This, However, Is No Great Hardship, In A
Climate Where There Is Scarce Any Winter.
They are fed with a
very scanty allowance of bread, and about fourteen beans a day
and twice a
Week they have a little rice, or cheese, but most of
them, while they are in harbour knit stockings, or do some other
kind of work, which enables them to make some addition to this
wretched allowance. When they happen to be at sea in bad weather,
their situation is truly deplorable. Every wave breaks over the
vessel, and not only keeps them continually wet, but comes with
such force, that they are dashed against the banks with
surprising violence: sometimes their limbs are broke, and
sometimes their brains dashed out. It is impossible (they say) to
keep such a number of desperate people under any regular command,
without exercising such severities as must shock humanity. It is
almost equally impossible to maintain any tolerable degree of
cleanliness, where such a number of wretches are crouded together
without conveniences, or even the necessaries of life. They are
ordered twice a week to strip, clean, and bathe themselves in the
sea: but, notwithstanding all the precautions of discipline, they
swarm with vermin, and the vessel smells like an hospital, or
crouded jail. They seem, nevertheless, quite insensible of their
misery, like so many convicts in Newgate: they laugh and sing,
and swear, and get drunk when they can. When you enter by the
stern, you are welcomed by a band of music selected from the
slaves; and these expect a gratification. If you walk forwards,
you must take care of your pockets. You will be accosted by one
or other of the slaves, with a brush and blacking-ball for
cleaning your shoes; and if you undergo this operation, it is ten
to one but your pocket is picked. If you decline his service, and
keep aloof, you will find it almost impossible to avoid a colony
of vermin, which these fellows have a very dexterous method of
conveying to strangers. Some of the Turkish prisoners, whose
ransom or exchange is expected, are allowed to go ashore, under
proper inspection; and those forcats, who have served the best
part of the time for which they were condemned, are employed in
public works, under a guard of soldiers. At the harbour of Nice,
they are hired by ship-masters to bring ballast, and have a small
proportion of what they earn, for their own use: the rest belongs
to the king. They are distinguished by an iron shackle about one
of their legs. The road from Nice to Ville Franche is scarce
passable on horseback: a circumstance the more extraordinary, as
those slaves, in the space of two or three months, might even
make it fit for a carriage, and the king would not be one
farthing out of pocket, for they are quite idle the greatest
part of the year.
The gallies go to sea only in the summer.
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