CHAPTER I. General description of the country of Algiers. Climate. Sea­coast. Principal cities.

ALGIERS is a country which derives its name from its metropolis; and extends four hundred and eighty miles in length from east to west along the northern coast of Africa. Its utmost breadth is three hundred and twenty miles, but at the distance of an hundred miles from the the sea-coast, that part of Africa becomes a barren desert, almost utterly unin­habitable either by man or beast. Algiers is situated between thirty-two and thirty-seven degrees of north latitude, which corresponds to that of the United States, from Virginia to Carolina, inclusive. It is bounded on the north, by the Me­diterranean sea; on the south, by mount Atlas; on the east, by the country of Tunis; and on the west, by the river Mul­via, which separates it from the empire of Morocco.

The principal rivers, which water the territory of Algiers, rise in Mount Atlas, and run by a northerly direction into the Mediterranean sea. They are seven in number. None of them has a long course, or even is navigable; at least none of them is made use of in navigation. It is however likely that they might be made use of for this purpose, were the inhabi­tants of a more intelligent and industrious character; for some of them are of a tolerable depth. Such is the gross ignorance of the natives in whatever concerns domestic improvement, that there is not a single bridge over any of these rivers. When they are to be crossed, the traveller hath sometimes to wander for several miles in search of a ford, as ferry boats are unknown. If a heavy rain happens to fall, he is forced to wait, till the river returns to its usual size.

This country consists of eighteen provinces. The climate is remarkably delightful. The air is pure and serene. The soil is covered with almost a perpetual verdure. Extreme heat is not common. This description applies to the lands on the [Page 4] sea-coast; for as we advance into the country, the soil becomes more parched and barren. Indeed a considerable part of the back country is a savage desert, abounding with lions, tigers, leopards, buffaloes, wild boars, and porcupines. And it must be acknowledged, that these animals are not the least amiable inhabitants of this country.

There are few towns of any consequence, though when successively under the dominion of Carthage and Rome, it abounded with populous cities. Bona is supposed to be the same place with the ancient Hippo, a sea-port built by the an­cients. It was formerly the capital of the province of Bona. It lies on the Mediterranean sea, and there is a coral fishery near it. It is a town of no importance, and of slender popu­lation. In this part of the world, elegant architecture has, for many centuries, been utterly forgotten or despised. The buildings of Bona, as every where else, are therefore mean. It is exposed to the incursions of the Arabs. The name of this people is used by travellers in a very indefinite manner. Algiers is at the distance of some hundreds of leagues from Arabia: but as this part of Africa was formerly conquered by that nation, under the banners of Mahomet, the name is still applied to a race of tawny and independent barbarians, who wander in gangs about the country, and unite the double professions of a shepherd and a robber. Bona was formerly a magnificent city. Its grandeur is now only to be traced in the ruins of a mona­stery. It has a fortress, and a garrison of three hundred Turks, as the banditti chuse to call themselves; a Turk being the most reputable title in that country. This circumstance is alone sufficient to ascertain the depth of its wretchedness. These ad­venturers however are not Turks, but the sweepings of all nations blended together. They are commanded by an aga, who is likewise governor of the town. Bona was taken by Charles V. in his expedition to Tunis, but was not long after recovered by its former masters.

Constantina is situated on the river Sef Gomar, forty-eight miles from the sea-coast. It received its present name from that of a princess, the daughter of the emperor Constantine, to whom it was indebted for magnificence. The situation is on a peninsula, difficult of access, except towards the south-west. It is one mile in circumference, well fortified, and contains many fragments of ancient architecture. In particular there is part of a noble bridge; and near it is a large subterraneous aqueduct, which terminates in a cascade. State criminals are sometimes precipitated down this place, and dashed to pieces against the rocks at its bottom. A bey resides here, and has under his command three hundred Turkish horse, and one [Page 5] thousand five hundred Moorish soldiers. This is the account giv­en by travellers, though it is not likely that the number of the garrison is always the same. In details of this kind, we must be contented with the best materials that can be had, though sometimes not entirely above exception. The inhabitants of Constantina are said to be opulent and haughty. This city was formerly the residence of a race of kings who governed the province of Constantina, of which it is the metropolis; but in the year 1520, the whole territory was conquered by Barbarossa, that distinguished scourge of mankind, who annexed it to the government of Algiers. Some splendid ruins exist in the vici­nity of Constantina. Upon the sea-coast, at a small distance from it, are the traces of a Roman colony, anciently called Colo. It is situated on a high rock, and has a garrison. Ad­joining to it is a French factory, to which the Moors bring hides, wax, and wool, for sale. At no great distance are the remains of the ancient city of Stora. It is said that the moun­tainous part of this territory is inhabited by a hardy people, who can raise forty thousand fighting men. It is not probable, that those writers who made this affection had ever an oppor­tunity of counting their number. History abounds with such random calculations. The vagabond who founded Rome has been supplied by the generosity of succeeding historians, with an army about equally numerous, though it is, at the same time, acknowledged, that his kingdom was only seven or eight miles in length.

Gigeri is situated about fifteen miles from Bona. It contains about fifteen hundred houses, and the inhabitants are very poor. It is defended by a fort and a small garrison. The natives of this part of the country are independent and barbarous. They retire, when circumstances require it, to inaccessible fastnesses, and set the dey of Algiers at defiance. Ships, when wrecked on this coast, are plundered, and the crews are treated with the utmost savageness. In this respect, however, the natives of the territory of Gigeri cannot differ much for the worse from the rest of their countrymen; nor is the practice peculiar to Barbary. Scenes of the same kind are frequently acted, and if any thing can be still more infamous, are almost always acted with impunity, on the coast of Cornwall, and other maritime counties of England.^* The French, in the year 1666, had begun to fortify Gigeri. They were driven from it by the [Page 6] Algerines, with the loss of their cannon, and most of their effects.

Bugia was formerly the capital of a kingdom of the same name. It stands at the mouth of the river Major, or Zinganor, about twenty leagues to the eastward of Algiers. It is little better than a heap of ruins; a description which applies to al­most every town in that part of the world. It has three castles, two at the port, and one upon a rock, at a small distance be­hind them. In the year 1671, a British admiral took or de­stroyed, in this harbour, nine Algerine ships of war. It is ex­tremely seldom, that an admiral has been charged with such a laudable commission.

Stessa or Steffa is situated in a fertile valley, sixty miles to the south of Bugia, and fifteen miles from the sea. It exhibits only the melancholy ruins of its former magnificence, contain­ing about three hundred miserable families.

Tebef was formerly a flourishing city, but is at present extremely reduced. Zamoura is in the same condition. It is defended by a fort. Couco was once the metropolis of a king­dom of the same name. Its sovereigns were in the habit of forming alliances with the court of Spain. For this reason, the Algerines, in the beginning of the seventeenth century, ravag­ed the whole country, and destroyed every town in it. The inhabitants have still supported their independence, by taking refuge in the mountainous parts of the country, which are said to be very fertile; but the Algerines prevent them from holding any intercourse with foreign nations. Biscara has a fort and garrison. One of the chief employments of the people here, is to catch and tame lions, tigers, and other beasts of prey, which they carry for sale to Algiers. Necanz is one of the pleasantest towns in Barbary. It is watered by an agree­able river, whose banks are adorned with a variety of beautiful trees. The town contains a magnificent mosque and a college for the education of Mahometan students.

