Page:Adventures of Baron Wenceslas Wratislaw of Mitrowitz (1862).djvu/175

 one of us would become a Turk, they threatened us, and angrily impressed upon us that they would put us into such a prison that, when there, we should wish to be dead rather than alive. After bullying us till they were satisfied, they brought us round at last to the imperial arsenal, or magazine, where there are many hundreds of various boats, and where stores of galleys, and other military requisites are kept in vaults. Having removed us from the boat, they conducted us into a large square building, which was surrounded by large walls several fathoms high. Here, at the first gate, sat the pasha’s Kihaja and the Quardian Pasha, or the chief commander of the guards. In this enclosure there is a third building for prisoners, into which the light comes only from above, and which has no windows at the sides. In the principal building there are captives of various nations, artizans who construct galleys, and divers other things; for instance, carpenters, joiners, smiths, ropemakers, sailclothmakers, locksmiths, and coopers, who are conducted every day into this or that workshop. These are the best off of all, for they have it in their power to filch things, sell them secretly, and buy something to eat; nay, when they work industriously, porridge is given them on Friday, (the Turkish Sunday,) and, above all, they have hopes of release before the rest. For, when they execute a handsome piece of work, whether it be a galley, a galleon, or any other boat, in a masterly and artistical style, and the pasha who commands by sea is pleased with it, he confers the following favours on the chief artizans. Taking from them a promise not to escape from Turkey for ten years, more or less, but to work faithfully till the expi-