I was thus hurled into the ranks of Achmet, whose blood-shot, piercing eye and hawk nose gave him a cruel look in keeping with his character.
"The Christian dog belongs to no country," Mohammed told the people to whom I sought to appeal. "He is a cur who has been helping the troublesome Hamet Bashaw to stir up a rebellion against our noble ruler."
These words enraged the crowd against me, and seeing how hopeless was my state, I slunk away, kicked and slapped, to take up my burden.
Fortunately, this caravan too was bound for Tripoli. I expected that there I would have a chance to lay my case before the American consul, and hoped to secure through him freedom and permission to sail back to Derne in search of my treasure sacks.
Loaded with as much of the camel's pack as I could stagger under, I followed in the camel train. When camp was made, I was forced to scramble among the dogs for my share of the scraps thrown to them by the camel-drivers.
When we reached Tripoli I was driven, closely guarded, to dark quarters on the outskirts of the town, and threatened with death if I tried to escape. I found out that the American consul was at Malta on business that had arisen out of the making of peace with Joseph Bashaw. My case, therefore, seemed almost as hopeless as when I was first captured.
These cities of Barbary are strange affairs. The streets wind in and out between white walls. You go under shadowy arches; you climb here a dozen stairs and a little later go up an incline without stairs. The streets are usually too narrow for camels or carts, so that porters and donkeys do most of the hauling. A swarm of people pass continually up and down these cramped ways. The Moslem women wear silken street garments (haicks) that conceal the finery beneath. The faces of these women are covered with a fine silk veil, and underneath their haicks may be seen their bulging Turkish trousers.
When I asked why the women wore veils, I was told that the custom had come down from the time the Christian crusaders invaded the Moslem countries; the attention they paid to the wives and daughters of the Turks led to the followers of Mohammed prescribing the veil for their women folk.
Among the streams of people were Jews talking trade, consoling themselves for the insults by the Mohammedans with the thought of the profits they were making in their dealings with the Moslems; European envoys; rich, lazy Moors; camel drivers; black slaves; soldiers in the Bashaw's service, and sailors employed by the corsair captains. Lame, halt and blind beggars sat by the roadside, beseeching gifts.
"In the name of Allah, give us alms!" a beggar wailed from almost every corner and doorway. The men they solicited were usually rich Moors who wore turbans of fine cloth and richly embroidered vests. Yet often they would select for their target a camel driver from the desert, clad in his coarse gray baracan.