CAPTURED BY A SPANISH CORSAIR. 43 
I meet you on holy ground I will break your head.” 
“Can you then suppose,” I answered him, “that I am 
here for my pleasure, and that, notwithstanding your 
menace, I would not rather go with you, if I could?” 
These words calmed him; he brought the sugar, the cof- 
fee, and the tea claimed by the Moorish chief, and we 
again set sail, though without having exchanged the usual 
farewell. 
We had already entered the Gulf of Lyons, and were 
approaching Marseilles, when on the 16th August, 1808, 
we met with a Spanish corsair from Palamos, armed at 
the prow with two twenty-four pounders. We made full 
sail; we hoped to escape it: but a cannon-shot, a ball 
from which went through our sails, taught us that she 
was a much better sailer than we were. 
We obeyed an injunction thus expressed, and awaited 
the great boat from the corsair. The captain declared 
that he made us prisoners, although Spain was at peace 
with Barbary, under the pretext that we were violating 
the blockade which had been lately raised on all the 
coasts of France: he added, that he intended to take us 
to Rosas, and that there the authorities would decide on 
our fate. 
I was in the cabin of the vessel; I had the curiosity 
to look furtively at the crew of the boat, and there I per- 
ceived, with a dissatisfaction which may easily be imag- 
ined, one of the sailors of the “ Mistic,” commanded by 
Don Manuel de Vacaro, of the name of Pablo Blanco, of 
Palamos, who had often acted as my servant during my 
geodesic operations. My false passport would become 
from this moment useless, if Pablo should recognize me : 
I went to bed at once, covered my head with the counter- 
pane, and lay as still as a statue. 
