Missive #238

1677, on a late summer’s evening two ships lurk off the coast of southwest Ireland. They are Barbary corsairs from North Africa, slave catchers. As soon as it is dark, their landing parties row ashore to raid a small fishing village — on the hunt for fresh prey…

In the village, seventeen-year-old Hector Lynch wakes to the sound of a pistol shot. Moments later he and his sister Elizabeth are taken prisoner. This is the first book in a new series by Severin. As I said before I think he wrote better fiction than his later nonfiction. I think the series is going to be a good read.From then on Hector’s life plunges into a turbulent and lawless world that is full of surprises. Separated from Elizabeth, he is sold to the slave market of Algiers, where he survives with the help of his newfound friend Dan, a Miskito Indian from the Caribbean.

The two men convert to Islam to escape the horrors of the slave pens, only to become victims of the deadly warfare of the Mediterranean. Serving aboard a Turkish corsair ship, their vessel is sunk at sea and they find themselves condemned to the oar as galley slaves for France. Driven by his quest to find his sister, Hector finally stumbles on the chilling truth of her fate when he and Dan are shipwrecked on the coast of Morocco. — Book promo @ goodreads.com

On Saturday I did my first shopping trip from this camp. Groceries were from Safeway in south Bisbee which I thought I had been to once before while camped in Naco but when I checked to see I could not find that I did. I’m now reasonable sure that I must have stopped there once on my way from Huachuca City to visit my cousins near McNeal. Breakfast was at the Bisbee Breakfast Club where I got their Harvest Omelet and a very expensive cup of coffee. The meal was priced at what is now in the medium range but the coffee was about a $1 more than what I have come to expect. I’ll probably go back but there is one other breakfast restaurant that I’m going to give a try first.

Yesterday was laundry day which I did here in the Park. I usually avoid Park laundries because there are almost never enough machines and the equipment usually old. Here the equipment looks to be almost brand new but someone came in after me and promptly used over half of the available washers. My clothes were in the dryer by then so it was good that I got there when I did because I’m sure that the ‘someone’ would take charge of all the dryers.

This is another example of why the English language is difficult to learn for those not growing up in an English speaking environment.

When you transport something by car, its called a shipment, but when you transport something by ship, its called cargo.