Oran is situated about two hundred and fifty miles west of Algiers. It lies partly on a plain, and partly on the ascent of a hill. It is a mile and an half in circumference and tolerably fortified. But it is unfortunately commanded by some of the neighbouring eminences; so that a garrison of ten or twelve thousand men is necessary to defend it with success against a skilful enemy. As the Spanish coasts and merchant ships had suffered much from the corsairs of this port, Ferdinand, king of Spain, determined to attempt its reduction. For this purpose, he transported into Africa an army, under the command of his prime minister cardinal Ximenes, one of those sew states­men, who have not deserved the detestation of mankind. [Page 7] The wonted good fortune of Ximenes did not, at this junc­ture, desert him. He had maintained a correspondence with some of the people of Oran; and when the Moors sallied out to attack the Spanish army, their perfidious countrymen shut the gates against them. Ximenes killed four thousand of the barbarians, and set at liberty twenty thousand Christian slaves. The Algerines, during almost two hundred years, made frequent and unsuccessful attempts to recover the town. At last, in 1708, they retook it. In June, 1732, a Spanish army was disembarked not far from Oran. The Turkish com­mander, his troops, and the inhabitants were seized with a panic, and abandoned their fortifications without much re­sistance. The victors found in the place an hundred and forty-six pieces of cannon, besides mortars, and at least fifty ship loads of provisions. This latter supply contributed much to the preservation of their new conquest. Without it they must have run the greatest hazard of perishing in the midst of success; as a tempest, which lasted for several days, cut off all intercourse between the army upon shore, and the fleet at sea. The Moors not long after attacked the Spaniards with great fury, but were finally repulsed with much slaughter on both sides. Oran is still possessed by Spain.

Tremesen was formerly the capital town of a kingdom of that name. It is situated ninety miles south-west of Oran, surrounded by a strong wall and well fortified. It has five gates with draw-bridges before them, and a castle containing handsome barracks for the Janisaries who are in garrison. Tremesen while a metropolis was a splendid city. It contained one hundred and fifty mosques, and one hundred and sixty public baths. Since it ceased to be the seat of an independent government, it hath shrunk into ruins and desolation. The mosques are reduced to eight, and its public baths to four. The inhabitants are extremely indigent.

Mostagan stands fifty miles east of Oran. This town is built in the form of a theatre opening to the sea, and surrounded on every other side with rocks that hang over it. The ruins of an old Moorish castle stand in a space between the rocks, and there is a strong stone wall towards the port, with a modern built castle, garrisoned by a number of Turks. The citadel is erected upon the summit of one of the rocks, and commands both city and territory. The haven is commodious, and the town is well supplied with water. The neighbouring moun­tains are inhabited by a people called Magarabas, who live in tents, possess a great number of flocks, and pay to the dey of Algiers twelve thousand crowns annually. There is a hand­some mosque in this town.

[Page 8] Tenez is situated about one hundred miles to the eastward of Oran, twenty miles east of Mostagan, and at a league distant from the sea, where it has a convenient port. There is a castle that was once a royal palace, and in which the governor resides. The fortifications are strong, the garrison numerous, and the neighbouring territory fertile. This was supposed to have been the Julia Caesarea of the ancients.

Sercelli lies between Tenez and Algiers, about twenty-four miles to the westward of the latter. It is defended by a Turkish garrison, and has a port, which will only admit of small vessels. This was anciently a large and populous city, but is at present a poor and desolate place.

The southern part of the Algerine territories is inhabited by a wandering race of people, who, like the Tartars, roam from place to place, and live in tents. The country itself is hilly, a branch of mount Atlas running through it. The only riches of the people are their numerous flocks and herds. The government exacts a tribute from them, but a bey is obliged to come annually at the head of an army to collect it; and many of them retire to inaccessible places till the troops are withdrawn, in order to evade the payment.

Algiers itself stands on a bay of the Mediterranean sea. It is built on the side of a mountain. The houses rise gra­dually from the sea-shore up the ascent, in the form of an amphitheatre. The town appears beautiful at a distance, when approaching from the water. The mosques, castles, and other public buildings have a striking effect; but the streets are narrow, and the houses mean. The roofs are flat, so that the people can visit each other, at a considerable dis­tance in the town without going into the streets. The walls are about a league in circumference, and defended by some square towers and bastions. The port has a pier about five hundred paces in length, which extends from the continent to a small rocky island called the Lantern. On this island, there is a castle with three lines of brass cannon. The town has five gates, ten great mosques, and fifty lesser ones, and is computed to contain an hundred thousand inhabitants. The fortifications are extensive and strong. The Christian slaves are often employed in removing stones from a quarry, at some distance in the country, which they lay on the sand, to defend the mole from the impetuosity of the waves. This laborious work is never at an end, because the sea constantly washes away the stones, and makes a perpetual supply neces­sary. One street, which is broad and handsome, passes through the town from east to west; but all the other streets are narrow, incommodious, and dirty. There are said to be [Page 9] fifteen thousand houses, which are commonly built round a small square with a paved court in the centre. Around this court is a double range of galleries, one above the other, and both supported by columns. The palace of the dey stands in the centre of the city. This building is very extensive, and surrounded by two superb galleries, supported by marble pillars. There is a law here, by which any woman con­victed of amorous correspondence with a Christian, is thrown into the sea, with her head tied up in a sack, unless her lover chuses to turn Mahometan. Examples of this kind are not unfrequent, as the fair sex, in that part of the world, are said to be remarkably frail. Six of the baths have been converted into prisons for the Christian slaves. In each of these, there is a chapel for the free exercise of their religion. Every slave is let out at a certain hour in the morning, and must return at a stated hour at night, in order to be locked up. Each of them is allowed a matrass and a rug for a bed. There are several tolerable edifices without the walls of the town, which add to the beauty of the environs. Among these are a variety of Turkish sepulchres and monuments. One of these monu­ments contains six magnificent tombs of a circular figure. They were erected to the memory of six deys, who were, in the course of a few days, successively elected and murdered. There is perhaps no nation in the world from which we may not learn some useful lesson. With respect to the burial of their dead, travellers inform us, that the Mahometans disco­ver a degree of delicacy, of which Christians have no concep­tion. In our church yards, nothing is more common, and surely nothing can be more completely shocking, than to see graves broke up, a second time, before the person has returned to his original dust; and the remains of the dead are tossed about with as little ceremony as possible. This wretched violation of decency arises from the orthodox desire of being buried in holy ground; a practice which has no doubt been encouraged by the parties concerned, for the purpose of exacting a high price. Exorbitant demands of this kind have not long since been paid within less than an hundred miles of Philadelphia. The Algerines, and the other professors of the Mahometan religion, would regard it as an act of the most barbarous sacrilege to disturb the remains of the dead, by open­ing their graves, at any distance of time, or upon any pre­tence whatever. Hence their burial grounds in the neigh­bourhood of a large city are sometimes ten miles in extent.

Algiers had formerly nothing but rain water. A Moor, who had been driven from Spain, constructed two aqueducts, by which it is now supplied with abundance of excellent water [Page 10] from the adjacent mountains. The country around this city is very fertile. Country-seats, gardens, and groves of trees are said to be numerous. The Algerines are unacquainted with the art of pruning and grafting trees. Their gardens are not walled, but fenced round with a peculiar species of fig-trees, which from their prickles, and the compactness with which their branches interweave, are well adapted for that purpose. Among other rich tracts in the province of Algiers Proper, the great plain of Mettijah is admired for its astonishing fertility. It is fifty miles in length, twenty in breadth, and includes many villas, fragrant groves, and delightful gardens. The soil produces such a profusion of the most delicious fruits, rice, roots, and grain of every species, that the inhabitants enjoy annually two, and frequently three crops. The hot baths of M [...]cga, in the neighbourhood of this city, are natural curi­osities. The principal one is twelve feet square and four deep. The water is very hot, and when it has filled the larger bason, runs through into another of a smaller size, where the Jews bathe, as they are not permitted to use the same bath, with the Mahometans. These hot fountains are conjectured to proceed from the great quantities of sulphur, nitre, and other inflam­mable substances in the bowels of the earth. To this cause likewise have been ascribed those earthquakes, to which the whole country, and Algiers in particular, are frequently subjected.

