48 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 
Government ; I am persuaded that it will do justice to 
your remonstrance, and will not molest you.” As I had 
not the same persuasion as Captain George Eyre, I chose 
to take no notice of his advice. 
I ought to mention that some time after having related 
these particulars in England, at Sir Joseph Banks’s, the 
conduct of George Eyre was severely blamed ; but when 
a man breakfasts and dines to the sound of harmonious 
music, can he accord his interest to a poor devil sleeping 
on straw and nibbled by vermin, even though he have 
manuscripts under his shirt? I may add that I (unfor- 
tunately for me) had to do with a captain of an unusual 
character. For, som edays later, a new vessel, The Co- 
lossus, having arrived in the roads, the Norwegian, 
Captain Krog, although he had not, like me, an Admi- 
ralty passport, made an application to the commander of 
this new ship ; he was immediately claimed, and relieved 
from captivity. 
The report that I was a Spanish deserter, and propri- 
etor of the vessel, acquiring more and more credit, and 
this position being the most dangerous of all, I resolved 
to get out of it. I begged the commandant of the place, 
M. Alloy, to come to receive my declaration, and I an- 
nounced to him that I was French. To prove to him the 
truth of my words, I invited him to send for Pablo 
Blanco, the sailor in the service of the corsair who took 
us, and who had returned from his cruise a short time 
before. This was done as I wished. In disembarking, 
Pablo Blanco, who had not been warned, exclaimed with 
surprise: “What! you, Don Francisco, mixed up with 
all these miscreants!” The sailor gave the Governor 
circumstantial evidence as to the mission which I fulfilled 
with two Spanish commissaries. My nationality thus 
became proved. 
