Page:Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile - In the Years 1768, 1769, 1770, 1771, 1772, and 1773 volume 1.djvu/31

Rh ed the fraud, and was under the disagreeable necessity of surrendering so many Christians into slavery in the hands of their enemies.

or two successful discoveries of this kind made the hungry pirates believe that the passport of every vessel they met with, even those of Gibraltar, were false in themselves, and issued to protect their enemies. Violent commotions were excited amongst the soldiery, abetted under hand by several of the neutral consuls there. By every occasion I had wrote home, but in vain, and the Dey could never be persuaded of this, as no answer arrived. Government was occupied with winding up matters at the end of a war, and this neglect of my letters often brought me into great danger. At last a temporary remedy was found, whether it originated from home, or whether it was invented by the governor of Mahon and Gibraltar, was never communicated to me, but a surer and more effectual way of having all the nation at Algiers massacred could certainly not have been hit upon.

pieces of common paper, about the size of a quarter-sheet, were sealed with the arms of the governor of Mahon, sometimes with red, sometimes with black wax, as the family circumstances of that officer required. These were signed by his signature, countersigned by that of his secretary, and contained nothing more than a bare and simple declaration, that the vessel, the bearer of it, was British property. These papers were called Passavants. The cruiser, uninstructed in this when he boarded a vessel, asked for his Mediterranean pass. The master answered, He had none, he had only a passavant, and shewed the paper, which having no 4