ge 
58 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 
selves to be off the Baléares, we landed, on the 5th of 
December, at Bougie. 
There, they pretended that Fares the three months of 
winter, all communication with Algiers, by means of the 
little boats named sandalis, would be impossible, and I 
resigned myself to the painful prospect of so long a stay 
in a place at that time almost a desert. One evening I 
was making these sad reflections while pacing the deck 
of the vessel, when a shot from a gun on the coast came 
and struck the side planks close to which I was passing. 
This suggested to me the thought of going to Algiers by 
land. 
I went next day, accompanied by M. Berthémie and 
Captain Spiro Calligero, to the Caid of the town: “I 
wish,” said I to him, “to go to Algiers by land.” The 
man, quite frightened, exclaimed, “ I cannot allow you to ; 
do so; you would certainly be killed on the road; your 
Consul would make a complaint to the Dey, and I should 
have my head cut off.” 
“Fear not on that ground. I will give you an ac- 
quittance.” 
It was immediately drawn up in these terms: “ We, 
the undersigned, certify that the Caid of Bougie wished 
to dissuade us from going to Algiers by land; that he has 
assured us that we shall be massacred on the road; that 
notwithstanding his representations, reiterated twenty 
times, we have persisted in our project. We beg the 
Algerine authorities, particularly our Consul, not to 
make him responsible for this event if it should occur. 
We once more repeat, that the voyage has been under- 
taken against his will. 
Signed: AraGco and BrertHémin. 
