I cried out in Arabic, “Infidels, thieves, and robbers! come on, or we shall presently attack you:” upon which I immediately fired a ship-blunderbuss with pistol small bullets, but with little elevation, among the bushes, so as not to touch them. The three or four men that were nearest fell flat upon their faces, and slid away among the bushes on their bellies, like eels, and we saw no more of them.
We now put our vessel into the stream, filled our fore-sail, and stood off, Mahomet crying, Be upon your guard, if you are men, we are the Sanjack’s soldiers, and will come for the turban to-night. More we neither heard nor saw.
We were no sooner out of their reach, than our Rais, filling his pipe, and looking very grave, told me to thank God that I was in the vessel with such a man as he was, as it was owing to that only I escaped from being murdered a-shore. “Certainly, said I, Hassan, under God, the way of escaping from being murdered on land, is never to go out of the boat, but don’t you think that my blunderbuss was as effectual a mean as your holiness? Tell me, Mahomet, What did they do to you?” He said, They had not seen us come in, but had heard of us ever since we were at Metrahenny, and had waited to rob or murder us; that upon now hearing we were come, they had all ran to their houses for their arms, and were coming down, immediately, to plunder the boat; upon which he and the Moor ran off, and being met by these three people, and the boy, on the road, who had nothing in their hands, one of them snatched the turban off. He likewise added, that there were two parties in the town; one in favour of Ali Bey, the other friends to a rebel Bey who had taken Miniet; that they had fought, two or three days ago, among themselves, and were going to fight again, each of them having called Arabs to their assistance. “Mahomet Bey, says my Howadat Arab, will come one of these days with the soldiers, and bring our Shekh and people with him, who will burn their houses, and destroy their corn, that they will be all starved to death next year.”
Hassan and his son Mahomet were violently exasperated, and nothing would serve them but to go in again near the shore, and fire all the guns and blunderbusses among the people. But, besides that I had no inclination of that kind, I was very loth to frustrate the attempts of some future traveller, who may add this to the great remains of architecture we have preserved already.