Shershel is a coastal town on the Oran side of Algiers, described as about twenty leagues away and as a place with an extensive trade in dried figs. In the captive’s escape story, its importance comes from its position along the coast: it offers a credible destination for repeated voyages, a nearby cove for a secret rendezvous, and a stretch of shore the escape party must fear being seen from.

Setting and Trade

The renegade who helps arrange the escape purchases a vessel able to carry more than thirty people. To make the transaction appear ordinary, he sails to Shershel two or three times with a Tagarin partner. The dried-fig trade gives these journeys a plausible commercial purpose rather than making them look like preparations for flight.

A Cover for the Escape Plan

On each trip, the vessel anchors in a cove less than two crossbow shots from the garden where Zoraida is waiting. The renegade goes ashore to ask Hadji Morato for fruit, while using the visits to become familiar with the approach. He intends to explain the plan to Zoraida, but never finds a suitable opportunity. The repeated voyages nevertheless establish a route and a landing place close to the garden, allowing the vessel to return at night without drawing notice.

The Coast as Both Route and Risk

When the escape begins on a Friday night, the Christians first secure the vessel and then go to the garden for Zoraida and her father, Hadji Morato. They set out intending for Majorca, the nearest Christian land, but a rising Tramontana and rougher sea prevent them from holding that course. They are forced to follow the coast toward Oran, with Shershel now a danger as well as a point of reference: the fugitives fear being seen from the town, described as no more than sixty miles from Algiers. Its narrative role thus turns on the same geography that made the plan workable—the coast provides concealment and access, but also places the escaping party within reach of observation.