain of an English vessel, the 

 " Eagle," I think, which had cast anchor some days before in the roads 

 at Eosas. I explained to hini ray position. " You can," I said, " claim 

 me, because I have an English passport. If this proceeding should cost 

 you too much, have the goodness at least to take my manuscripts and 

 to send them to the Eoyal Society in London." 



One of the soldiers who guarded us, and in whom I had fortunately 

 inspired some interest, undertook to deliver my letter. The English 

 captain came to see me; his name was, if my memory is right, George 

 Eyre. We had a private conversation on the shore. George Eyre 

 thought i^erhaps that the manuscripts of my observations were con- 

 tained in a register bound in morocco, and with gilt edges to the leaves. 

 When he saw that these manuscripts were composed of single leaves 

 covered with figures, which I had hidden under my shiit, disdain suc- 

 ceeded to interest, and he quitted me hastily. Having returned on 

 board he wrote me a letter which I could find if needful, in which he 

 said to me, " I cannot mix myself up in your affairs ; address yourself 

 to the Spanish government; I am persuaded that it will do justice to 

 your remonstrance and will not molest you." As I had not the same 

 persuasion as Captain George Eyre, I chose to take no notice of his 

 advice. 



I ought to mention that some time after having related these partic- 

 ulars in England at Sir Joseph Jianks's, the conduct of George Eyre was 



