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The second and third floors were surrounded by galleries that led to cell-like rooms in which the captives slept. These cells were four deep to a floor, and hung one over the other like ships' berths. They swarmed with vermin. The air was too foul to breathe. If any of the captives rebelled—there was the bastinado! The culprit was thrown down on his face; his head and hands were tied; an infidel sat on his shoulders; his legs were held up to present the soles of his feet; and two infidels delivered from one hundred to five hundred blows.

If a slave committed a very serious offense, he might be beheaded, impaled, or burnt alive. For murdering a Mohammedan one slave was cast off the walls of the city upon iron hooks fastened into the wall, where he lingered in agony for many hours before he perished.

The worst danger the Christians faced was an insidious one—the plague. In the hot, damp air of Africa a fever arises from decaying animal substances, which is spread about by swarms of locusts. A person may be attacked by only a slight fever, but he soon becomes delirious and too weak to move. In five days his body begins to turn black and then death comes. It is the black pestilence, and it attacks slaves and rulers without choice. If it had not been for a hospital maintained by Spanish priests, most of the captives would have died. As it was, many Christians perished.