Now since two Turks lay in the cabin with the master, it was agreed that he should continue to lie there, lest they should mistrust any thing. In the meanwhile it began to be bad weather, so that they lost the company of the Turkish man of war, which was the thing the mate much desired; and the Turks seeing the diligence of the English sailors, grew careless concerning them, which was what the mate aimed at. The second night after, the captain of the Turks, and one of his company, being gone to sleep in the cabin with the master, the mate persuaded one to lie in his cabin, and about an hour after another in another cabin; and at last it raining very much, he persuaded them all to lie down and sleep: and when they were all asleep, he coming to them, fairly got their arms into his possession. This being done, he told his men, ‘Now we have the Turks at our command, no man shall hurt any of them; for if ye do, I will be against you: but this we will do, now they are under deck, we will keep them so, and go for Majorca.’ And having ordered some to keep the doors, they steered their course to Majorca, and they had such a strong gale, that in the morning they were near it. Then he ordered his men, if any offered to come out, not to let above one or two at a time; and when one came out, expecting to have seen his own country, he was not a little astonished instead thereof to see Majorca. Then the mate said to his men, ‘Be careful of the door, for when he goes in we shall see what they will do. But have a care not to spill blood.’ The Turk being gone down, and telling his comrades what he had seen, and how they were going to Majorca, they, instead of rising, all fell a crying, for their courage was quite sunk; and they begged that they might not be sold. This the mate promised, and said, they should not. And when he had appeased them, he went into the cabin to the master, who knew nothing of what was done, and gave him an account of the sudden change, and how they had overcome the Turks. Which when he understood, he told their captain, that the vessel was now no more in their possession, but in his again; and that they were going for Majorca. At this unexpected news the captain wept, and desired the master not to sell him; which he promised he would not. Then they told him also, they would make a place to hide them in, that the Spaniards coming aboard should not find them. And so they did accordingly, at which the Turks were very glad.
Being come into the port of Majorca, the master, with four men, went ashore, and left the mate on board with ten Turks. The master having done his business, returned on board, not taking licence, lest the Spaniards should come and see the Turks: but another English master, being an acquaintance, lying there also with his ship, came at night on board; and after some discourse, they told him what they had done, under promise of silence, lest the Spaniards should come and take away the Turks. But he broke his promise, and would have had two or three of the Turks, to have brought them to England. His design then being seen, his demand was denied; and seeing he could not prevail, he said to Pattison and his mate, that they were fools, because they would not sell the Turks, which were each worth two or three hundred pieces of eight. But they told him, that if they would give many thousands, they should not have one, for they hoped to send them home again; and to sell them, the mate said, he would not have done for the whole island. The other master then coming ashore, told the Spaniards what he knew of this, who then threatened to take away the Turks. But Pattison and his mate having heard this, called out the Turks, and said to them, ‘Ye must help us or the Spaniards will take you from us.’ To this the Turks, as one may easily guess, were very ready, and so they quickly got out to sea: and the English, to save the Turks, put themselves to the hazard of being overcome again; for they continued hovering several days, because they would not put into any port of Spain, for fear of losing the Turks: to whom they gave liberty for four or five days, until they made an attempt to rise; which the mate perceiving, he prevented, without hurting any of them, though he once laid hold of one; yet generally he was so kind to them, that some of his men grumbled, and said he had more care for the Turks than for them. To which his answer was, they were strangers, and therefore he must treat them well. At length, after several occurrences, the mate told the master, that he thought it best to go to the coasts of Barbary, because they were then like to miss their men of war. To this the master consented. However, to deceive the Turks, they sailed to and fro for several days; for in the day-time they were for going to Algiers, but when night came they steered the contrary way, and went back again, by which means they kept the Turks in ignorance, so as to be quiet.
