But the struggles for freedom could not always assume the shape of conspiracies against the government. They were often _efforts to escape_, sometimes in numbers, and sometimes singly. The captivity of Cervantes was filled with such, in which, though constantly balked, he persevered with determined courage and skill. On one occasion, he attempted to escape by land to Oran, a Spanish settlement on the coast, but was deserted by his guide, and compelled to return.[68] Another endeavor was favored by a number of his own countrymen, hovering on the coast in a vessel from Majorca, who did not think it wrong to aid in the liberation of slaves! Another was promoted by Christian merchants at Algiers, through whose agency a vessel was actually purchased for this purpose.[69] And still another was supposed to be aided by a Spanish ecclesiastic, Father Olivar, who, being at Algiers to procure the legal emancipation of slaves, could not resist the temptation to lend a generous assistance to the struggles of his fellow-Christians in bonds. If he were sufficiently courageous and devoted to do this, he paid the bitter penalty which similar services to freedom have found elsewhere, and in another age. He was seized by the Dey, and thrown into chains; for it was regarded by the Algerine government as a high offence to further in any way the escape of a slave.[70] [Footnote 68: El Trato de Argel.] [Footnote 69: Roscoe's Life of Cervantes, pp. 31, 308, 309. I refer to Roscoe as the popular authority. His work appears to be little more than a compilation from Navarrete and Sismondi.] [Footnote 70: Ibid. p. 33. See also Haedo, _Historia de Argel_, p. 185.] [Illustration]