I Related To Him The History Of That Place,
To Which He Listened With Great Attention.
He made divers attempts
to learn from me who I was; all of which I evaded, though he seemed
Fully convinced that I was an American; and amongst other things
asked me whether my father had not been American consul at Seville.
What, however, most perplexed him was my understanding Moorish and
Gaelic, which he had heard me speak respectively to the hamalos and
the Irish woman, the latter of whom, as he said, had told him that
I was a fairy man. At last he introduced the subject of religion,
and spoke with much contempt of revelation, avowing himself a
deist; he was evidently very anxious to hear my opinion, but here
again I evaded him, and contented myself with asking him, whether
he had ever read the Bible. He said he had not; but that he was
well acquainted with the writings of Volney and Mirabeau. I made
no answer; whereupon he added, that it was by no means his habit to
introduce such subjects, and that there were very few persons to
whom he would speak so unreservedly, but that I had very much
interested him, though our acquaintance had been short. I replied,
that he would scarcely have spoken at Boston in the manner that I
had just heard him, and that it was easy to perceive that he was
not a New Englander. "I assure you," said he, "I should as little
have thought of speaking so at Charleston, for if I held such
conversation there, I should soon have had to speak to myself."
Had I known less of deists than it has been my fortune to know, I
should perhaps have endeavoured to convince this young man of the
erroneousness of the ideas which he had adopted; but I was aware of
all that he would have urged in reply, and as the believer has no
carnal arguments to address to carnal reason upon this subject, I
thought it best to avoid disputation, which I felt sure would lead
to no profitable result. Faith is the free gift of God, and I do
not believe that ever yet was an infidel converted by means of
after-dinner polemics. This was the last evening of my sojourn in
Gibraltar.
CHAPTER LIV
Again on Board - The Strange Visage - The Hadji - Setting Sail - The
Two Jews - American Vessel - Tangier - Adun Oulem - The Struggle - The
Forbidden Thing.
On Thursday, the 8th of August, I was again on board the Genoese
bark, at as early an hour as on the previous morning. After
waiting, however, two or three hours without any preparation being
made for departing, I was about to return to the shore once more,
but the old Genoese mate advised me to stay, assuring me that he
had no doubt of our sailing speedily, as all the cargo was on
board, and we had nothing further to detain us. I was reposing
myself in the little cabin, when I heard a boat strike against the
side of the vessel, and some people come on board.
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