him that I was a fairy man.  At last he introduced the subject of religion, and spoke with much contempt of revelation, avowing himself a deist; he was evidently very anxious to hear my opinion, but here again I evaded him, and contented myself with asking him, whether he had ever read the Bible.  He said he had not; but that he was well acquainted with the writings of Volney and Mirabeau.  I made no answer; whereupon he added, that it was by no means his habit to introduce such subjects, and that there were very few persons to whom he would speak so unreservedly, but that I had very much interested him, though our acquaintance had been short.  I replied, that he would scarcely have spoken at Boston in the manner that I had just heard him, and that it was easy to perceive that he was not a New Englander.  “I assure you,” said he, “I should as little have thought of speaking so at Charleston, for if I held such conversation there, I should soon have had to speak to myself.”

Had I known less of deists than it has been my fortune to know, I should perhaps have endeavoured to convince this young man of the erroneousness of the ideas which he had adopted; but I was aware of all that he would have urged in reply, and as the believer has no carnal arguments to address to carnal reason upon this subject, I thought it best to avoid disputation, which I felt sure would lead to no profitable result.  Faith is the free gift of God, and I do not believe that ever yet was an infidel converted by means of after-dinner polemics.  This was the last evening of my sojourn in Gibraltar.

CHAPTER LIV

Again on Board—­The Strange Visage—­The Hadji—­Setting Sail—­The Two Jews—­American Vessel—­Tangier—­Adun Oulem—­The Struggle—­The Forbidden Thing.

On Thursday, the 8th of August, I was again on board the Genoese bark, at as early an hour as on the previous morning.  After waiting, however, two or three hours without any preparation being made for departing, I was about to return to the shore once more, but the old Genoese mate advised me to stay, assuring me that he had no doubt of our sailing speedily, as all the cargo was on board, and we had nothing further to detain us.  I was reposing myself in the little cabin, when I heard a boat strike against the side of the vessel, and some people come on board.  Presently a face peered in at the opening, strange and wild.  I was half asleep, and at first imagined I was dreaming, for the face seemed more like that of a goat or an orge than of a human being; its long beard almost touching my face as I lay extended in a kind of berth.  Starting up, however, I recognised the singular-looking Jew whom I had seen in the company of Judah Lib.  He recognised me also, and nodding, bent his huge features into a smile.  I arose and went upon deck, where I found him in company with another Jew, a young man in the dress of Barbary.  They had just arrived in the boat.  I asked