"They were then brought out in chains, and exposed in the public market
to be sold for slaves. They had there the mortification to see their
companions picked out one by one, according to their apparent strength
and vigour, and sold to different masters. At length a Turk approached,
who, from his look and habit, appeared to be of superior rank, and after
glancing his eye over the rest with an expression of compassion, he
fixed them at last upon young Francisco, and demanded of the captain of
the ship what was the price of that young man. The captain answered that
he would not take less than five hundred pieces of gold for that
captive. 'That,' said the Turk, 'is very extraordinary, since I have
seen you sell those that much exceed him in vigour, for less than a
fifth part of that sum.' 'Yes,' answered the captain, 'but he shall
either pay me some part of the damage he has occasioned, or labour for
life at the oar.' 'What damage,' answered the other, 'can he have done
you more than all the rest whom you have prized so cheaply?' 'He it
was,' replied the captain, 'who animated the Christians to that
desperate resistance which cost me the lives of so many of my brave
sailors. Three times did we leap upon their deck, with a fury that
seemed irresistible, and three times did that youth attack us with such
cool determined opposition that we were obliged to retreat ingloriously,
leaving at every charge twenty of our number behind. Therefore, I repeat
it, I will either have that price for him, great as it may appear, or
else I will gratify my revenge by seeing him drudge for life in my
victorious galley.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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