£0 The ADVENTURES of
this occupation, with the promife of which the cor- fair regaled me. When we arrived at the port of Al« gicr *, we faw a great number of people aflfembled to receive us, who, as form as we were landed, fhouted with joy : befides, the air refounded with the confufcd noife of trumpets, morifeo flutCs, and other inltru- mems ufed in that country, which formed a fympho- ny more loud than agreeable. The caufe of thefe rejoicings was a falfe report which had fpread through the city, importing that the renegado Mehemet (this was our pirate’s name) had perifhed in attacking a large Genoefe veflel : fo that aiLhis friends, informed of his return, were eager in their exprdlions of joy.
Wc had no fooner let foot on fliorc, than land my companions were conduced to the palace of Dey So- lymnn, where a Chriftiau fecretrt y, examining us one by on* 1 , afkcd our names, ages,-country, religion, and qualifica ions. Then Mehemet, fhewing me to the dey, extolled my voice, and allured him that I played ravilhingly on the guitar. This was enough to d. 'ermine Solvman to chafe me for his own fer- vice : accordingly I .wss detained in his feraglio, while the o:4rcr captives were led into a public place, and fold according to cuftom. What Mehemet had. foretold to me jn the vefTe), came to pafs.—My condition was very happy; far from being abandoned to jailors, or employed in laborious work, I was, by order of Solvman, difpottd of in /a particular place, with five or fix-Haves of .quality, .who expefted every moment to be redeemed, and whofe talks were far ■from being painful. My bulinefs was to water the orange-tiees and flowers in the garden, and I could not have been favoured with a more Agreeable occupation.
Solyman was a man about forty years of age, well
* A1 gicr, a city on the coaft of Barbarv, poffcHed by the Moors, who are at perpetual war with the Spaniards j and under, the protection of the Turk.