In taking a review of the circumstances of the voyage, I cannot say that anything could have made it tolerable but the prospect of soon landing in Christendom. I was shut up in a vessel, and obliged to live in close society with men, whose habits, occupations, and education, differed entirely from my own: and, although a philosophic mind will not suffer its happiness to depend on such temporary inconveniences, I confess I found mine sometimes greatly affected by them.
The Provençal sailors are superstitious to excess; and, whenever the weather was bad, there was always a disposition to throw the blame of it on me, whom, as a Protestant, they reckoned no Christian. They were totally wanting in cleanliness. The cabin was full of fleas, and was never swept during the whole voyage. This however was perhaps more owing to the remissness of the captain, who did not enforce it, than to the cabin-boy and men, who themselves, when ill-humoured with the captain, complained of the dirtiness of the vessel. The Provençaux seem to have a habit of spitting not exceeded by the Spaniards or Americans, and, what is worse, they spit in every direction and on every spot, so that I had not a single resting-place on the deck, nor could I go one step without the apprehension of brushing with my long dress the saliva that was scattered and conglobated in every direction. This habit appeared more disagreeable to a person coming from Turkey, where the meanest pauper is never seen to spit, even when smoking.
Their cookery was to me extremely disagreeable. The principal ingredients in it were oil and garlic, the latter of which is considered so great a delicacy, not only by the seafaring people of Provence but by those who live on shore, that women even of respectable condition often carry the odour of it in their breath into society.
It will not be misplaced here to give a list of the dishes on which we chiefly lived during the passage, that other travellers may be induced from it to take the precaution of laying in their own provisions on a similar voyage. On Wednesdays and Fridays we lived on meagre fare, such as lentils or rice done in oil, or salt fish soup, or salt fish plain boiled; artichokes stuffed with onions, and parsley stewed in oil; or on split peas and slices of bread boiled into a soup with oil and water; or on cold boiled peas with oil. Hard Dutch cheese, or, which is still harder, Cyprus cheese, with two dates and a few raisins for each person, made up the dessert. On other days, there was rice boiled, or rice soup; ham and bacon omelettes; stockfish always; broad beans raw, which were to be eaten as children eat peas in England; boiled garden snails, which were considered a delicacy, and of which we had a bushel basket full. Two lambs were taken on board at Cyprus, and killed on the voyage. They were eaten in the following manner. On the first day the blood caught from the neck was fried, which looked like pieces of liver; but this I could not eat. Next the liver itself was fried or roasted, and the tripe done in fricassée, but so badly washed that it was impossible to touch it. After this we fared well for two or three days on lamb chops, vermicelli soup, bouilli of lamb, &c., until the lamb was eaten. Towards the latter part of the voyage, when all the provisions were nearly gone, we were reduced to ham and salt fish soup, and boiled horse-beans in salad; whilst the water we drank came from a wine barrel, with a smack of the vinous sourness in it.
There was no remedy for these evils when once embarked; for the desire of avoiding anchorage dues prevents these vessels from entering any port on their way home.
But when it is considered that some regard was paid to my English habits, and that I had the liberty of disliking what did not please me, my situation was good compared to that of the poor prisoner, confined to the long-boat, and with no covering but an old sail. His food was always of the worst; and the spray of the sea, in bad weather, constantly flew over him, so as to wet him. In this man’s conversation I found the only resource I had in the ship. He had been bred to, and followed, the trade of a turner; but, in the revolution, he had signalized his love of liberty, and bore with him a medal equivalent in its import to what in ancient times a civic crown would have been. His conduct on the return of Napoleon had made him obnoxious to the royalists, and he had absented himself with a view to escape persecution, which however pursued him into the heart of Syria: for, at St. Jean d’Acre, whilst gaining a scanty livelihood by portrait painting, he was seized and shipped off for France.
He was more attached than any person I ever saw to freemasonry, which he seemed to have studied deeply, and his object in going to Palestine was, he said, to visit Jerusalem, as the place which gave birth to this singular fraternity. Whatever his motives were, he did not effect them.
The Provençal language (on board ship) is a most disagreeable jargon, as unintelligible even to those who understand French as to those who do not, and delighting in intonations of the voice, which always reminded me of a crying child.
I had brought with me an Angora greyhound. The beauty of a dog from that country consists in long silky hair at the ears and on the tail, the peculiar feature of all animals, whether goats, cats, or dogs, which come from Angora and its neighbourhood. Never did I feel so forcibly the proverb of “love me, love my dog,” as then; for the whole of the crew, when my back was turned, were constantly beating him, and worried him cruelly.
As soon as the vessel was moored, the captain proceeded to Marseilles (which is a league from Pomegue) with his papers; and next morning I was conveyed, with my effects, to the Lazaretto, thankful to the Almighty, for having permitted me, after so many perilous voyages and journeys, once more to revisit Europe.