xxxviii 



AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF 



neither would the Swedish consul afford any assist- 

 ance ; so I went to our own consul, Mr. Laird, with 

 whom I was very intimate, requesting him to give 

 me a certificate to signify that there had not been 

 any sickness in the city for a long time : indeed, it 

 was now in a remarkably healthy state. The consul 

 complied with my request : as he put the certificate 

 into my hand, " My young friend," said he, in a 

 very feeling tone, " I shall either have to see you 

 sunk by the cannon of the fort, or hear of your 

 being sent prisoner for life to the fortress of Ceuta^ 

 on the coast of Africa. 



I now endeavoured to persuade my remaining 

 uncle to try his fortune with me ; but my entreaties 

 were of no avail. He fell an early victim to the 

 fever, which returned with increased virulence the 

 following spring. A letter which I received from 

 my worthy friend, Mr. Dillon of Alhaurin, some 

 twenty miles from Malaga, informed me that it 

 swept away 36,000 souls. 



Our captain had taken the precaution to make 

 out false papers, in case of need, on account of the 

 war betwixt Great Britain and France. My brother 

 was entered as a passenger, myself as a Swedish 

 carpenter. We slept on board for many successive 

 nights, in hopes of a fair wind to carry us through 

 the Straits. At last a real east wind did come, and 

 it blew with great violence. The captain, whose 

 foresight and precautions were truly admirable, had 

 given the strictest orders to the crew that not a 

 word should be spoken whilst we were preparing to 

 escape. We lay in close tier amongst forty sail of 



