This week, we continue with the narrative of Elizabeth Marsh, who was captured by corsairs from Salé in the summer of 1756. In last week’s post, Ms. Marsh arrived in Salé and, after an audience with the Governor of the town, was conducted to the building where she and the other captives were to be imprisoned—a building that brought home to her the reality of the “most severe turn of fortune” she had suffered.
In the evening, to our great surprise, we received a very genteel letter from Mr. Mornney in new Salé, along with a present of provisions and wine, refreshments which were very agreeable, as I had not tasted anything solid since the day we were taken.
At the same time, I had a visit from the hated monster who brought me to this country, attended by most of the principle Moors of the place. He assured me we should have our liberty as soon as the Prince’s answer was returned to the letter which they had sent to Morocco concerning our being brought in. They then took their leave, and I had some little time to myself, which I employed in preparing my things in the most comfortable manner the place would afford. I endeavored to rest, but the fatigues of the preceding day made me ill and deprived me of that happiness.
On the next day, we had the pleasure to see Mr. Moore and Mr. Razilly, merchants of new Salé. The former was an English gentleman and therefore much concerned about our situation. The latter was of the French nation and behaved with the politeness peculiar to it. The other unfortunate captives, as well as myself, experienced many proofs of their disinterested friendship. They passed the day with me and my friend, and they gave us hope that his Imperial Highness’s answer to the Salé Admiral’s letter would be favorable, and that he would undoubtedly order us our liberty. This news induce me to be a little cheerful.
But this interval of tranquility did not last, for when the gentlemen left us, my apartment was crowded with local men, women, and children come to gawk, nor could I prevail (even by bribery) on those villains our guards, to prevent it.
Among the number of my tormentors was a nephew of the Moorish admiral, a man devoid of any sentiment of honor or honesty. He brought others of his own disposition to assist in separating us from our baggage, in order no doubt to plunder it. But my friend insisted that they should not take possession of it unless they had the Admiral’s or the Governor’s order in writing. This baffled his expectations, and he left us much offended.
Our friends, the two merchants, advised us to write to the Garrison at Gibraltar, and they said that they would provide a courier who should safely convey our letters there. But they cautioned us to be very silent, lest our guards should suspect what we were doing. We accordingly passed the night quietly in writing to my family, to my Lord Trawley, Governor of Gibraltar, and to the Admiral in command of his Britannic Majesty’s fleet in the Mediterranean. By night’s end, we finished our packets, ready to deliver.
Mr. Razilly was with us early the next morning, attended by three Danish gentlemen. He brought provisions of wine and fruit. They favored us with their company until lunch and added to the repast by their agreeable conversation. We passed the day tolerably easy, and I flatter myself after they left us that I should soon get some rest. But that satisfaction was prevented by the lower sort of local people being very intruding and extremely troublesome. My friend often attempted to prevent their admittance, but he was always ill treated and never able to succeed.
We had an invitation from the captain of the port, for he desired to see us. We therefore waited on him the next day and found him sitting on the carpet. He immediately rose upon our entrance and handed me to a cushion. He conversed a little time with my friend in Spanish and then, conducting me to the apartment of his ladies, introduced me to them and retired.
One of these ladies drew my attention as much as I seemed to do hers. She was surprisingly tall and stout, with a broad flat face, very dark complexion, and long dark hair. She wore a dress resembling a clergyman’s gown, made of muslin, and buttoned at the neck like the collar of a shirt, which reached to her feet. She had bracelets on her arms and legs and was extremely inquisitive and serious in examining my dress and person and was highly entertained by my appearance.
When she had finished, I was permitted to leave and was again shown to the room where the Moor and my friend were sitting. I found preparations had been made for supper, which was a collation after the Moorish taste and consisted of a dish of cuscusu and fouls mixed with butter and sugar. The other dishes were of different sorts of fruit and some sweet-meats. I ate a little to complement him, having heard that they esteem it a favor for Christians to partake of their repasts when invited.
This honest Moor, for such I thought him, expressed infinite concern over my misfortune and would readily have rendered a service, but though he was a man of high station, he did not dare openly to pity our distress on account of the dread these people live with in regards to each. This is the reason the good men in the country (which I believe are but few) must not show the least signs of humanity for Christians, fearing to suffer ill-treatment from those, who are very numerous, who set less value on them than they do on dogs.
When we parted from the Moor, I underwent a second mortifying examination, at another house, from more indelicate women. My friend, on our coming ashore, had taken on himself the character of my brother in order to be of some little protection to me. He was therefore always permitted to wait without until they thought it proper to release me, and I accordingly found him ready to attend me, and that he had been waiting with the utmost impatience for my dismissal.
We hastened to our place of confinement, where I passed the night with many afflicting thoughts and confused ideas of what another day might produce. Indeed, my anxieties were not groundless, for before I had breakfast, the Moorish admiral’s nephew, with a great number of others, made us a visit. He insisted on placing us in another apartment and leaving our baggage under guard in the room we were then in. This behavior raised various conjectures of what they intended by acting in such a matter. My friend endeavored, by many just arguments, to prevent their designs. But this only served to heighten their malice, and they redoubled their insults. This obliged us to acquiesce, and, as every other means but patience was wrested from us, we had no other recourse save that sovereign remedy for all the calamities of life.
The room appointed to us, as I have already observed, was much the best in the prison in which they chose to keep us. It had, however, one end of the ceiling open, occasioned by an earthquake. I found this a great inconveniences from the dew, and I caught a violent cold. Besides this piece of inhumanity, the Moorish Admiral gave positive orders that none of our friends should be admitted. This they strictly observed, for when some gentleman came to visit us, they were treated with great indignity and obliged to return without being permitted even to leave a message. The Moors carried their cruelty to such lengths as to hinder our servants from going out to procure us the necessities of life. At the same time, however, they did not prevent the rabble from entering my apartment at any hour.
My friend had recourse to bribery and paid our guards very handsomely, but this notwithstanding, they were base enough to admit a great number of people and continue to deny us the pleasure of seeing our friends, which was a distressing circumstance and threw me into a dejected state. My cold daily grew worse, and I could get no assistance for it.
For those who may be interested, the above except comes from pages 28 – 49 of Volume 1 of the 1766 edition of Elisabeth Marsh’s The Female Captive: A Narrative of Facts Which Happened in Barbary in the Year 1756, Written by Herself.
As with the previous weeks’ excepts, I have taken some editorial license and lightly revised Marsh’s original text to make it more accessible for modern casual readers.
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