TRAVELS IN BARBARA'. 
£17 
other machinery. If ever a moment's remission took 
place, a discharge of stones immediately warned 
them of the necessity of proceeding. Time was not 
even allowed to eat their morsel of bread; they were 
expected to eat with one hand, and work with the 
other. When illness was complained of, there was 
one only remedy, which was conceived to be equal- 
ly salutary and cheap. It consisted in heating an 
iron rod, and applying it red hot to the part af- 
fected. Many of the slaves consequently chose 
rather to conceal their sufferings, than to enjoy the 
benefit of this cure. 
This state of affairs induced our captive, as his 
master had calculated, to abate somewhat in the re- 
ports of his own poverty. He enlarged his offer of 
ransom successively to four hundred, to five hun- 
dred, and to six hundred dollars ; which last sum 
was at length acceded to. Unfortunately, the 
communication with Europe was so imperfect, 
that he was not able to obtain its remittance. 
Meanwhile his master was called to Fez by the 
emperor Muley Semein. Suspecting that this 
command boded him no good, he vented his chagrin 
upon the slaves, and immediately began to deal 
blows among them without mercy. Some were 
killed, and our author thought himself to have 
escaped well, in having merely his head battered, 
and his whole body bruised. They were then con- 
veyed to Fez, where the master, though suspected 
