Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/189

Rh de Boigne belonged, having been sent to effect a descent on that island, the Turks made a sortie, attacked the invaders in great force, and cut them off nearly to a man. De Boigne escaped with his life, but was taken prisoner and sent first to Chio and thence to Constantinople.

Seven months later the war came to an end, and de Boigne, with the other prisoners of war, was released. He had then attained the rank of major in the Russian army. Peace, however, had closed for him the avenues of further advancement. De Boigne then quitted the Russian service and embarked for Smyrna. Meeting in that town some Englishmen who had returned from India, he was so struck by their description of the adventurous life of that country, that he resolved to seek his fortune there. Returning to Constantinople, he made his way to Aleppo, and joined there a caravan just setting out for Basrá. The caravan reached Bagdad in safety, but, as a furious war was then raging between the Turks and the Persians, the road thence to Basrá was deemed too dangerous to be traversed, and the caravan returned to Aleppo.

From that place de Boigne made his way as quickly as he could back to Smyrna and sailed thence to Alexandria. In his journey from Alexandria to Rosetta he was shipwrecked and fell into the hands of the Arabs. These, with characteristic hospitality towards a stranger, befriended him, and by their aid he was able to reach Cairo. Here innumerable delays occurred, and it