But on the 9th day, being all upon deck, when none of the English were there but the master, his mate, and the man at the helm, they began to be so untoward and haughty, that it rose in the mate’s mind, what if they should lay hold on the master, and cast him overboard: for they were ten lusty men, and he but a little man. This thought struck him with terror; but recollecting himself, and taking heart, he stamped with his foot and the men coming up, one asked for the crow, and another for the axe, to fall on the Turks; but the mate bade them not to hurt the Turks, and said, ‘I will lay hold on their captain:’ which he did, for having heard them threaten the master, he stept forward, and laying hold of the captain, said, he must go down, which he did very quietly, all the rest following him. Two days after, being come on the coast of Barbary, they were, according to what the Turks said, about fifty miles from Algiers, and six from land; and in the afternoon it fell calm. But how to set the Turks on shore was yet not resolved upon. The mate saw well enough, that he being the man who had begun this business, it would be his lot also to bring it to an end. He then acquainted the master that he was willing to carry the Turks on shore; but how to do this safely, he as yet knew not certainly; for to give them the boat was too dangerous, for then they might get men and arms, and so come and retake the ship with its own boat; and to carry them on shore with two or three of the ship’s men, was also a great hazard, because the Turks were ten in number: and to put one half on shore was no less dangerous; for then they might raise the country, and so surprise the English when they came with the other half. In this great strait the mate said to the master, if he would let him have the boat and three men to go with him, he would venture to put the Turks on shore. The master, relying perhaps on his mate’s conduct, consented to the proposal, though not without some tears dropt on both sides. Yet the mate taking courage, said to the master, ‘I believe the Lord will preserve me, for I have nothing but good-will in venturing my life, and I have not the least fear upon me; but trust that all will do well.’
The master having consented, the mate called up the Turks, and going with two men and a boy in the boat, took in these ten Turks, all loose and unbound. Perhaps somebody will think this to be a very inconsiderate act of the mate, and that it would have been more prudent to have tied the Turks’ hands, the rather because he had made the men promise, that they should do nothing to the Turks, until he said, he could do no more; for then he gave them liberty to act for their lives so as they judged convenient. Now since he knew not how near he should bring the Turks ashore, and whether they should not have been necessitated to swim a little, it seemed not prudent, to do any thing which might have exasperated them; for if it had fallen out so that they must have swam, then of necessity they must have been untied; which would have been dangerous. Yet the mate did not omit to be as careful as possible he could. For calling in the captain of the Turks, he placed him first in the boat’s stern; then calling for another, he placed him in his lap, and one on each side, and two more in their laps, until he had placed them all; which he did to prevent a sudden rising. He himself sat with a boat-hook in his hand on the bow of the boat, having next to him one of the shipmen, and two that rowed, having one a carpenter’s adze, and the other a cooper’s heading-knife. These were all their arms, besides what belonged to the Turks, which they had at their command. Thus the boat went off, and stood for the shore. But as they came near it, the men growing afraid, one of them cried out of a sudden, ‘Lord have mercy on us, there are Turks in the bushes on shore.’ The Turks in the boat perceiving the English to be afraid, all rose at once. But the mate, who in this great strait continued to be hearty, showed himself now to be a man of courage, and bid the men to take up such arms as they had; but do nothing with them until he gave them leave. And then seeing that there were no men in the bushes, and that it was only an imagination, all fear was taken away from him, and his courage increasing, he thought with himself, ‘It is better to strike a man, than to cleave a man’s head; and turning the boat-hook in his hand, he struck the captain a smart blow, and bid him set down: which he did instantly, and so did all the rest. After the boat was come so near the shore, that they could easily wade, the mate bid the Turks jump out, and so they did; and because they said they were about four miles from a town, he gave them some loaves, and other necessaries.
They would fain have persuaded the English to go with them ashore to a town, promising to treat them with wine, and other good things; but though the mate trusted in Divine Providence, yet he was not so careless as freely to enter into an apparent danger, without being necessitated thereto: for though he had some thoughts that the Turks would not have done him any evil, yet it was too hazardous thus to have yielded to the mercy of those that lived there; and therefore he very prudently rejected their invitation, well knowing that the Scripture saith, “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” The Turks seeing they could not persuade him, took their leave with signs of great kindness, and so went on shore. The English then putting the boat closer in, threw all their arms on shore, being unwilling to keep any thing of theirs. And when the Turks got up the hill, they waved their caps at the English, and so joyfully took their last farewell. And as soon as the boat came again on board, they had a fair wind, which they had not all the while the Turks were on board. Thus Thomas Lurting saved the ship and its men; which being thus wonderfully preserved, returned to England with a prosperous wind.
