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268 British subject, you are free to go when you please?" asked Lucien.

"Bekaise," answered Flaggan, "it ain't every day that a British ship calls in at this piratical nest, and I'd raither go off in a man-o'-war if I could manage it. There's a merchantman came into port yesterday, I'm towld, an' the cownsl advised me to go away with it; but it seems the Turks have made some difficulty about her, so I'll wait. I'm in no hurry. The Flaggans, as a race, have been noted since the time of Adam—if not earlier—for takin' life aisy."

"Then the Flaggans must be nearly related to the Arabs, for they take life easier than any race I ever met with," said Lucien, laughing.

"I shud doubt that, 'cause they're lazy, and we ain't.—Talkin' o' that, sir," said the seaman, as a sudden thought struck him, "I'm towld that you are learned in lingos an' histories: could ye tell me who was the first people that got howld o' this country? 'cause I'm coorious to know, having had a stiffish argiment on that pint with Rais Ali. He howlds that it was the Moors, an' I've heerd say it was the Arabs."

"You are both partly right," replied Lucien; "for the Arabs were among the first conquerors of the land, but you are wrong in supposing Moors and Arabs to be altogether different races. When the