buildings which crown the neighbouring hills of Marseilles, when a gust
of the "mistral," of great violence, sent us from the north towards the
south.

I do not know what route we followed, for I was lying in my cabin,
overcome with sea-sickness; I may therefore, though an astronomer, avow
without shame, that at the moment when our unqualified pilots supposed
themselves to be off the Baléares, we landed, on the 5th of December,
at Bougie.

There, they pretended that during the three months of winter, all
communication with Algiers, by means of the little boats named
_sandalis_, would be impossible, and I resigned myself to the painful
prospect of so long a stay in a place at that time almost a desert. One
evening I was making these sad reflections while pacing the deck of the
vessel, when a shot from a gun on the coast came and struck the side
planks close to which I was passing. This suggested to me the thought of
going to Algiers by land.

I went next day, accompanied by M. Berthémie and Captain Spiro
Calligero, to the Caïd of the town: "I wish," said I to him, "to go to
Algiers by land." The man, quite frightened, exclaimed, "I cannot allow
you to do so; you would certainly be killed on the road; your Consul
would make a complaint to the Dey, and I should have my head cut off."

"Fear not on that ground. I will give you an acquittance."

It was immediately drawn up in these terms: "We, the undersigned,
certify that the Caïd of Bougie wished to dissuade us from going to
Algiers by land; that he has assured us that we shall be massacred on