CHAPTER II. Customs. Religion. Government. Land Forces. Corsairs.

THE present inhabitants of the territory of Algiers are composed of a multitude of different nations. Among those are the Moors or Morescos who were driven out of Spain about the end of the sixteenth century, and the Arabians who trace their descent from those disciples of Mahomet who former­ly subdued this country. Levantines, Turks, Jews, and Christian slaves, with a croud formed of the posterity of all these different people, make up the rest of the population. The Moors and Arabs are the most numerous. The former compose the great body of the inhabitants of the towns. But it may be readily supposed, that amidst such a variety of differ­ent races, immense numbers cannot be said to belong to any particular tribe or nation whatever. In this country there are many wondering bands of shepherds who live together in camps, and remove from one place to another as they want pasture for their herds and flocks, or as any other accidental circumstance hap­pens [Page 11] to make it necessary. They sometimes pay rent to land­lords, in corn, fruit, honey, wax, and other productions of the same kind. The dey likewise demands a tribute. The ex­cellence of the climate renders this simple way of living tolera­ble, though the tents of these people are mean, their utensils of little value, and their lodging filthy. The family and their domestic animals lie promiscuously in the tents together, ex­cept the dogs, which are left on the outside as guards. They raise considerable numbers of bees and of silk-worms. They subsist chiefly on bread, rice and fruit. Wine and spirituous liquors are almost entirely unknown.

The dress of the men is only a long piece of coarse cloth wrapped round the shoulders, and falling down to their ankles, with a cap of the same stuff. The women pay some more at­tention to the ornamental part of dress. The children are suf­fered to go stark naked till seven or eight years of age. The Sheik or chief of a tribe wears a cap of fine cloth. These peo­ple are usually called Arabs; their customs, language and religion bear a strict affinity with those of Arabia. They are robust and of a swarthy complexion. The men are active, the women prolific, and the children healthy. They have neither to encounter the hardships incident to the life of a North-American savage, nor are their constitutions enfeebled, as is sometimes the case in manufacturing towns, by sedentary and unhealthy employments. When a young man would marry, he drives a number of cattle to the hut where the pa­rents of his mistress reside. The bride is set on horseback and led home, amidst the shouts of a croud of young people, who have been invited to the nuptial feast. When she arrives at the hut of her lover, a mixture of milk and honey is given her to drink, and a song suitable to the occasion is sung. She then alights, and is presented with a stick, which she thrusts into the ground, and repeats some lines to the following effect: ‘As this stick is fastened in the earth, so I am in duty bound to my husband; as nothing but violence can remove it, so death alone shall force me from his love.’ She then drives his flock to water and back again, to shew her willing­ness to perform any duty that he may assign her. These pre­vious ceremonies being settled, all the company enter the hut, and the evening concludes with the greatest festivity that these people are capable of enjoying. Subsequent to the marriage, the wife is obliged to wear a vail. She never stirs from the hut for the space of a month, after that time. These are the ceremonies reported to be customary in celebrating a marriage among the pastoral tribes of Barbary. But narratives of this kind must be received, as bishop Burnet admonishes the reader, [Page 12] to peruse his History of his own times, viz. with some grains of allowance. Such uniform regularity is hardly to be expect­ed among a race of wandering shepherds. Perhaps an African critic would turn from our description of his country with as much disdain, as a citizen of the United States feels in at­tempting to peruse a frothy volume respecting North-America, fabricated by some of the professional book-builders of Paris or of London.^*

The Moors or Arabs, for the two names appear to be synonymous, are good horsemen, but great thieves. Their principal arms are a short lance and a scymitar, though they are likewise acquainted with the bow and the musket. It is dan­gerous to travel in the country, for fear of being robbed; but persons are said to be in safety, if attended by one of the Ma­hometan Marabouts or hermits. The inhabitants of the sea-coast are perfectly versant in the use of fire-arms.

Algiers retains the title of a kingdom; an epithet which might, without regret, be expunged from every human voca­bulary. [Page 13] It is however a military republic, though it certainly can reflect no lustre on that species of government. The na­tional ordinances run in these words: ‘We, the great, and small members of the mighty and invincible militia of Al­giers,’ &c. The dey is elected by a divan composed from the army. He seldom secures his office, without tumult and bloodshed; and he often falls by the dagger of an assassin. This sovereign may with peculiar propriety adopt the expres­sion of one of the heroes of Ossian: ‘I was born in the midst of battles, and my steps must move in blood to the tomb.’ The way in which his authority is exercised, corresponds with that by which it has been obtained. When Mr. Bruce, as British resident at Algiers, had occasion to visit the dey, he sometimes found him in his hall of audience, with his clothes all bespattered with blood, like those of a carcase butcher. It is a very frequent amusement with him, to cause the heads of his subjects to be struck off in his presence. Mr. Bruce said, that he knew of one man, who was executed, for no greater offence than because a gun-flint was found upon him. His indictment and trial were very concise. ‘You rascal, what business have you with a flint, unless you were going to conspire against the state?’

The aga of the Janisaries is the officer next to the dey in dignity and power. He enjoys his post but two months, and then retires upon a pension. The other officers of importance are a secretary of state, twenty-four Chiah bassas or colonels subordinate to the aga, eight hundred senior captains, and four hundred lieutenants. Among these officers, the right of seniority is strictly observed. A breach of this point would be expected to produce a revolt among the soldiers, and might per­haps cost the dey his life. Besides these officers, there are others belonging to the Turkish forces, who form a separate body. The dey has a corps of guards; a very necessary, though sometimes a fruitless precaution; as any private soldier who has the courage to murder him, stands an equal chance of becoming his successor. Experiments of this description are sometimes made. Since the beginning of the present cen­tury, six private soldiers entered into a conspiracy to kill a dey of one of the states of Barbary. They gave him a mortal wound in his palace, and in the midst of a croud of people. He expired, exclaiming, "Has nobody the courage to kill a villain?" One of the conspirators, the intended successor, instantly ascended the vacant throne, and brandishing his naked scymitar, declared that he would do justice to ali! His five associates went about the hall to inforce the title of their new master; and none present seemed to give themselves any [Page 14] disturbance about what had happened. He kept his situation unmolested, for about ten minutes, till an old veteran unob­served took aim with a musket or blunderbuss, and shot him dead. Upon this, the five others were immediately dispatched by the persons present. But what shewed the nature of the government in its proper light was the observation of the new dey. He said, that if the usurper could have held his place for twenty minutes longer, he would have obtained the throne.

The people of Algiers in general speak a compound of Ara­bic, Moresco, and the remains of the ancient Phoenician lan­guages. The natives of all denominations, for the most part, understand the Lingua Franca. This is a kind of dialect, which, without being the proper language of any country on the coast of the Mediterranean sea, has a kind of universal currency all over that quarter of the world, as the channel of information for people, who cannot understand each other through any medium but itself. The public business of the nation is transacted in the Turkish tongue, in which also the records are kept. It is curious, that in conversation, a Turk transposes his nouns and verbs, in the same way that the Greek and Latin writers have done. Some of our modern critics have been woefully perplexed in attempting to explain this practice, which they seem to consider as peculiar to those two ancient languages. Had they been acquainted with the circumstance just now mentioned, they might readily have solved some of their doubts by a voyage to Constantinople.

In Algiers, both men and women spend a great part of their time in indolence; the men, in drinking coffee and smoak­ing; and the women, in dressing, bathing, visiting the tombs of their relations, and sauntering in their gardens. The Algerines by their law may have four wives, but they usually content themselves with two or three at the most. The husband seldom sees his wife before marriage, but accepts her upon description of a female confident. When the match is agreed upon, the bridegroom sends a present of fruits and sweetmeats to the bride, and entertains her relations with a feast and a musical entertainment.

