We remained four or five days at Gibraltar, taking in water and fresh provisions, repairing a few damages resulting from the gale I have told about, and also disposing of a part of our cargo to good advantage. There were no docks where we could lie, and our cargo was unloaded into lighters which came alongside. Two or three times we got into wordy altercations with the lighter men; and if order hadn't been maintained by the captains of the lighters and our own officers, I think we might have indulged in some hand-to-hand fighting. The men on the lighters were mostly English, and as we were all Americans you can readily understand that it would have been quite easy to provoke a fight. After all our arrangements had been completed, I supposed we would sail away at once; but to the surprise of all the crew we continued to lie at our anchorage. The captain didn't choose to tell us why we were delaying; and, of course, we couldn't ask him. We lay there the next day and the next, and then the reason for our delay became apparent. An English cruiser got up sail and proceeded out of the harbor. When she began operations for leaving port, we followed her example, and left our anchorage not many minutes after she had left hers. As she reached the end of the peninsula she turned to the eastward, and we followed her example. It then became plain to all of us that we were sailing in her company, and she would protect us from any further attack by the Algerines. England was then at peace with Algiers, having made a truce with the Dey, the real object being to concentrate the attacks of the pirates upon the French, and also to break up American commerce in the Mediterranean. The Dey had ordered his people not to plunder any ship bearing the English flag. I've no doubt it caused them many a pang in their hearts to see a large and apparently valuable ship sailing by, and they forbidden by the orders of their ruler to capture it. We were headed for Marseilles; and for a considerable part of the way the coast of Spain and of southern France was in sight. We saw two or three corsairs from the Barbary coast. Whenever they were sighted the British war-ship slackened her speed, so that we easily closed in upon her, and were literally under her protection. The maritime force of Algiers at that time consisted of four frigates with an aggregate of one hundred twenty-four guns, one polacca with eighteen guns, one brig of twenty, four xebecs with an aggregate of one hundred sixty-eight guns, three _galliotas_ or galiots with four guns each, and sixty gunboats. The vessels were all manned at the rate of twelve men for each gun. Tunis had at the same time twenty-two corsairs, mounting from four to twenty-two guns each. So, you see, those Barbary coast pirates had a large fleet of ships; and, bear in mind, I've not included the fleets of Morocco and Tripoli, which were equal to about half of the combined force of Algiers and Tunis.