TRAVELS IN BARBARY. 
grind corn with the hand-mills used in this coun- 
try ; and " misliking this occupation," he pro- 
duced such unsavoury flour, that his functions 
were soon confined to the keeping of a single 
child. He acquired completely the favour of his 
mistress, who not only shewed him every kind of 
good treatment, but offered him, if he would be- 
come a convert, a rich and beautiful niece of her 
own in marriage. Mouette declined it, on the 
polite plea, that had she herself been the prize he 
would not have hesitated. Unfortunately, our 
author did not belong to his present master alone, 
but was a joint concern of four persons. One of 
these, Hamet Ben Yencourt, began to make strict 
inquiry as to the measures taken for turning the 
property to account. The master replied, that he 
had not been able to extract from him any far- 
ther information than has been already here men- 
tioned. Yencourt declared, that if the captive 
were put into his hands, he would employ effec- 
tual means of rendering him more communicative. 
This proposition being acceded to, our author 
experienced a most doleful change. He was re- 
duced to brown bread, and obliged to lie at night 
in a mazmorray or dungeon, so dismal, that the 
gloomiest prisons of Europe seemed luxurious in 
comparison. These dungeons were dug under 
ground four or five fathoms in diameter, with 
a narrow opening at top, which is shut in by an 