The militia who elect the dey are either Turks or renegado Christians. Their number has been variously stated by differ­ent authors from six thousand five hundred to twelve thousand. The dey pays no other revenue to the grand seignior, than that of a certain number of handsome youths, and some other annual presents. His income is more or less in proportion to his opportunities of plundering his neighbours or his subjects. Dr. Shaw says, that the taxes of the whole kingdom produce [Page 15] yearly to the dey but about three hundred thousand dollars. He conjectures that the eighth share of the prizes, the property of persons who die without children, and to whom the dey falls heir, with the presents from foreign nations, and his private acts of robbery at home, extend to an equal sum. It is easy to see that this calculation must be extremely ques­tionable. The tyrant himself can hardly be supposed capable to give a distinct estimate.

The Mufti, the Ca [...]i, and the grand Marabout, are the principal ecclesiastics. The first is the high priest of their religion; the second, the supreme judge in ecclesiastical causes, and in such civil matters as the civil power does not interpose in. The third is the chief of an order of saints or hermits. These three persons are distinguished by the largeness of their turbans. They sit in the divan a little below the dey, on his right hand. The divan itself consists of about two thousand Turkish officers and soldiers.

The common punishment at Algiers, for offences not capital, is the bastinado; for those, which are so, the bow-string, which two people pull different ways with all their strength, so that the criminal is instantly dispatched. The Christian slaves are liable to a variety of punishments. They are some­times burned, or rather roasted alive. At other times, they are impaled. This is done, by placing the offender on the end of a sharp stake, which is thrust up his posteriors close by the back-bone, till it appears above his shoulders. Slaves are sometimes cast over the walls of a town upon iron hooks. These catch by the jaws, by the ribs, or some other part of the body; and the sufferers have been known to hang thus for several days, alive, and in the most exquisite torture. Cru­cifixion, by nailing the hands and feet to walls, is likewise practised.

A Moor convicted of house-breaking, hath his right hand cut off and fastened about his neck. He is then led through the city on an ass, with his face towards its tail. Persons of distinction, for crimes against the state, are placed between two boards, and sawed asunder. Women, detected in adul­tery, are fixed by their necks to a pole, and held under water till they are suffocated.

When an Algerine pirate takes a prize, he examines into the quality and circumstances of the prisoners If he disbe­lieves the account that they give of themselves, they are bas­tinadoed, till he has met with an agreeable answer. Having obtained what information he is able, he brings them on shore, after having stripped them almost naked. He carries them directly to the palace of the dey, where the European [Page 16] consuls assemble, to see if any of the prisoners belong to their respective nations, who are at peace with Algiers. In that case, they reclaim them, provided that they were only pas­sengers; but if they have served on board of the ships of any people at war with "the mighty and invincible militia," they cannot be discharged without payment of the full ransom.

Matters are thus settled between the dey and the consuls, what part of the prisoners are to be set at liberty, and what part are to be considered as slaves. The dey has next his choice of every eighth slave. He generally chuses the masters, surgeons, carpenters, and most useful hands belonging to the several prizes. Besides his eighth, he lays claim to all pri­soners of quality, for whom a superior ransom is to be expected. The rest are left to the corsair and his owners. They are car­ried to the slave market; the crier proclaims their rank, pro­fession, and circumstances, and the price set upon each of them. They are then led to the court before the palace of the dey, and there sold to the best bidder. If any sum is offered beyond the price first set upon them, it belongs to the govern­ment. The captors and owners have only that which was originally set upon the slaves. For this practice of buying and selling slaves, we are not entitled to charge the Algerines with any exclusive degree of barbarity. The Christians of Europe and America carry on this commerce an hundred times more extensively than the Algerines. It has received a recent sanction from the immaculate Divan of Britain. Nobody seems even to be surprised by a diabolical kind of advertise­ments, which, for some months past, have frequently adorned the newspapers of Philadelphia. The French fugitives from the West-Indies have brought with them a croud of slaves. These most injured people sometimes run off, and their master advertises a reward for apprehending them. At the same time, we are commonly informed, that his sacred name is marked in capitals, on their breasts; or in plainer terms, it is stamped on that part of the body with a red hot iron. Before therefore we reprobate the ferocity of the Algerines, we should enquire whether it is not possible to find, in some other regions of the globe, a systematic brutality still more disgraceful?

CHAPTER III. Origin of the present government of Algiers. Expedition of Charles V.

ALGIERS had undergone a variety of revolutions in its form of government, previous to the beginning of the [Page 17] sixteenth century, which it is not within the plan of this sketch to describe. But about that time a sudden revolution happened, which, by rendering the states of Barbary formidable to the Europeans, hath made their history worthy of more attention. Horuc and Hayradin, the sons of a potter in the isle of Lesbos, prompted by a restless and enterprising spirit, forsook their fa­ther's profession, ran to sea, and joined a crew of pirates. They soon distinguished themselves by their valour and activi­ty, and becoming masters of a small brigantine, supported their infamous trade with such conduct and success, that they assembled a fleet of twelve galleys, besides many vessels of smaller force. Of this fleet, Horuc, the elder brother, called Barbarossa from the red colour of his beard, was admiral, and Hayradin second in command. Their names soon became terrible from the Straits of the Dardanelles to those of Gibraltar. Together with their power their ambitious views extended, and while acting as corsairs, they assumed the ideas, and acquired the talents of conquerors. They often carried the prizes, which they took on the coast of Spain and Italy, into the ports of Barbary. The convenient situation of these harbours, lying so near the great­est commerical states at that time in Christendom, made the brothers wish for an establishment in that country. An opportu­nity of accomplishing this project, presented itself, and they did not suffer it to pass unimproved. Eutemi, king of Algiers, having attempted several times, without success, to take a fort which the Spanish governors of Oran had built not far from his capital, applied to Barbarossa. The corsair, leaving his bro­ther Hayradin with the fleet, marched at the head of five thou­sand men to Algiers. Such a force gave him the command of the town. He secretly murdered the monarch whom he had come to assist, and proclaimed himself king in his stead. The authority which he had usurped, he established by arts suited to the genius of the people whom he had to govern; by liberality without bounds to those who favoured his promotion, and by cruelty no less unbounded to all whom he had any reason to mistrust. He continued to infest the coast of Spain and Italy with fleets which resembled the armaments of a great monarch, rather than the squadrons of a pirate. Their frequent and cruel devastations obliged Charles V. about the beginning of his reign, to furnish the Marquis de Comares, governor of Oran, with troops sufficient to attack him. That officer executed the commission with such spirit, that Barbarossa's forces being van­quished in several encounters, he himself was shut up in Tre­mesen, and in attempting to make his escape was fortunately slain.

[Page 18] His brother Hayradin, known likewise by the name of Bar­barossa, assumed the sceptre of Algiers. He carried on his na­val robberies with great vigour, and extended his conquests on the continent of Africa. But perceiving that the Moors and Arabs submitted to his government with the utmost reluc­tance, and being afraid that his continual depredations would, one day, draw upon him the arms of the Christians, he put his dominions under the protection of the grand seignior, and re­ceived from him a body of Turkish soldiers sufficient for his se­curity against his domestic as well as foreign enemies. At last, the infamy, or, as Dr. Robertson calls it, the fame of his ex­ploits daily increasing, Solyman offered him the command of the Turkish fleet; and Hayradin on the other hand, justly dreading the consequences of the tyranny of his officers over the Algerines, sought the protection of the grand seignior. This was readily granted, and himself appointed bashaw or viceroy of Algiers; by which means he received such considerable rein­forcements, that the unhappy Algerines durst not make the least complaint; and such numbers of Turks resorted to him, that he was not only capable of keeping the Moors and Arabs in subjection at home, but of annoying the Christians at sea.

