THE ODYSSEY OF RENÉ DU CHASTELET DES BOYS – PART 5

(This post is a continuation of The Odyssey of René du Chastelet des Boys – Parts 1 through 4. If you haven’t done so already, it’s best to read those posts before continuing on here.)

René du Chastelet des Boys and his companions, remember, are about to be presented to the Pasha, the Ottoman Governor of Algiers.

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The next morning in the courtyard, we saw some of the officers of the militia diligently lining up before the Divan [the ruling council of Algiers]. I noticed both Jews and Mores confusedly entering into the anteroom of the palace, but nevertheless with restraint, to ask justice—and coming out happy with each other, without quarreling. Small disputes are resolved by lower officers, before whom individuals meet. Matters of importance, however, are decided by the Divan, which is the least corrupt jurisdiction among these barbarians, since it is composed of too many judges to be swayed by the solicitations of the great, the commiseration of the small, or by bribes.

In the courtyard, there was a large gathering of Janissaries, Turks, Jews, renegades and slaves. From among this throng came two men, dressed differently, one with a turban and red jacket, the other with a cape and a black cap. They came up to us and faced Estevan, grand master of our unhappy ceremonies, and began to question him persistently about our professions, our goods, our destination when we were taken captive, and the like. They also asked clarification from the two renegades, whom I mentioned above, who had already tormented us with their false solicitude.

One of the two men before us was Turkish, the other Jewish. They were not fully satisfied with Estevan’s responses, and so they spoke directly to me, demanding to know if there were any gardeners, whom the Turks call Bostanjis, among us, or any ship’s caulkers, or gunners, and I don’t know how many other different vocations. I answered them by saying that all those of our group were either ordinary sailors or private soldier-adventurers.

They frowned at this and then said they had heard there were papasses (their name for Catholic priests) among us, for, they insisted, it was seldom that a ship captured at sea contained so many images, candles, and talismans as ours had, and they were looking for a papasss among us. Their purpose, they said, was not to profit from his ransom but, rather, to convert him.

At that moment, a young Turk with a gilded copper belt pulled the Jew by the sleeve advised him to go find the Pasha, which he did immediately.

Soon afterwards, I and the other slaves were herded together up into the Pasha’s room. We found him seated, legs crossed tailor fashion, in the middle of a rather large but poorly lit room, on an elevated platform covered with Persian rugs. Any defects the room might have had were hidden by a large brocade cloth that hung on the wall, displaying a great array of different colors, well matched and nuanced. The Pasha reclined upon several silk cushions. The cushion on the right, which he leaned upon, was larger and more variegated, shining, and adorned with four long tassels of gold and silver mixed with some intertwined jewels. On this, he supported a copy of the Koran, covered with gold and ornamented with precious stones.

We were presented before him, our heads and feet bare (having, before entering the room, left our shoes at the door). The Pasha held long conferences with several Turks and Jews, who discussed us very carefully, one after the other seeming to give him advice. Eventually, we were ordered to depart, all but ten, whom the Pasha had chosen as his due, and who remained in the palace. The rest of us, fifty in number, were taken to the Badestan, the market where slaves were sold.

After we had all been well walked around there to show us off, our sellers began encouraging auction bids on each of us. As an old Flemish slave later explained to me, the man selling us auctioned off eight of the youngest and most vigorous among us to Ali Picheny, General of the galleys. As for me, I was bought by a man named Oge Ali, whose name meant Ali the Scribe [Khodja in Turkish means “scribe”]. Ali was the official scribe for the Divan, which I learned later. As Oge, he had the right to a small tax on each slave sold at the market. I had to stay in the market with him while he waited to receive the tax due him from the slaves sold that day.

After that, Oge Ali led me to his home, constantly questioning me about my age and country, and, with great eagerness, about my trade or profession. Once we arrived, he made me wait a good quarter of an hour under the entrance hall of the house. Then, warning me to take off my shoes, he ordered me to cross the courtyard. I entered into a fairly clean room, where he introduced me to his wife, who sat in the same posture as I had seen the Pasha sit. As she was young and quite beautiful, I did not feel in myself a great reluctance to start slave duty. I kissed the back of her hand when she presented it to me, to mark of the approval of the purchase made by her husband.

Oge Ally made part of his living from the tax he was due from every slave sold in the Badestan, but he also made a profit from trafficking in slaves. There was no trick that he did not practice in order to find out if the investment he had made in me was good, and if he might profit from it.

Along with many other questions, he pressed me hard on the subject of my trade and profession, hoping to discover if I was a man of wealth and position. I insisted to him that I was just an ordinary soldier of fortune who had been traveling from France to Portugal to enlist in the armies of the Portuguese Crown.

To my surprise, upon hearing this, Oge Ali fetched an enormous harquebus, so heavy that I could not hold it up to my cheek without support.

Having loaded it himself, he presented it to me with a smile and a command to fire it. Since I had no idea how to use such a heavy weapon, I found myself unable to do anything but lay it down in an admission of defeat.

When, with a mocking smile, he asked if there were many soldiers like me intending to serve the Crown of Portugal, I hardly knew what to reply.

Still smiling, he then told me that I was from now on going to carry water from the public fountains into the city and sell enough each day so that I brought back twenty aspers [copper coins used in Algiers] every evening.

If I failed to do this, he said, I would receive a hundred strokes with a stick each time.

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For the next installment of René du Chastelet des Boys’ adventures, see The Odyssey of René du Chastelet des Boys – Part 6.

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For those who may be interested…

The above excerpt (which has been considerably abridged, and which omits a five-page discussion of religion that would be tedious for most readers) comes from des Boys’ L’Odyssée ou diversité d’aventures, rencontres et voyages en Europe, Asie et Affrique, pp. 38 – 49.