he 
THE DEY PROCURES OUR RELEASE. 57 
The next day things had wholly changed their appear- 
ance; one of the judges from Girone came to declare to 
us that we were free to depart, and to go with our ship 
wherever we chose. What was the cause of this sudden 
change? It was this. 
During our quarantine in the windmill at Rosas, I had 
written, in the name of Captain Braham, a letter to the 
Dey of Algiers. I gaye him an account of the illegal 
arrest of his vessel, and of the death of one of the lions 
which the Dey had sent to the Emperor. This last cir- 
cumstance transported the African monarch with rage. 
He sent immediately for the Spanish Consul, M. Onis, 
claimed pecuniary damages for his dear lion, and threat- 
ened war if his ship was not released directly. Spain 
had then to do with too many difficulties to undertake 
wantonly any new ones, and the order to release the 
vessel so anxiously coveted arrived at Girone, and from 
thence at Palamos. 
This solution, to which our Consul at Algiers, M. Du- 
bois Thainville, had not remained inattentive, reached us 
at the moment when we least expected it. We at once 
made preparations for our departure, and on the 28th of 
November, 1808, we set sail, steering for Marseilles ; 
but, as the Mussulmen on board the vessel declared, it 
was written above that we should not enter that town. 
We could already perceive the white buildings which 
erown the neighbouring hills of Marseilles, when a gust 
of the “ mistral,” of great violence, sent us from the north 
towards the south. 
I do not know what route we followed, for I was lying 
in my cabin, overcome with sea-sickness; I may there- 
fore, though an astronomer, avow without shame, that at 
the moment when our unqualified pilots supposed them- 
8 * 