Hayradin set about building a strong mole for the safety of his ships. In this he employed thirty thousand Christian slaves, whom he obliged to work, without intermission, for three years, in which time the work was completed. Hayradin soon became dreaded not only by the Arabs and Moors, but also by the maritime Christian powers, especially the Spaniards. The viceroy failed not to acquaint the grand seignior with his success, and obtained from him a fresh supply of money, by which he was enabled to build strong forts, and to erect batteries on all places that might favour the landing of an enemy. All these have since received greater improvements from time to time, as often as there was occasion for them.

In the mean time the sultan, either out of a sense of the great services of Hayradin, or perhaps out of jealousy lest he should make himself independent, raised him to the dignity of bashaw of the empire, and appointed Hassan-Aga, a Sardinian rene­gado, to succeed him as bashaw of Algiers. Hassan had no sooner taken possession of his new government, than he began to pursue his ravages on the Spanish coast with greater fury than ever; extending them to the ecclesiastical state, and other parts of Italy. Pope Paul III. alarmed at this proceeding, exhorted the emperor Charles V▪ to send a powerful fleet to suppress those frequent piracies: and, that nothing might be wanting to ren­der the enterprize successful, a bull was published by his holi­ness, wherein a plenary absolution of sins, and the crown of [Page 19] martyrdom, were promised to all those who either fell in battle or were made slaves. The emperor, on his part, needed no incitement, and therefore set sail at the head of a powerful fleet, consisting of an hundred and twenty ships and twenty gallies, having on board thirty thousand troops, with an immense quantity of arms and ammunition. In this expedition, many young nobility and gentlemen attended as volunteers, and a­mong these many knights of Malta, so remarkable for their va­lour against the enemies of Christianity. Even ladies of birth and character attended Charles, and the wives and daughters of the officers and soldiers followed him with a design to settle in Barbary, after the conquest was finished.

By this prodigious armament, the Algerines were thrown into the utmost consternation. The city was surrounded only by a wall with scarce any out-works. The garrison consisted of eight hundred Turks and six thousand Moors, without fire-arms, and poorly disciplined and accoutred; the rest of their forces being dispersed in the other provinces of the king­dom, to levy the usual tribute on the Arabs and Moors. The Spa­niards landed without opposition, and immediately built a fort, under the cannon of which they encamped, and diverted the course of a spring which supplied the city with water. Being now reduced to the utmost distress, Hassan received a summons to surrender at discretion, on pain of being put to the sword with all his garrison. The herald was ordered to extol the vast power of the emperor both by sea and land, and to exhort him to return to the Christian religion. But to this Hassan only replied, that he must be a madman, who would pretend to advise an enemy, and that the person advised would act still more madly who would take counsel of such an adviser. He was, however, on the point of surrendering the city, when intelligence was brought him that the forces belonging to the western government were in full march towards the place; upon which it was resolved to defend it to the utmost. Charles, in the mean time, resolving upon a general assault, kept a constant firing on the town; which, from the weak defence made by the garrison, he looked upon as already in his hands. But while the divan were deliberating on the most proper means of obtaining an honourable capitulation, a mad pro­phet, attended by a multitude of people, entered the assembly, and foretold the destruction of the Spaniards before the end of the moon, exhorting the inhabitants to hold out till that time. This prediction was soon accomplished in a very sur­prising and unexpected manner; for, on the 28th of October 1541, a dreadful storm of wind, rain, and hail, arose from the north, accompanied with violent shocks of earthquakes, [Page 20] and a dismal and universal darkness both by sea and land; so that the sun, moon, and elements, seemed to combine to­gether for the destruction of the Spaniards. In that one night, some say in less than half an hour, eighty-six ships and fifteen gallies were destroyed, with all their crews and military stores; by which the army on shore was deprived of all means of sub­sistence. Their camp also, which spread itself along the plain under their fort, was laid quite under water by the torrents which descended from the neighbouring hills. Many of the troops, by trying to remove into some better situation, were cut to pieces by the Moors and Arabs; while several gallies, and other vessels, endeavouring to gain some neighbouring creeks along the coast, were immediately plundered, and their crews massacred by the inhabitants.

Next morning, Charles beheld the sea covered with the fragments of ships, and the bodies of men, horses, and other creatures, swimming on the waves; at which he was so dis­heartened, that abandoning his tents, artillery, and all his heavy baggage, to the enemy, he marched at the head of his army, in no small disorder, towards Cape Mallabux, in order to reimbark in those vessels, which had out-weathered the storm. But Hassan, who had watched his motions, allowed him just time to get to the shore, when he sallied out, and attacked the Spaniards in the midst of their hurry to get into their ships. He killed great numbers, and brought away a still greater number of captives; after which he returned in triumph to Algiers.

Soon after this, the prophet Yusef, who had foretold the destruction of the Spaniards, was declared the deliverer of his country, and had a considerable gratuity decreed him, with the liberty of exercising his prophetic function unmolested. It was not long, however, before the Marabouts, and some interpreters of the law, made a strong opposition against him, remonstrating to the bashaw, how ridiculous and scandalous it was to their nation, to ascribe its deliverance to a poor for­tune-teller, which had been obtained by the fervent prayers of an eminent saint of their own profession. But though the bashaw and his divan seemed out of policy, to give into this last notion, yet the impression, which the prediction of Yusef and its accomplishment had made upon the minds of the com­mon people, proved too strong to be eradicated; and the spirit of divination and conjuring has since got into such credit among them, that not only their great statesmen, but their priests, marabouts, and santoons, have applied themselves to that study, and dignified it with the name of Mahomet's Revelations.

[Page 21] The Spaniards had scarce reached their ships, when they were attacked by a fresh storm, in which several more of them perished. A vessel in particular, containing seven hundred soldiers, besides sailors, sunk in the sight of Charles, without a possibility of saving a single man. At length with much la­bour, they reached the port of Bujeyah. They stayed no longer here than till the sixteenth of November, when they set sail for Carthagena, and reached it on the twenty-fifth of the same month. In this unfortunate expedition upwards of one hundred and twenty ships and gallies were lost, with above three hundred colonels and other officers, and eight thousand soldiers and marines, besides those destroyed by the enemy on their reimbarkation, or drowned in the last storm. The num­ber of prisoners was so great, that the Algerines sold some of them, by way of contempt, for an onion per head.

From this time, the Spaniards were never able to annoy the Algerines, in any considerable degree. In 1555, they lost the city of Bujeyah, which was taken by Salab [...], successor to Hassan. This commander, in 1556, set out upon a new expedition, suspected to be against Oran; but he was scarcely got four leagues from Algiers, when the plague, which at that time reged violently in the city, broke out in his grom, and luckily carried him off in twenty-four hours.

Immediately after his death, the Algerine soldiery chose a Corsican renegado, Hassan Corso, in his room, till they should receive further orders from the porte. He did not ac­cept of the bashawship without a good deal of difficulty, but immediately prosecuted the intended expedition against Oran, dispatching a messenger to acquaint the porte with what had happened. The army had hardly begun their hostilities against the place, when orders came from the porte, expressly forbidding Hassan Corso to begin the siege, or, if he had begun it, enjoining him to raise it immediately, which he accord­ingly did.

Corso had enjoyed his dignity for four months, when Tekelli, a new bashaw, arrived, as his successor from Con­stantinople. The Algerines resolved not to admit him; but by the treachery of the Levantine soldiers, he at last entered. Corso was thown over a wall, in which a number of iron hooks were fixed. One of these catching the ribs of his side, he hung three days in horrid agony before he expired. ‘We meet with events in the annals of mankind, that make us doubt the truth of the most authentic history. We cannot believe that such actions have ever been committed by the inhabitants of this globe, and by creatures of the same spe­cies [Page 22] with ourselves. We are tempted to think we are perus­ing the records of hell.’ ^*

Tekelli was assassinated under the dome of a saint, by Yusef Calabres, the favourite renegado of Hassan Corso. The mur­derer was chosen bashaw, but died of the plague, six days after his election.

