The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England, Volume 2 (of 6): Mémoires d'outre-tombe, volume 2Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de
History
The Memoirs of François René Vicomte de Chateaubriand sometime Ambassador to England, Volume 2 (of 6): Mémoires d'outre-tombe, volume 2
Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de
Chateaubriand, François-René, vicomte de, 1768-1848
"We were very near the island of Malta, and we had reason
to fear that we might be seen by some English vessel, which
could have forced us to enter the harbour; but we encountered
none. Our crew was greatly exhausted, and the wind continued
to be unfavourable to us. The captain, seeing on his chart
an anchorage called Kerkenna, from which we were at no great
distance, made sail for it without telling Monsieur, who,
seeing that we were approaching that anchorage, became angry
at not having been consulted, and said to the captain that
he ought to continue his course, having been through worse
weather. But we had gone too far to resume our course, and
besides, the captain's prudence was highly approved, for
that night the wind grew much stronger and the sea very bad.
Finding that we were obliged to remain in the anchoring-place
four-and-twenty hours longer than was foreseen, Monsieur gave
the captain lively marks of his discontent, in spite of the
good reasons which the latter gave him.
"We had been a month at sea, and we only wanted seven or
eight hours to reach the port of Tunis. Suddenly the wind
became so violent that we were obliged to stand out to sea,
and we remained three weeks without being able to touch the
port. Thereupon Monsieur once more reproached the captain
with having wasted thirty-six hours at the anchorage. It was
impossible to persuade him that a greater misfortune would
have befallen us if the captain had been less foreseeing.
The misfortune which I anticipated was to see our provisions
diminishing, without knowing when we should arrive."
At last I trod Carthaginian soil. I found the most generous hospitality
at the hands of M. and Madame Devoise. Julien describes my host well;
he also speaks of the country and the Jews:
"They pray and weep," says he.
An American man-of-war brig gave me a passage on board, and I crossed
the lake of Tunis to go to the port.
"On the way," says Julien, "I asked Monsieur if he had taken the gold
which he had put into the writing-table in his bed-room; he told me he
had forgotten it, and I was obliged to return to Tunis."
I can never keep money in my mind.
When I arrived from Alexandria, we cast anchor opposite the ruins of
the city of Hannibal[699]. I looked at them from the deck without
guessing what they were. I saw a few Moorish huts, a Mussulman
hermitage on the point of a prominent head-land, some sheep grazing
among ruins, ruins so unapparent that I could hardly distinguish them
from the ground on which they stood: that was Carthage. I visited it
before embarking for Europe.
MY ITINERARY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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