JKvHi INTRODUCTION. 



ibme of my brother phyficians among their fellow- Chriilk 

 ans at home. . 



The rev. -Mr Tonyn, the king's chaplain at Algiers, was 

 ab'fent upon leave before I arrived in that regency. The 

 Proteftant fhipmafters who came into the port, and had 

 need of fpirifual afliftance, found here a blank that was not 

 eafily filled up; I mould therefore have been obliged to 

 take upon myfelf % the disagreeable office of burying the 

 dead, and the more chearful, though more troublefome one, 

 of marrying and baptizing the living. ; matters that were 

 entirely out of my way, but to which the Roman Catholic 

 clergy would contribute no afliftance. 



There was a Greek prieft, a native of Cyprus, a very ve- 

 nerable man, part leventy years of age, who had attached 

 himfelf to me from my firfl arrival in Algiers. This man 

 was of a very focial and chearful temper, and had, befides, 

 a more than ordinary knowledge of his own language. I 

 had taken him to my houfe. as- my chaplain, read Greek 

 with him daily, and fpoke it at times when I could receive 

 his correction and inftmclion. It was not that I, at this 

 time of day, needed to learn Greek,. I had long un- 

 derflood that language perfectly ; what I wanted was the 

 pronunciation, and reading by accent, of which the gener- 

 ality of Itnglifh fcholars are perfectly ignorant, and to which 

 it is owing that they apprehend the Greek fpoken and 

 written in the Archipelago is materially different from 

 that language which we read in books, and which a few 

 weeks converfation in the iflands will teach them it is not, 

 I had in this, at that time, no other view than mere con- 

 veaience during^my paflage through the Archipelago 



which 



