PELLEW THE CAPTIVE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 April 1941, Page 6

PELLEW THE CAPTIVE

A PRISONER IN BARBARY. For 24 years he was a prisoner in Barbary. He was Thomas Pellew, born in a humble home in Cornwall. He left school early—perhaps before he was 12. and went oil to sea with his uncle, thinking himself a lucky fellow to be having a good time on the ocean wave. In the spring of .1715 he sailed from Falmouth, reached Genoa without mishap—except that he was longing, even then, to be home, and began the voyage back when Moorish pirates captured the ship, and he was dragged off to the interior. As he was a good-looking boy he was given as a slave to the emperor’s son. and soon afterwards he received the bastinado till he promised to adopt the faith of Islam. In consequence of this, he was not sent home with 29G sailors who were all given their liberty when Commodore Stewart demanded it in 1720. Few men had more adventures. He tried to escape and was recaptured. He was given command of a company of Moors. He defended a castle. He had a share in the siege of 'Fez. Made to marry a Moorish woman, he saw her die. As captain of the king’s horse, he went up and down the north of Africa, but. he failed to win freedom. He was in half a dozen mutinies. He went with a caravan to Timbuctoo —though whether he entered the city, as he declared he did, is not known. He learnt to speak Arabic like a native. Ho saw the plundering of cities. At last, he made a mad bid for liberty, dressed as a beggar, and tried to find a ship to take him home. He was stripped by brigands and left for dead. He lived in a cave. Finally, after 24 years he returned to England in 1838. and dying, it is believed, in his own country.