204 The Man of Ill-Omai. [Sept. 



live cargo — an opera company, bound from Lucca to Ajaccio. The 

 captain was struck with the look of their baggage ; and after casting up 

 the balance between the passengers and their portmanteaus, settled with 

 himself that tlae baggage was the better worth of the two. Under pre- 

 tence of a puff of wind from the heights of Cagliari, he put them on 

 shore for the night ; and they saw no more of the captain. He was gone 

 before a king, queen, or lover of them all, was out of their first sleep. 

 A general overhaul of the baggage was the captain's first employment ; 

 and as, in an Italian sloop, the only merit is that it lets out sea- water as 

 fast as it lets it in, the royal mantles, crusaders' armour, and maids-of- 

 honour's petticoats, were found in a drowning condition. A sunny day 

 and a brisk breeze produced a general muster of the wardrobe ; and 

 mast, shroud, and sail, hung with helmets, crowns, turbans, and 

 embroidered pantaloons, dangling to dry, made the showy sight that 

 caught our enamoured gaze. 



" After a great deal of burlesque at the fellow's being caught in his 

 own trap, we proceeded to divide the plunder, equipped ourselves in the 

 finery, and held a mock trial on the Maltese, whom we unanimously 

 condemned to the alternative of putting the turban on his head, or of 

 having no head to put it on. The Maltese, half dead with fright, and 

 being a profound physiognomist, took a liking to- my visage, and whis- 

 pered that, if I saved him from this scrape, he would be the maker of 

 my fortune. I closed with the terms as readily as if I had been chief 

 judge of Naples — followed him into his cabin — and there, behind a cup- 

 board, saw one of the prettiest brunettes that ever danced a tarantella. 

 ' I reserved her to sell,' said the captain, ' when I sent the rest of her 

 compatriots adrift; and as it was, of course, quite the same to the sig- 

 nora in what part of the world she made her pirouettes, it was my idea 

 to steal a march to the Dardanelles, and see what sum the pashas would 

 bid for La Caramboli.' 



" We had now nothing to do but to steer for the Straits ; and as opera- 

 dancers sold as high in his highness the dey's harem as if it had been 

 a college of cardinals, I took charge of the signora. The captain of the 

 felucca, however, had not the sense to understand the law of the case — 

 insisted on having the right to choose among the plunder — and offered 

 nie my choice, of jumping overboard, or being put in irons. On went 

 the irons ; and I took my revenge in telling the tyrant that ill-luck would 

 befal him. The fellow answered me only by a blow with the flat of his 

 scimitar. He had better have saved himself the trouble. 



" I had been not half an hour chained on the poop, where I sat under a 

 sun that would have calcined a salamander, before I saw a heavy ship loom- 

 ing on the horizon. The felucca was put about instantly ; for the cap- 

 tain well knew that this was not one of his old friends, the frigates of 

 his highness of Tuscany. After an hour or two's run, the wind dropped 

 dead ; for Mediterranean winds are like IVIediterranean promises — abun- 

 dance of them at all times but the time when you want them. The 

 frigate had the wind still, and came down thundering on us from her 

 bow-guns, with, now and then, as she brought her broadside to bear, a 

 fire from a dozen twenty-four-pounders together. This could not go on 

 for ever. But the captain was a sturdy Mahometan, who, if he knew 

 but little about fighting, knew nothing about surrendering. So, rather 

 than see his plunder taken quietly from him, or go home and be hanged 

 for the loss of the felucca, he fought like a fury. The balls fell thick ; men 



