42 AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF FRANCIS ARAGO. 



should delay to set sail, completed his crew at the ex- 

 pense of the idlers who were looking on from the pier, 

 and of whom the greater part were not sailors. These 

 poor people begged as a favour for permission to go and 

 inform their families of this precipitate departure, and to 

 get some clothes. The captain remained deaf to their 

 remonstrances. We weighed anchor. 



The vessel belonged to the Emir of Seca, Director of 

 the Mint. The real commander was a Greek captain, 

 named Spiro Calligero. The cargo consisted of a great 

 number of groups. Amongst the passengers there were 

 five members of the family which the Bakri had suc- 

 ceeded as kings of the Jews ; two ostrich-feather mer- 

 chants, Moroccans ; Captain Krog, from Berghen in 

 Norway, who had sold his ship at Alicant ; two lions sent 

 by the Dey to the Emperor Napoleon, and a great num- 

 ber of monkeys. Our voyage was prosperous. Off Sar- 

 dinia we met with an American ship coming out from 

 Cagliari. A cannon-shot (we were armed with forty 

 pieces of small power) warned the captain to come to be 

 recognized. He brought on board a certain number of 

 counterparts of passports, one of which agreed perfectly 

 with that which we carried. The captain being thus all 

 right, was not a little astonished when I ordered him, in 

 the name of Captain Braham, to furnish us with tea, cof- 

 fee, and sugar. The American captain protested ; he 

 called us brigands, pirates, robbers. Captain Brahani 

 admitted without difficulty all these qualifications, and 

 persisted none the less in the exaction of sugar, coffee, 

 and tea. 



The American, then driven to the last stage of exas- 

 peration, addressed himself to me, who acted as inter- 

 preter, and cried out, " Oh ! rogue of a renegade ! if ever 



