APPLICATION TO ENGLISH CAPTAIN. 47 



tolerably near relation of the Emperor of Morocco. 

 Astonished at the rapidity with which I filled a page of 

 my writing, they imagined, doubtless, that I should write 

 as fast in Arabic characters, when it should be requisite 

 to transcribe passages from the Koran ; and that this 

 would form both for me and for them the source of a bril- 

 liant fortune, and they besought me, in the most earnest 

 way, to become a Mahometan. 



Very little reassured by the last words of the judge, I 

 sought means of safety from another quarter. 



I was the possessor of a safe-conduct from the English 

 Admiralty ; I therefore wrote a confidential letter to the 

 captain of an English vessel, The Eagle, I think, which 

 had cast anchor some days before in the roads at Rosas. 

 I explained to him my position. " You can," I said to 

 him, " claim me, because I have an English passport. 

 If this proceeding should cost you too much, have the 

 goodness at least to take my manuscripts and to send 

 them to the Royal Society in London." 



One of the soldiers who guarded us, and in whom I 

 had fortunately inspired some interest, undertook to de- 

 liver my letter. The English captain came to see me ; 

 his name was, if my memory is right, George Eyre. We 

 had a private conversation on the shore. George Eyre 

 thought, perhaps, that the manuscripts of my observations 

 were contained in a register bound in morocco, and with 

 gilt edges to the leaves. When he saw that these man- 

 uscripts were composed of single leaves, covered with 

 figures, which I had hidden under my shirt, disdain suc- 

 ceede^ to interest, and he quitted me hastily. Having 

 returned on board, he wrote me a letter which I could 

 find if needful, in which he said to me, " I cannot mix 

 myself up in your affairs ; address yourself to the Spanish 