Yusef was succeeded by Hassan the son of Hayradin Barba­rossa. Not long after, the Spaniards undertook an expedi­tion against Mostagan under the command of the count d'Alcandela, but were utterly defeated, the commander him­self killed, and twelve thousand men taken prisoners. Hassan having disobliged his subjects, they sent him in irons to Con­stantinople, while two Turkish officers supplied his place. Hassan cleared himself; but Achmet, a new bashaw, was ap­pointed. Upon his arrival at Algiers, he sent the two deputy bashaws to Constantinople, where their heads were struck off. Achmet, in four months, died; and Hassan was sent a third time viceroy to Algiers.

He soon engaged in the siege of Marsalquiver, possessed by the Spaniards, and situated near the city of Oran. The Turkish standards were several times planted on the walls, and as often dislodged; but in the end Hassan was obliged to raise the siege.

In 1567, Hassan was again recalled to Constantinople. His successor, Mahomet, incorporated the Janisaries and Le­vantine Turks together. He thus put an end to their dissen­tions, and laid the foundation of the Algerine independency on the porte. He likewise added some considerable fortifica­tions to the city and castle, which he designed to render im­pregnable. At this time, one John Gascon, a bold Spanish adventurer, formed a design of surprising the whole piratic navy in the bay, and setting them on fire in the night time. He had the permission of Philip II. and was furnished by him with vessels, mariners, and fire-works, for the execution of his plan. He set sail for Algiers in the beginning of October, when most, if not all the ships lay at anchor there; and ad­vanced near enough, unsuspected, to view them. He came accordingly, unperceived by any, to the very mole gate, and dispatched his men with their fire-works; but these were so ill mixed, that they could not be kindled. Gascon finding himself discovered, and in the utmost danger, sailed away with all possible haste; but he was pursued, overtaken, and brought back a prisoner. Mahomet immediately caused a gibbet to be erected on the spot where Gascon had landed, and hung [Page 23] him by the feet upon a hook, with his royal commission tied to his toes. He had not been long suspended, when the cap­tain who made him prisoner, and a number of other corsairs, interceded so strongly in his behalf, that he was taken down, and put under the care of some Christian surgeons; but two days after, some Moors having reported as the common talk and belief in Spain, that the Algerines durst not hurt a hair of Gascon's head, he was hoisted up by a pulley to the top of the execution wall, and thrown down again. In his fall, a hook catched him by the belly, and gave him a wound, of which he instantly expired.

Mahomet was succeeded by [...]hali, a renegado, who re­duced the kingdom of Tunis. It remained subject to the vice­roy of Algiers only till the year 1586, when a bashaw of Tu­nis was appointed by the Sultan.

Algiers continued to be governed, till the beginning of the seventeenth century, by Turkish viceroys or bashaws. At last, the Turkish Janisaries and militia becoming powerful enough to suppress the tyrannic sway of those bashaws, they sent a deputation of some of their chief members to Constantinople to complain of their rapacity. They represented to the ministry, how much more honourable it would be for the grand seignior to permit them to chuse their own dey, or governor, from among themselves, whose interest it would be to see that the revenue of the country was rightly applied in keeping up its forces complete, and in supplying all other exigencies of the state, without any farther charge or trouble to the porte, than that of allowing them its protection. Algiers was to be wholly left under the direction of the dey and his divan. The power of the Turkish bashaw was to be reduced to a shadow.

These proposals were accepted by the porte. The divan elected a dey from among themselves. They compiled a new set of laws, and made several regulations for the better support and maintenance of this new form of government. The sub­sequent altercations that frequently happened between the bashaws and deys, the one endeavouring to recover their former power, and the other to curtail it, caused such frequent complaints and discontents at the Ottoman court, as made them sometimes repent of their compliance.

In the year 1601, the Spaniards made another attempt upon Algiers. Their fleet was driven back by contrary winds, so that they came off without loss. In 1609, the Moors being expelled from Spain, flocked in great numbers to Algiers; and as many of them were very able sailors, they undoubtedly contributed to make the Algerine fleet so formidable as it be­came soon after. In 1616, their fleet consisted of forty ships between two hundred and four hundred tons burthen, and [Page 24] their admiral was five hundred tons. It was divided into two squadrons, one of eighteen sail, stationed before the port of Malaga; and the other at the Cape of Santa Maria, between Lisbon and [...]; both of which attacked Christian ships, both English and French, with whom they pretended to be in friendship, as well as Spaniards, and Portuguese, with whom they were at war

The Algerines were now become formidable to the European powers. The Spaniards, who were most in danger, solicited the assistance of England, the Pope, and other states. The French, however, were the first who dared to shew their re­sentment at the perfidious behaviour of these miscreants; and in 1617, M. Beaulieu was sent against them with a fleet of fifty men of war. He defeated their fleet, and took two of their vessels. Their admiral sunk his own ship and crew, rather than fall into the hands of the enemy.

In 1620, a squadron of English men of war was sent against Algiers, but did nothing. The Algerines, becoming more insolent, openly defied all the European powers, the Dutch only excepted, to whom, in 1625, they sent a proposal, that in case they would fit out twenty sail of ships in the following year, upon any service against the Spaniards, the corsairs would join them with sixty sail.

Next year, the Cologlies, or children of such Turks as had been permitted to marry at Algiers, who were inrolled in the militia, seized on the citadel, and had well nigh made them­selves masters of the city. They were attacked by the Turks and renegadoes, who defeated them with terrible slaughter. Numbers were executed, and their heads thrown in heaps on the city walls.

In 1623, the Algerines and other states of Barbary, threw off their dependence on the porte. Sultan Amurath IV. had been obliged to make a truce for twenty-five years, with the emperor Ferdinand II. As this put a stop to the piratical trade of the Algerines, they proceeded as above mentioned; and resolved, that whoever desired to be at peace with them, must, separately, apply to their own government. They began to make prizes of several merchant ships belonging to the powers at peace with the porte. They seized a Dutch ship and poleacre at Scanderoon; they even ventured on shore, and finding the town abandoned by the Turkish aga and inhabitants, they plundered all the magazines and ware­houses, and set them on fire. About this time, Louis XIII. undertook to build a fort on their coasts, instead of one for­merly built by the Marsilians, and which had been demolished. This, after some difficulty, he accomplished; and it was [Page 25] called the Bastion of France; but the situation being found in­convenient, the French purchased the port of La Calle, and obtained liberty to trade with the Arabians and Moors. The Ottoman court, in the mean time, was so much embarrassed with a Persian war, that there was no leisure to check the Algerines piracies. This gave an opportunity to the vizir and other courtiers to compound matters with the Algerines, and to get a share of the prizes, which were very considerable. For the sake of form a severe reprimand, accompanied with threats, was sent them. They replied, that ‘they deserved to be indulged in these depredations, as they were the only bulwark against the Christian powers, and in particular, against the Spaniards, the sworn enemies of the Moslem name.’ They added, that ‘if they should pay a punc­tilious regard to all who could purchase liberty to trade with the Ottoman empire, they would have nothing to do but set fire to their shipping, and turn camel-drivers.’

In the year 16 [...]5, four brothers of a family in France, en­tered into an undertaking so desperate, that perhaps the annals of knight-errantry can scarcely furnish its equal. This was no less than to retort the piracies of the Algerines, upon themselves; and as they indiscriminately took the ships of all nations, so were these heroes indiscriminately to take the ships belonging to Algiers; and this with a small frigate of ten guns! An hundred volunteers embarked; a Maltese commission was ob­tained, with an able master, and thirty mariners. On their first setting out, they took, on the Spanish coast, a ship laden with wine. Three days after, they engaged two large Algerine corsairs, one of twenty and the other of twenty-four guns. The French made so desperate a resistance, that the pirates were not able to take them, till five other corsairs came up. The French vessel, being almost torn to pieces, was then boarded and taken. In 1642, the brothers redeemed themselves, at the price of six thousand dollars.

