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 them so much against me, that they resolved to treat me with a greater severity than the rest of the slaves, and loaded me with two chains, whereas the others had but one.

There happened, sometime after, another thing which considerably increased their rage. A Roman Catholic slave on board the Warlike, for having deserted the king’s service, observing that the officers used more severity towards Mr. Carrieres than any others, and understanding he was there only for refusing to change his religion, had the curiosity to know from him what was the religion he maintained with so much constancy and magnanimity. That faithful confessor explained to him the principles thereof, and gave him a New Testament, translated by Father Amelote. I was informed thereof, and wrote to him some letters to encourage him to go on with the examination of our religion; to which he applied himself with so much sincerity, that, upon Easter Day next following, he refused to worship the host, and had the courage to declare to his captain that he would never own himself any more a Roman Catholic. They loaded him with two chains, and used him with a most barbarous severity. They searched immediately his pockets; and having found therein some of my letters, my persecutors were enraged against me, and made me sufficiently fear the effects of their fury. Their barbarous usage did not fright our new proselyte into any compliance; for God has so strengthened him, that for these five years since, he has been and is still a most glorious confessor of His Name.

When my enemies saw that their chains and other hardships wrought no impression upon me, they writ to court that I spoke English, and was perpetually a-writing. This reason was sufficient for them to obtain an order to transfer me from the galleys into the prisons of the citadel of Marseilles. But before I speak of the cruelties they exercised upon me, I think it may not be improper to give a short account of the hardships the slaves are exposed to.

They are five upon every form, fettered with a heavy chain, which is about ten or twelve foot long. They shave their heads from time to time, as a sign of their slavery, and they are not allowed to wear any hats or periwigs; but the king allows them every year a cap, with two shirts, two pair of drawers of the coarsest linen, a sort of upper coat of a reddish shift and a capot; but it is to be observed that they have of late but one coat and capot every two years, and two pair of stockings every year. They have only beans, and nothing else, for their food, with about 14 ounces of coarse bread a day, and ne’er a drop of wine whilst they are in port. They are devoured in winter by lice, and in summer by bugs and fleas, and forced to lie one upon another, as hogs in a sty. I shall not take notice in this place of the barbarity they are used with by the officers of the galleys, which is beyond imagination. The Protestants are obnoxious to all these miseries, and a great many other besides. They are not allowed to receive any money from their friends and relations, unless very privately. They are everyday threatened and tormented by priests and friars, who, being unable to convince them by reasons, think that severity alone can do it. To this I must add the trouble and vexation a Christian soul is afflicted with, to live with wicked and desperate fellows who never use the name of God but for cursing and swearing.

On the 3d of May, in the year 1694, orders came from court to transfer me into the prison of the citadel, and I was put into the same dungeon wherein Mr. Laubonniere, one of our most illustrious confessors, died seven months before. I was forced to lie upon the stones, for I could not obtain for a year together any bed or even straw to lie upon. There was a strict order to suffer nobody to speak to me nor me to write to anybody, and the aid-major came every night to search my pockets when he had taken his round. Though my condition was as miserable as possible, nobody took pity on me, and the victuals they gave me was hardly sufficient to keep me alive. In the meantime, God, out of his infinite love, afforded me such comforts that I little regarded the miseries I was reduced to.

I remained there about a year without seeing anybody; but about that time the Director of Conscience of the then Governor came to see me as they were bringing me my dinner. He had hardly looked upon me, but he cried out, ''Lord! in what a condition are you, sir! I replied, Sir, don’t pity me, for could you but see the secret pleasures my heart experiences, you would think me too happy.'' He told me that the greatest sufferings did not entitle a man to the glory of martyrdom, unless he were so happy as to suffer for truth and justice, which I granted him, but told him withal that the Holy Ghost had sealed that truth in my heart, and that very thought was my comfort in all my afflictions. That priest, taking his leave of me, wished that God would multiply his grace upon me, and sent me a straw bed to lie upon. I continued twenty-two months in that prison without changing my clothes, my beard being as long as the hair of my head, and my face as pale as plaster.

There was just under me a generous confessor whom they had so much tormented that they had turned his brains; but he, having some good intervals, had always reason enough to refuse to comply with their desires. He asked me one morning with a loud voice how I did. This was immediately reported to the governors, whereupon I was immediately removed into another prison, where I continued very little, because of my singing of psalms, though I sung with a very low voice, that I might disturb nobody. I was put on the 20th May 1696 in a subterraneous hole, wherein I remained till the first of July next following, when I was sent, together with the distracted person I have named, by express order from the court, to the Castle of If, about five miles from Marseilles, in the mouth of the harbour.

They had likewise five weeks before sent thither five other persons from the same citadel. We were all at first in different prisons, but as five sentinels were required to keep us, they