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III.
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Thrilling Adventure with Moors in the “Kasbah” of Algiers
Moonlight on the Mediterranean—Meeting with O’Mally, a Pedestrian of the Globe—“Birds of a Feather” in the Moulin Rouge—A Midnight Hold-up by Moors; O’Mally with Gendarmes and French Soldiers to the Rescue—A Pitched Battle in which Blood Flows Freely—French Soldiers Drink the Health of the United States—Malta and Singers of the “Yama Yama.”
A calm moonlight night on the waters of the Mediterranean Sea is the most awe-inspiring feeling that can be manifested in the heart of a man-of-war’s-man. The dark blue billows, resembling a carpet of velvet, surging in mountainous swells, seem to reflect the glitter of every star in the celestial firmament, while moonbeams dance in shadowy vistas o’er the surface of the deep. It was on such a night that our cruiser plowed her course from Palermo, Sicily, and entered the land-locked harbor of the quaint old capital of Algeria.
I can vividly remember the embodiment of contentment with which I was possessed as I leaned on the taffrail of the ship and beheld the illuminated city of Algiers, rising from the water’s edge diagonally to an immense altitude.