| Richard Hastleton, The Perseverant |
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 Pablo Edronkin
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Richard Hastleton was a typical young Englishman who left his country on a commercial ship in 1582, bound to the Middle East as a merchant. His ship was attacked and seized in the Mediterranean, and he was sold by Turkish pirates as a slave. Soon afterwards he found himself rowing in a ship, as a slave indeed, and so he remained for four years. After a couple of shipwrecks and some deadly situations, he managed to escape and reached the southern coast of Spain; he was glad to be among Christians again but the locals saw in him a Protestant, which was something almost as bad as being a Muslim in those days. He was sent to a dungeon in a castle, and so remained for a year until he managed to escape again. He was captured a couple of weeks later and sent back to the castle, but before the dungeon, he was promised a little bit of torture for his lack of manners; he escaped again, took a small boat and began rowing his way back to northern Africa. There he was enslaved again, tried to escape half a dozen times but was recaptured; then he dressed himself as a Muslim and escaped thorough the desert, without water or food, but he managed to go quite far away. Nevertheless, he was captured again and sent back to row in ships. He pleaded to the English consul in the area for his release, but was duly ignored so he spent three more years rowing. Finally, after yet another shipwreck he was rescued by an English ship and sent back home, ten years after his departure. Indeed, if you persist, you win. |
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