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extant is I am sorry to say a woefully incorrect one, no traces
of it are to be found. You may conceive it however to lie on
the East part of the gulph of Sidra between Bernic and Cape
Razat. Upon hearing this, and being assured that there was
no symptom or any indisposition of any kind on board
though he had been a fortnight or more at sea, we made
no scruple of complying with his invitation. From him we
got the first distinct intelligence of a Pirate that had for
some time been infesting the Levant. She was first heard
of about 3 months ago (the middle of July) In the compass of about 2 months She had taken
in all seven vessels, 2 Ragusans, 3 Venetians and 2 French,
the crews of all which ships were all massacred to a man.
She carried 16 guns and 200 men: being a Pyrate professed,
she hoisted black colours. Her crew were Dulcingnols, Turks. At last about 40 days ago she put into
Tripoli: the government of that state having received advice
concerning her by circular letter, from the Grand Signior's Ministry at Constantinople
seized her in that port. The crew if I understood
right were I to be sent to Constantinople to take their
trial. During her cruize a Venetian ship had fought her
for 7 hours and obliged her to shier off. Our host himself
had had the bad luck to meet her, and the good fortune
to get clear. It was to the South West of the Isle of Candia: He was going from Joppa or Jaffa port in
the Barbary Holy Land to Smyrna with I do know not what lading, and
a company of upwards of 100 Hadgias passengers. Hadg Turks
who had been on their pilgrimage to Mecca the tomb of
their prophet at Mecca from which meritorious circumstance
they take their denomination. His crew were no
more than twenty or thirty strong and he had but 5 three - or four - pounders but he had some
small arms and the Hadgias being all or most of them
armed, with their arms bright and in good condition,
all together made a respectable appearance. To put the better
countenance upon the matter they all came upon deck
together resolved to sell their lives as dear as they could,
knowing the enemy they had to deal with, and having
no hopes of quarter. The stratagem if such it can be called
succeeded to well, that the Pirate whose cruelty seems
to have been tinctured with a proportionable share of cowardice
sheered off without firing a shot, or so much
as haling. It was no longer than 33 days ago that Our host left Smyrna, to which port he was now
returning. There had then been no plague for a considerable
time: this, added to the capture of the Pirate, you may imagine,
was no bad news to us. On our entrance into the Cabbin,
our host, presented us with some wine and some dates,
and presently after one of his people brought up and presented
to each of us a live sprig of sweet Basil in flower.
The Wine was sweet, and to my taste excellent;
we were told it came from Zant. The Dates though smaller
were to my taste preferable to any of the few which at
different times I have eat in London. These came of course
from Barbary and seemed to be part of the regular stock
of the ships provisions. Upon our begging a handful to take to our
ladies, he insisted upon our carrying off a good parcel
to the amount of 3 or 4 pints. Over the Cabbin in a large
wooden cage was a bird which Captain Brine said was
a kind of partridge such as they have in the isle of
Lesbos Rhodes. Upon a cursory glance it seemed to me in
size and colour more like a Guinea-fowl. After some
pressing the Venetian Captain accepted our invitation, & came
off
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off with us in our boat to dine with us. After Tea, Capt.
Brine and Mr Griffiths escorted him home in one of our
boats, and as the vessels were by that time almost close together,
the Ladies took the opportunity to gratify their curiosity,
and brought off the remainder of the Basil in the
pot in which it was growing. At parting the Venetian saluted
them with all his guns. What made the visit on
board of him the more interesting was an idea that was
started of engaging him to take us from Smyrna to
Constantinople, & from thence under Russian colours to the
Crimea. The feasibility of affirming such colours & obtaining
the privilege which they confer seemed to be agreed
on by both the Captains. The Venetian seemed
to lend a favourable idea ear to the idea, said if he took
us he should not charge us much, but took the matter
more Batavico ad referendum. He seems a good honest
plain kind of a man with a beard the nigh length
of which seemed to be more owing to negligence than to
fashion. One piece of furniture we observed in his cabbin
an English waiter of the Pontypool kind, the only
article he had that was English, and the only article
as he politely observed that was worth any thing. The national
vanity could not receive a more ample gratification
than at the incense offer'd to it by this rough
Venetian Sailor who declared with much energy and apparent
sincerity, that he knew of nothing in any
way that deserved the name of good but what came
from England. At leaving the conclusion
first visit we were accosted by a lad of about 20
in very tolerable English who said he had served
on board an English vessel man of war I forget
what for about 7 5 or 6 months, and would have
been very glad if Capt. Brine would have taken
him; he made no other complaints, but said he
had not seen a morsel of meat for a week past.
Our table yesterday happened not to be quite so well
served as it is commonly, neither fruit pye nor pudding.
We had however some excellent pease-soup
a fine piece of salt-beef, a chicken pye, and a
haunch of mutton venisonified with sweet sauce.
What luxury this to the frugal and spare-dicted
Venetian! He eat however but sparingly, and all the
temptations of Capt. B's well stocked Cellar were
insufficient to prevail with him to exceed the strictest
limits of sobriety. I don't know which of the
Captains it was that proposed to the other to keep
company during the voyage: the proposal if not
made, was at least cheerfully accepted by the Venetian,
and in consequence he has several times slacken'd
sail that he might not get a head of us. We are
a protection to each other, especially we to the Venetian:
for scarce has any instance been known of
a Mediterranean Pirate's venturing upon an Englishman: this
mutual security is more particularly of use in going
into one of the port, which the barbarity of the inha
renders in many places more dangerous than the
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Identifier: | JB/540/208/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 540.
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1785-10-11 |
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540 |
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208 |
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001 |
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Journal |
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Jeremy Bentham |
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