In 1637, the Algerines infested the British channel; and, accordingly to Mrs. Macauley,^* had made such a vast number of captures, as to have at one time, between four and five thousand subjects of England prisoners.

The Algerines prosecuted their piracies with impunity, to the terror and disgrace of Christendom, till the year 1652; when a French fleet being accidentally driven to Algiers, the admiral took it into his head to demand a release of all the captives of his nation without exception. This being refused, the Frenchman without ceremony carried off the Turkish vice­roy, [Page 26] and his [...] or judge, who were just arrived from the porte, with all their equipage and retinue. The Algerines, by way of reprisal, surprised the Bastion of France already mentioned, and carried off the inhabitants to the number of six hundred, with all their effects. Upon this, the admiral sent them word, that he would pay them another visit, next year, with his whole fleet.

The Algerines fitted out a fleet of sixteen galleys and gal­liots, under the command of Hali Pinchinin. The chief design of this armament was against the treasure of Loretto; which they were prevented by contrary winds from obtaining. Hereupon they made a descent on Puglia in the kingdom of Naples; where they ravaged the whole territory of Necotra. They carried off a vast number of captives. Thence steering towards [...], they scoured the Adriatic, and loaded themselves with immense plunder.

The Venetians, alarmed at such savages, equipped a fleet of twenty-eight sail, under the command of admiral Capello, with express orders to burn, sink, or take, all the Barbary corsairs which he met with, either on the open seas, or even in the Ottoman harbours, agreeable to a late treaty of peace with the porte. On the other hand, the captain bashaw, who had been sent out with a Turkish fleet to chase the Flo­rentine and Maltese cruisers from the Archipelago, learning that the Algerine squadron was so near, sent express orders to the admiral to come to his assistance. Pinchinin readily agreed; but he was overtaken by Capello, from whom he retired to Valona, a sea port belonging to the grand seignior, whi­ther the Venetian admiral pursued him; but the Turkish governor refusing to turn out the pirates, according to the articles of the peace between the Ottoman court and Venice, Capello was obliged to content himself with watching them for some time. Pinchinin soon ventured out, an engagement immediately ensued, and the Algerines were defeated. Five of their vessels were disabled; one thousand five hundred men, Turks, and Christian [...]aves, were killed; besides one thou­sand six hundred galley slaves who regained their liberty. Pinchinin, after this defeat, returned to Valona, where he was again watched by Capello, but the latter had not lain long at his old anchorage, before he received a letter from the senate, desiring him to make no farther attempt on the pirates at that time, for fear of a rupture with the porte. Ca­pello was forced to submit; but resolving to take such a leave of the Algerines as he thought they deserved, observed how they had reared their tents, and drawn their booty and equi­page along the shore. He then kept firing among their tents, [Page 27] while some well manned galliots and brigantines were dis­patched to attack their shipping. Sixteen gallies, with all their cannon, and stores, were towed out. In this last en­gagement, a ball from one of the Venetian gallies, struck a Turkish mosque, and hence, the whole action was considered as an insult to the grand seignior. To conceal this, Capello was ordered to sink all the Algerine ships that he had taken, ex­cept the admiral; which was to be conducted to Venice, and laid up as a trophy. Capello received a severe reprimand, and the Venetians were obliged to buy, with five hundred thousand ducats, a peace from the porte.

In the mean time, the news of this defeat and loss filled Algiers with rage and confusion. The city was on the point of an in­surrection, when the bashaw published a proclamation, forbid­ding, not only complaints and outcries, under the severest pe­nalties, but all persons whatever to take their thumbs from with­in their girdles, while they were deliberating on this subject. They applied to the porte for an order, that the Venetians set­tled in the Levant, should make up their loss. But with this the grand seignior refused to comply, and left them to repair their losses, and to build new ships in the best manner that they could. It was not long, however, before they had the satis­faction of seeing one of their captains land, with a fresh supply of six hundred slaves, whom he had brought from the coast of Iceland, whither he had been directed by a miscreant native taken on board a Danish ship.

CHAPTER IV. Pinchinin. His engagement with a Dutch ship. Bombardment and destruction of Algiers, by the French. Defeat of the Spaniards.

THE pirates did not long continue in their weak and de­fenceless state; being able, at the end of two years, to appear at sea with a fleet of sixty-five sail. The Admiral Pin­chinin equipped four galliots at his own expence; with which, in conjunction with the Chiayah or secretary of the bashaw of Tripoli, he made a second excursion. This small squadron, consisting of five galleys and two brigantines, fell in with an English ship of forty guns; which, however, Pinchinin's cap­tains refused to engage, but being afterwards reproached by him for their cowardice, they swore to attack the next Chris­tian ship that came in their way. This happened to be a Dutch merchantman, of twenty-eight guns and forty men, deeply laden, and disabled by a calm from using her sails. [Page 28] Pinchinin immediately summoned her to surrender; but re­ceiving an ironical answer, drew up his squadron in form of an half moon, that they might pour their shot all at once into their adversary. This, however, the Dutchman avoid­ed, by means of a breeze of wind which fortunately sprung up and enabled him to turn his ship; by which the galleys ran foul of each other. Upon this Pinchinin ran his own galley along side the merchantman, the upper deck of which seventy Algerines immediately took possession of, some of them cut­ting the rigging, others plying the hatches with hand-gre­nadoes; but the Dutch having secured themselves in their close quarters, began to fire at the Algerines on board, from two pieces of cannon loaded with small shot; by which they were all soon killed or forced to submit. Pinchinin in the mean time made several unsuccessful attempts to relieve his men, as well as to surround the Dutch with his other gallies; but their ship lay so deep in the water, that every shot did terrible execution among the pirates; so that they were obliged to remove farther off. At last the Dutch captain, having ordered his guns to be loaded with cartouches, gave them a parting volley, which killed, as it is said, two hun­dred of them, and sent the rest back to Algiers in a dismal condition.

But though Pinchinin thus returned in disgrace, the rest of the fleet quickly came back with vast numbers of slaves, and an immense quantity of rich spoils; in so much that the English, French, and Dutch, were obliged to cringe to the Algerines, who sometimes condescended to be at peace with them, but swore eternal war against Spain, Portugal, and Italy, whom they considered as the greatest enemies to the Mahometan name. At last Lewis the fourteenth, provoked by the grievous outrages committed by the Algerines on the coasts of Provence and Lan­guedoc, ordered, in 1681, a considerable fleet to be fitted out against them, under the Marquis du Quesne, vice admiral of France. His first expedition was against a number of Tripolitan corsairs; who had the good fortune to outrow him, and shelter themselves in the island of Scio belonging to the Turks. This did not prevent him from pursuing them thither, and making such a terrible fire upon them, as destroyed fourteen of their vessels, besides battering the walls of the castle.

This severity seemed only to be designed as a check to the piracies of the Algerines; but, finding that they still continued their outrages on the French coast, Du Quesne sailed in August, 1682, to Algiers, cannonading and bom­barding it so furiously, that, in a very short time, the whole town was in flames. The great mosque was battered down, [Page 29] and most of the houses laid in ruins, so that the inhabitants were on the point of abandoning the place; when, on a sud­den the wind turned about, and obliged Du Quesne to return to Toulon. The Algerines immediately made reprisals, by sending a number of galleys and galliots to the coasts of Pro­vence, where they committed the most dreadful ravages, and brought away a vast number of captives; upon which a new armament was ordered to be got ready at Toulon and Mar­seilles, against them the next year; and the Algerines, hav­ing received early notice, put themselves into as good a state of defence as the time would allow.

