AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 187 



Such reasoning' was unanswerable ; and whatever it might cost him 

 Bakri decided on paying- tlie snm that was demanded of I'^rance. 



Permission to depart was immediately granted to ns; 1 embarked the 

 21st of Jnne, 1809, on board a vessel in which M. Dubois Thainville and 

 liis family were passengers. 



The evening before our departure from Algiers, a corsair deposited at 

 the (JonsuFs the Majorcan mail, which he had taken from a vessel which 

 he had ca[)tured. It was a comi)lete collection of the letters which the 

 inhabitants of the Baleares had been writing to their friends on the 

 Continent. 



''Look here," said M. Dubois Thainville to me, "here is something to 

 amuse you during the voyage, you who generally keep your room from 

 sea-sickness; break the seals and read all these letters, and see whether 

 they contain any accounts by which we might profit how to aid the un- 

 happy soldiers who are dying of misery and despair in the little island 

 of Cabrera." 



Scarcely had we arrived on board the vessel, when 1 set myself to 

 the work, and acted without scruple or remorse the part of an official 

 of the black chamber, with this sole diHerence, that the letters were 

 unsealed without taking any precautions. I found among them several 

 dispatches in which Adiniral Collingwood signified to the Spanish gov- 

 ernment the ease with which the prisoners might be delivered. Imme- 

 diately on our arrival at Marseilles these letters were sent to the minis- 

 ter of uaval affairs, who, I believe, did not pay much attention to them. 



I knew almost every one at Palma, the capital of I\Iajorca. I leave it 

 to be imagined with what curiosity I read the missives in which the 

 beautiful ladies of the town exi^ressed their hatred against los malrUtos 

 cavachios, (French,) whose presence in Spain had rendered necessary 

 the dej)arture for the Continent of a magniflcent regiment of hussars; 

 how many persons might I not have embroiled, if under a mask I had 

 found myself with them at the opera ball ! 



IMany of the letters made mention of me, and were particularly inter- 

 esting to me; I was sure in this instance there was nothing to constrain 

 the frankness of those Avho had written them. It is an advantage which 

 few people can boast having en.joycd to the same degree. 



The vessel in which I was, although laden with bales of cotton, had 

 some corsair papers of the regency, and was the reputed escort of three 

 richly laden merchant vessels which were going to France. 



We were off i\[arseilles on the 1st of Jul}-, when an English frigate 

 came to stop our ])assage : " I will not take yon," said the English cap- 

 tain, '-but you will go towards the Hycires Islands, and Admiral Colling- 

 wood will decide on your fate." 



"I have received," answered the Barbary captain, " an express com- 

 mission to conduct these vessels to Marseilles, and I will execute it." 



" You, individually, can do what may seem to you best," answered the 

 Englishman; "as to the merchant vessels under your escort, they will 



