The travels of Monsieur de Thevenot into the Levant in three parts, viz. into I. Turkey, II. Persia, III. the East-Indies / newly done out of French.

CHAP. LXXXXI. Of Tunis, and of the Slaves that are there.

TƲNIS the Capital City of the Kingdom, of the same name, lyes in a Plain; it is pretty big, and the Houses are indifferently well built, though they make no shew, but they are all Marble, Gold and Azure within. The Suburbs of this City are as big as the City itself, which is all paved, but dirty as heretofore Paris was, so that after rain, there is hardly any going in the Streets. There is a Castle upon an Eminence within the Town, which commands it, and it makes a very pretty shew: There are some Guns before the Gate, and the front of it looks well, which is all that I could see of it, nor indeed durst I eye it attentively; for I had warning given me, that it was dangerous for Christians to be curious in viewing that Castle. I past by it then, but very fast, and hard by over against it there is a Burying-place. Not far frem the Castle there is Bazar for Drapers; it is a long broad street with shops on both sides, all which have the fore part supported by four Pillars, two on each side; none but Drapers keep shop there; but there are several other Bazars also for other Commodities.

There are thirteen Baths in Tunis, where all the Slaveslodge, except those that are kept in their Masters Houses, and (as several Slaves told me) there may be there in all ten or twelve thousand Christian Slaves, who carry every one a great ring of Iron at their foot, but the Knights of Malta have besides that a huge Iron-Chain above five and twenty pound weight, which is fastened to the Ring, that Chain is very troublesome to them, for they must either turn it quite round their Leg and make it fast there, which is

very heavy when they walk, or hang it by a hook that they have by their side, which commonly gives them a pain in the side, or else must carry it on their Shoulders. In these Baths there is a great Hall where they are shut up in the Night-time, there they lodge as well as they can, some having little Rooms made of wood, to which they go up by Ladders, and are stowed three or four together in one, the rest lye upon the Ground, but all horridly bad, for being very numerous, and lock'd in in the Night-time, they do their needs where they are in Pots, which raises a noysome stench; besides when one has a mind to sleep, some fall a talking, and others a quarelling and fighting, making constantly a hideous din, which seems to me a Hell upon Earth.

In the morning this Prison is opened, and those that are to work, are let out, who are conducted to their Labour by men that take care of it; they are employed in building and other works of that nature; and I have known Knights of Malta of noble Families there, who have been made serve as Labourers, some carrying Sand and others Stone, and they were thus used to oblige them to ransom themselves the sooner, and at the higher rate. They who can get any thing by their own industry, pay so much a day to their Master, and so are not forced to work. Many of them keep taverns, and these live the best of all, for they get money, and work not, but yet they must give their Master part of their Profit. None but slaves sell Wine at Tunis, it is all white, and grows in great plenty in the Countrey about, but they put Lime to it to make it intoxicate. They sell their Wine cheap, and it is the custome, that if you go to a Tavern and call for a quart of Wine, they will set Bread before you, and three or four dishes of Meat or Fish, with Sallads and other appurtenances, and when you are to go, you only pay for the Wine, and at a reasonable rate too; besides, these Slaves have power to beat the Turks if they are rude and insolent in their Taverns, and to pull of their Turban and keep it till they have payed their reckoning, if they refuse to do it.

The Slaves who neither work nor gain any thing, cannot step out of the Bath, without leave from the Keeper thereof who gives them a man to wait on them, to whom they ought (at least) to give three pence for his pains, and he is to answer for them. Our Knights were of the Number of those last, for having written to Malta that they were forced to work, the Turks that were slave at Malta were severely Bastonadoed, who immediately wrote to Tunis, that if they continued to make the slaves of Malta work at Tunis, they would be Cudgeled to death in Malta, and since that time, they are no more put to work.

Notes

• Baths for Slaves at Tunis.
• Knights of Malta at Tunis