THE ENGLISH SPANISH PILGRIM: A CAPTIVE’S TALE — PART 3

This week we continue the series of excerpts from the captivity narrative of James Wadsworth.

Last week, Wadsworth described how he and his companions had been captured at sea by a Barbary corsair galley. This week, we pick up the story from there.

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After we had been taken by the Moors, we were bound hand and foot and cast into the prow, or forecastle, of their galley, where we lay for four days, not permitted so much as to stir from the place.

After these four days had passed, the seas having grown calm, they untied our hands and feet and brought us from the prow onto the deck of the galley to help them in rowing, putting four and four to an oar. But I, being unable to keep stroke with the rest, was well beaten and then bound again and cast back into the prow. The rest were kept at their rowing till night. I then enjoyed their company once more.

At midnight, two Moors came down and, selecting two of the youngest and fairest amongst us, abused their bodies with insatiable lust. On the next morning, they stripped themselves stark naked and, pouring water upon each other’s head, supposed that by this washing they were cleansed from their recent sin.

Another night, the Moors, making merry upon the deck and half drunk with their drink which they call opium, our sailors from Hamburg, and some Portuguese captives who were with us, perceived an opportunity. We encouraged each other to rise up against the corsairs, their weapons being below with us, and one of the Portuguese sailor’s hands being untied.

However, as this Portuguese sailor began to untie the rest, he was apprehended in the act by the Captain of the galley who, coming down in a fury, said that he knew what we intended, and that he could discover in his sleep more treachery then we could invent being awake. And well might he say so, having the help of their marabout, who was a witch (as most of them are). Putting the plotters to death, he fettered us more strongly with irons.

And so, after coasting along the shore of Spain, searching for more booty but finding none, the corsairs entered the Strait of Gibraltar, heading towards Algiers. But the wind turned contrary, and we were obliged to sail for Salé.

The day before our arrival there, being destitute of victuals, the marabout (called their Alfaqui) conjured the fish of the sea to draw near to the galley, so that they took them up with their hands, as many as sustained us till we arrived at Salé.

Once there, we were carried to the Castle, and there crammed with food like capons so that we might grow fatter and better for sale. Being brought to the market, were shared amongst them and sold.

And thus we were divided among several masters, taking farewell one of another with tears in our eyes, never thinking to meet any more. The price given for each of us was 25 pounds, more or less. Our masters were Moriscos who dwelt in the Castle.

The sailors from Hamburg were sold in a like manner, but in this respect were in a far worse state, for they were sold to Moors in that country and therefore had less hope of future redemption:

Amongst the rest of our company I deemed myself the happiest because I fell to the Captain of the ship, whose name was Ali Gallan, a Morisco who had been banished with 100,000 others from Spainby Philip III for suspicion of treason. These Moriscos first came into Spain with Jacob al-Mansor, otherwise called Vliaor Caliph, who conquered Spain and brought them along with him. They resided there for 500 years, until the last extirpation, as I just now said.

This Morisco carried me to his house. Fettering one of my legs with an iron chain and clothing me with a canvas suit, he laid these injunctions upon me: first, he gave me charge of his stable, and then of grinding his hand mill, and also of drawing water at the common fountain, along with many other chores of a like nature.

The victuals he gave me were eggplant, cabbage, and goat’s flesh. As for my lodging, it was in a dungeon in the market place, where they used commonly to lodge their slaves, who repaired there every night about eight o’clock. Their masters manacled their hands before, for fear they should make an insurrection, the number of them being about 800—Spaniards, Frenchmen, English, Italians, Portuguese, and Flemmish.

Our beds were nothing but rotten straw laid on the ground, and our coverlets pieces of old sails full of millions of lice and fleas, so that we could take no rest, being constrained to sit back to back and rub out the pain. About five o’clock in the morning, the door being opened, we repaired to our masters’ houses, and so to our wonted work.

It chanced on a time that I, having not performed my ordinary task, was beaten by my master so cruelly that for a long time after I lost the use of my left arm. Perceiving this, he said that, at most, it was but the loss of a Christian dog. Another time, going to fetch water from the fountain, I chanced to make water against a mosque wall. A Moor who saw me doing this made toward me and demanded whether it was the custom of my country to do so, and if it was, it was not the custom of theirs. Thereupon, he beat me till he left me half dead.

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James Wadsworth’s narrative will continue next week.

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There’s a couple of aspects of Wadsworth’s account that needs some clarification. First, he states that the corsairs who attacked the ship on which he was travelling were in a galley. The problem is that, by the 1620s, corsair galleys were being phased out. They continued to be used as a part of corsair fleets in the eastern Mediterranean in conjunction with square-rigged sailing ships. But it was not at all common for them to be found in the Atlantic, especially as lone ships. Moreover, the corsairs of Salé made no use of galleys, for the seas along the Atlantic coast of Morocco were far too rough.

So what’s going on here?

Did Wadsworth meet a rare lone-wolf galley on the prowl?

This seems most unlikely. My guess here would be that Wadsworth didn’t encounter a galley at all. Rather, he encountered a xebec—which he mistakenly referred to as (or thought was) a galley.

Xebecs were relatively small, nimble ships that used both sails and oars. They were employed in Algiers and Salé, but especially in Salé.

It’s also not clear whether the corsairs who captured Wadsworth were from Algiers or Salé. My guess here would be that they were corsairs operating out of Algiers in a xebec who were forced by weather to sail to Salé.

But this is just a guess.

The illustration at the top of this post shows a xebec.

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For those who may be interested…

James Wadsworth’s description of of his capture by corsairs comes from his book The English Spanish pilgrime. Or, A nevv discouerie of Spanish popery, and Iesuiticall stratagems VVith the estate of the English pentioners and fugitiues vnder the King of Spaines dominions, and else where at this present. (published in 1629), pages 38-41.

As usual, I have lightly edited and abridged the original text to make it more accessible for modern readers.

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