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 
w^as 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 