Now before the vessel arrived at London, the news of this extraordinary case was come thither; and when she was coming up the Thames, the king, with the duke of York, and several lords, being at Greenwich, it was told him, there was a Quaker’s ketch coming up the river, that had been taken by the Turks, and redeemed themselves without fighting. The king hearing this, came with his barge to the ship’s side, and holding the entering rope in his hand, he understood from the mate’s own mouth, how the thing had happened. But when he heard him say, how they had let the Turks go free, he said to the master, ’You have done like a fool, for you might have had good gain for them:’ and to the mate he said, ‘You should have brought the Turks to me.’ But the mate answered, ‘I thought it better for them to be in their own country.’ At which the king and others smiled, and so went away, thinking that the master had done foolishly; but he and his mate were of another opinion, and they made it appear that they did approve the lesson of our Saviour, “Love your enemies, and do good to those that hate you,” not only with their mouths, but that they had also put it into practice.
Though I have described this fact from a printed relation, yet I have added some circumstances from the mouth of the said mate, with whom I had some acquaintance.
Several years afterwards, when some seamen of the people called Quakers, were in slavery at Algiers, G. Fox wrote a book to the grand sultan, and the king at Algiers, wherein he laid before them their indecent behaviour, and unreasonable dealings, showing them from their alcoran that this displeased God, and that Mahomet had given them other directions. To this he added a succinct narrative of what hath been related here of G. Pattison’s ship being taken and retaken, and how the Turks were set at liberty, without being made slaves: by which the Mahometans might see what kind of Christians the Quakers were, viz. such as showed effectually that they loved their enemies, according to the doctrine of their supreme lawgiver, Christ. Now concerning those Quakers at Algiers, of whom mention hath been made that they were slaves there, it was a pretty long time before opportunity was found to redeem them; but in the meanwhile they so faithfully served their masters, that they were suffered to go loose through the town, without being chained or fettered; and liberty was also allowed them to meet at set times for religious worship: and their patrons themselves would sometimes come and see what they did there; and finding no images or prints, as Papist slaves in the exercise of their worship made use of, but hearing from their slaves that they reverently adored and worshipped the living God, Creator of Heaven and Earth, they commended them for it, and said it was very good, and that they might freely do so. And since one of them was raised to speak by way of edification to his friends, some other English slaves frequenting that meeting, came to be united with them. In the meanwhile the Quakers’ name came to be known at Algiers, as a people that might be trusted beyond others.
It was in this year that William Caton went to England with his wife from Holland, (where he was married,) and two friends more, one of which was Judith Zinspenning, my mother, who was moved to speak at the meeting at Kingston, where W. Caton interpreted for her. At another time being in a meeting at London, and he not present, and feeling herself stirred up to declare of the loving-kindness of the Lord to those that feared him, she desired one Peter Sybrands to be her interpreter; but he, though an honest man, yet not very fit for that service, one or more friends told her, they were so sensible of the power by which she spoke, that though they did not understand her words, yet they were edified by the life and power that accompanied her speech; and therefore they little mattered the want of interpretation; and so she went on without any interpreter. She had indeed a very good talent, and left such repute behind her, that I coming several years after into England, kindness was showed me in several places on her account. After a stay of some weeks at London, and thereabouts, she went to Colchester, in order to return with W. Caton’s wife to Holland; but making some stay in that town, she there wrote a book of proverbs, which, W. Caton having translated into English, was printed at London. After her departure, he staying behind, travelled through Essex, Warwickshire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, and Yorkshire; and coming into Lancashire, he repaired to Swarthmore, and found there not only his ancient mistress, Margaret Fell, who received him very kindly, but also G. Fox, not long before he was taken prisoner.