American Boys Afloat by Oliver Optic

It would require several volumes to detail all the particulars of the daily life of the big four on board of the Maud during the long voyage from the point where the two vessels had met to Constantinople, where Captain Ringgold had decided to make his next stay of any length. The routine of duty and the ordinary experience of the young Americans afloat have been described so that the reader can understand how the days were passed on board of the Maud.

Captain Ringgold had decided that the Guardian-Mother and her consort, as the Maud had now come to be called, should keep together, the former regulating her speed by that of the latter. At the same time the commander had marked out the course on the chart of Captain Scott, so that he could proceed on the voyage alone if by any accident they should be separated.

This course was along the coast of Africa, passing Algiers and Tunis, as far as Cape Bon; then stretching across to Cape Passaro, the south-eastern point of the island of Sicily, leaving Malta on the right. From this cape the course was east for about four hundred miles to the southern capes of Greece, and passing through the channel between the island of Cerigo and the mainland into the Archipelago, where the course would generally be north-east to the Dardanelles. After going through this strait and the Sea of Marmora, the little squadron would arrive at its destination at the city of the Sultan.

Perhaps Captain Ringgold was a little facetious about it, but he called this voyage running away from Ali-Noury Pacha; and it is certain that Mr. and Mrs. Woolridge were very much relieved after the steamer left Gibraltar, where the Fatimé was still at anchor. But the need of coal and fresh provisions would require that some calls should be made at the various ports on or near the course.

The commander had consulted his passengers frequently in regard to where they should go and what they should do. They always protested that they should be happy wherever the commander took them; but now that the danger of encountering the Pacha appeared to be removed, they expressed their minds more freely, though they often changed them.

"I suppose we are going over some of this ground, or rather this water again, are we not? " asked Mrs. Belgrave.

"I think not," replied Captain Ringgold.

"But we all want to see something of Algiers," added the lady.

"Algeria is French now; but I have never been there," added Professor Giroud.

"It is only about eighty miles to Captain Scott's red cross off Algiers, and we shall be up with it at midnight; but as you desire to visit the place, we will go there," replied the commander; and he ordered the course to be changed a point to the southward.

"Algiers" was spelled out with the signal flags for the Maud; and she replied that the message was understood. At two o'clock in the morning the Guardian-Mother stopped her screw off the red and green lights placed at the ends of the two moles that enclose the inner harbor, and the Maud followed her example. The city is built partly on a hill five hundred feet high, and partly on the low ground in front of it. It is on the west side of a bay between Capes Caxine and Matifou, on each of which is a light.

In the early morning the ship led the way into the harbor, and stopped at the approach of the quarantine boat. The Maud placed herself alongside the Guardian-Mother, and the doctor boarded her first. He addressed Captain Scott in French; but Louis, who could speak the language nearly as well as he could English, hastened to his relief. He stated that the little steamer was the tender of the big one, which was a yacht on a pleasure voyage. The Frenchman laughed, was exceedingly polite, and hastened on board of the principal vessel.

She had a clean bill of health, and being a yacht, the custom-house officers, who soon appeared, had no duties to perform or exact. The big four breakfasted on board of the ship, and it was a pleasant reunion after the separation. After the meal the party gathered on the promenade. Blanche Woolridge manifested a great deal of pleasure at meeting Louis again, and he assisted her to mount the steps to the upper deck, and provided her with a chair, taking a seat beside her; and neither her father nor mother frowned at this act of courtesy.

Somewhat to the astonishment of the company, as soon as they were all seated where they could see the upper and the lower city spread out before them, Professor Giroud took a position in front of them. Without saying anything to others, the commander had invited him to tell them something about Algérie, as it is called in French.

"I obey the order of the commander of the Guardian-Mother in standing up before you to say something about Algérie; and I hope I shall not be so dry as to tire you out in half an hour," the scholar of the ship began; and he was answered with a round of applause in which all the ladies joined. "Algérie was formerly a part of the Turkish Empire; but the French have conquered it and made it a colony of my country, and extended its boundary about two hundred miles farther to the south. Its area is said to be a hundred and sixty thousand square miles; but that is only an estimate. As our good captain would add, it is nearest in size to the State of California, and about four times as large as the State of Virginia.

"The population is estimated at 2,600,000, considerably more than half of them being Europeans, mostly French. About one-fifth of the country is under cultivation; and some of it is very fertile, especially in the river valleys. If you look at your maps you will see that the Barbary States -- Morocco, Algérie, and Tunis -- are crossed by mountain ranges quite near the coast, as on the west coast of South America, so that there can be no large rivers in them.