AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 177 



when Mehemet became aware of the ineaumg of this sign, he began to 

 spit upon it with inconceivable violence. The meeting- ended at once. 



The next day things had whollj" changed their appearance ; one of 

 the judges from Girone came to declare to us that we were free to depart, 

 and to go with our ship wherever we chose. What was the cause of 

 this sudden (jhange ? It was this : 



During our quarantine in the windmill at Eosas, I had written, in the 

 name of Oaptain Braham, a letter to the Dey of Algiers. I gave him 

 an account of the illegal arrest of his vessel, and of the death of one of 

 the lions which the Dey had sent to the Emperor. This last circum- 

 stance transported the African monarch with rage. He sent immedi- 

 ately for the Spanish consul, M. Onis, claimed pecuniary damages for 

 his dear lion, and threatened war if his ship was not released directly. 

 Spain had then to do with too many diificulties to undertake wantonly 

 any new ones, and the order to release the vessel so anxiously coveted 

 arrived at Girone, and from thence at Palamos. 



This solution, to which our consul at Algiers, M. Dubois Thainville, 

 had not remained inattentive, reached us at the moment when we least 

 expected it. We at once made preparations for our departure, and on 

 the 28th of November, 1808, we set sail, steering for Marseilles ; but, as 

 the Mussulmen on board the vessel declared, it was written above that 

 we should not enter that town. We could already perceive the white 

 buildings which crown the neighboring hills of Marseilles, when a gust 

 of the " mistral," of great violence, sent us from the north towards the 

 south. 



I do not know what route we followed, for I was lying in my cabin, 

 overcome with sea-sickness ; I may, therefore, though an astronomer, 

 avow without shame, that at the moment when our unqualified pilots 

 supposed themselves to be off the Baleares, we landed, on the 5th of 

 December, at Bougie. 



There, they pretended that during the three months of winter all 

 communication with Algiers, by means of the little boats named sandalis, 

 would be impossible, and I resigned myself to the painful prospect of so 

 long a stay in a place at that time almost a desert. One evening I was 

 making these sad reflections while pacing the deck of the vessel, when 

 a shot from a gun on the coast came and struck the side planks close to 

 which I was passing. This suggested to me the thought of going to 

 Algiers by land. 



I went next day, accompanied by M. Berth^mie and Captain Spiro 

 Calligero, to the Caid of the town : " I wish," said I to him, " to go to 

 Algiers by land." The man, quite frightened, exclaimed, "I cannot 

 allow you to do so ; you would certainly be kiUed on the road ; your 

 consul would make a complaint to the Dey, and I should have my head 

 cut off." 



" Fear not on that ground. I will give you an acquittance." 



12 S 



