When I was not on duty I spent my time taking donkey tours of the city, with an Arab boy running behind me to make my stubborn steed go. In this fashion I visited the Maltese, Jewish and Arab quarters, and explored the bazaars. When I grew hungry, why, here was the stand of an Arab who sold sweetmeats, and there was the booth of a man who fried meat and sold it hot from the fire, while always in the streets were fruit merchants selling fresh dates, oranges, and figs. When I stopped to buy curios, the swarthy, turbaned dealers usually invited me into their little shops to sit cross-legged on the floor and sip strong black coffee while we haggled over prices. THE HORSE-WHIPPING Before we arrived in Tunis, the agent there for the United States was a French merchant, named Joseph Etienne Famin. Upon our arrival the English consul at Tunis, Major Magre, warned Captain Eaton not to place confidence in Famin, stating that he was a dangerous man who would set snares for his successor. Captain Eaton soon learned that the Frenchman had protested to the Bey against the United States establishing a consul there "to keep the bread out of his mouth." The captain, lonely among enemies, rewarded my faithfulness by taking me into his confidence. He told me that he had found that Famin had yielded to every outrageous demand made by the Bey against the United States, which Famin represented. Captain Eaton also told me that he suspected the Frenchman of reaping a profit from the presents sent by the United States to the ruler. Famin, we learned, had declared to the Bey that Eaton was nothing but a vice-consul, subject to Consul-General O'Brien at Algiers, and only placed at Tunis to spy upon the court. At last, when the Frenchman told the court that "the Americans were a feeble sect of Christians" and that their independence from England "was the gift of France," Captain Eaton, giving him his jacket to hold, horse-whipped Famin at the marine gate of Tunis, before a crowd of amazed Moslems. Famin went whining to the Bey and demanded that Eaton be punished. "How dare you lift your hand against a subject of mine in my kingdom?" the Bey demanded of Captain Eaton, who took me with him to the palace. [Illustration: "HOW DARE YOU LIFT YOUR HAND AGAINST A SUBJECT OF MINE?" THE BEY OF TUNIS DEMANDED OF EATON.] The captain replied that Famin had tried to betray him, and had tried also to betray the Bey. He brought forth a paper, and prepared to read its contents. "Hear him call your prime minister and your agents a set of thieves and robbers!" exclaimed Captain Eaton. "Mercy! Forbearance!" cried Famin.