In May, 1683, Du Quesne with his squadron cast anchor before Algiers; where, being joined by the marquis d'Affran­ville, at the head of five strong vessels, it was resolved to bom­bard the town next day, when accordingly, one hundred bombs were thrown into it which did terrible execution, while the besieged made some hundred discharges of their can­non against the assailants, without doing any considerable damage. The following night, bombs were again thrown into the city in such numbers, that the dey's palace and other great edifices were almost destroyed; some of the batteries were dismounted, and several vessels sunk in the port. The dey, and Turkish bashaw, as well as the whole soldiery, alarmed at this dreadful havock, immediately sued for peace. As a preliminary, the French insisted on the surrender of all Christian captives who had been taken fighting under their flag, which being granted, one hundred and forty-two per­sons were directly delivered up, with a promise of sending on board the remainder, as soon as they could be got from the different parts of the country. Accordingly Du Quesne sent his commissary general and one of his engineers into the town; but with express orders to insist upon the delivery of all the French captives without exception, together with the effects that had been taken from the French; and that Mezomorto their then admiral, and Hali [...] Rais one of their captains, should be given as hostages.

This last demand having embarrassed the dey, he assembled the divan, and acquainted them with it. Upon this Mezomorto fell into a violent passion, and told the assembly, that the cowardice of those who sat at the helm had occasioned the ruin of Algiers; but, that for his part, he would never consent to deliver up any thing that was taken from the French. He immediately acquainted the soldiery with what had passed; which so exasperated them, that they murdered the dey that very night, and on the morrow chose Mezomorto in his place. This was no sooner done, than he cancelled all the articles of [Page 30] peace which had been made, and hostilities were renewed with greater fury than ever.

The French admiral now kept pouring in such volleys of bombs, that in less than three days, the greatest part of the city was reduced to ashes; and the fire burnt with such fury, that the sea was enlightened for more than two leagues round. Mezomorto, unmoved by all these disasters, and the vast numbers of the slain, whose blood ran in rivulets along the streets; or rather, grown furious and desperate, sought only how to wreak his revenge on the enemy; and, not content with causing all the French in the city to be cruelly murdered, he ordered their consul to be tied hand and foot, and fastened alive to the mouth of a mortar, from which he was shot away against their navy. By this piece of inhumanity, Du Quesne was so exasperated, that he did not leave Algiers till he had utterly destroyed all their fortifications, shipping, almost all the lower part, and above two thirds of the upper part of the city, which became little more than an heap of ruins.

The Algerines were now thoroughly convinced that they were not invincible; and, therefore, immediately sent an em­bassy into France, begging in the most abject terms for peace; which Lewis very soon granted, to their inexpressible joy. They now began to pay some regard to other nations, and to be somewhat cautious how they wantonly provoked their dis­pleasure. The first bombardment by the French had so far humbled the Algerines, that they condescended to enter into a treaty with England; which was in 1686 renewed upon terms very advantageous to the latter. It is not to be supposed, however, that the natural perfidy of the Algerines would dis­appear on a sudden. Notwithstanding this treaty, therefore, they lost no opportunity of making prizes of English ships, when they could conveniently seize them. Upon some in­fringement of this kind, captain Beach, in 1695, drove ashore and burned seven of their frigates which produced a renewal of the treaty five years after; but it was not until the taking of Gibraltar and Port Mahon, that Britain could have a sufficient check upon them to enforce the observation of treaties; and these have since proved such restraints upon Algiers, that they still continue to pay a greater deference to the English than to any other European power.

In 1708, Oran, as has been already related, was taken by the Algerines from the Spaniards, and recovered by the latter in 1732. The Turkish bashaw was in 1710, finally expelled.

Since the last siege of Oran the most remarkable event in the annals of Barbary is the attack of Algiers, by the Spaniards in the year 1775. With a concise account of that expedition, we shall close this chapter of blood.

[Page 31] On the 23d of June 1775, a fleet of six ships of the line, twelve frigates and thirty-three other armed vessels set sail from Carthagena, in Spain, to attack Algiers. There was on board a body of troops amounting to twenty-four thousand four hundred and forty-seven men, including infantry, caval­ry, marines, and six hundred deserters destined to serve as workmen. They were commanded by the count O'Reilly, a personal favourite of the late king of Spain. They had likewise for the land service, an hundred and seventy-six pieces of artillery, mortars, and howitzers, with a suitable quantity of military stores. On the 30th of June, and 1st of July, they anchored in the bay of Algiers. They observed a large encampment, placed behind a battery, east of the river Xarach, which runs on the eastward of the city. On the 2d of July, a council was held; and orders were given that the troops should hold themselves in readiness to disembark next morning, by day-break. But as the succeeding night was windy, and a swell had set in from the shore, these orders were counter­manded. From this day, to the 6th, there were frequent councils, violent debates, and nothing done. A quarrel broke out between O'Reilly and the Marquis de Romana, a Spanish major-general, who was killed in the subsequent action. On the 6th, the principal officers were again assembled, to receive their ultimate instructions. The commander in chief warned the army, that it was the custom of the Moors, to pretend a most violent attack, and on the smallest resistance, to fly with precipitation, that they might draw the enemy into an ambuscade. He cautioned the troops not to break their ranks, as nothing but the force of discipline could secure them against so active an enemy. He pointed out the very error which they soon after committed, and the snare into which they were betrayed. On landing, the army was directed to gain some heights, which were supposed requisite to ensure success against Algiers. In the afternoon of the 6th, some ships of war were ordered to fire against three batteries to the eastward of that city. This com­mission was executed with so much laudable attention to the personal safety of the assailants, if such we may term them, that their shot did not reach the shore, those of one seventy-four gun ship excepted. At sun set this formidable attack ceased.

On the 7th at day-break, between eight and nine thousand men were put on board the boats for landing. They advanced, under the protection of some larger vessels very near the coast. Not a Moor appeared to oppose them; and at seven o'clock in the morning, they returned on board the transports. Not a shot was fired on either side, during the whole day.

[Page 32] On the 8th, at day-break, the ships being stationed to bat­ter the different forts to the right and left of the place of disem­barkation, the troops, to the number of about eight thousand, were put on board the boats; which formed in six columns. The place of landing was a league and an half to the eastward of the city of Algiers. Eighty thousand Moors, of whom two thirds were cavalry, came in sight, but did not attempt to op­pose the landing of the Spanish forces. It is said, that the whole number of Africans collected on this occasion, was not less than one hundred and fifty thousand. The troops advanced into a close country, which the Algerines had occupied in small parties. The grenadiers and light infantry of the Spaniards were repulled, and the whole body fell into confusion. In a very short time they fled, leaving behind them a great number of killed and wounded. The latter, a few excepted, were, in spite of their intreaties, left to the mercy of the conquerors. Part of a second embarkation of troops added to the general confusion. A third body had cast up an entrenchment on the shore, for the protection of the army. The Africans attacked it, but were driven back with great slaughter on both sides. The Spaniards, in their gazette, acknowledged the loss of five hun­dred and twenty-one men killed, and two thousand two hun­dred and seventy-nine wounded. It is said, that the Algerines had between five and six thousand men slain on the spot. The wounded Spaniards, who were left on the field of battle, were every one murdered by the enemy. The government of Algiers had offered ten zequins for the head of each Spaniard. Fifteen pieces of cannon, and three howitzers were left behind by these unfortunate invaders. The real amount of their loss can hardly have been less than three thousand lives, and was perhaps con­siderably greater. In the gazette of a court, we seldom expect an honest reckoning of this kind. If the writer of that of Ma­drid intended us to believe that two thousand two hundred and seventy-nine of the wounded were brought off, the officer from whose journal this account is extracted, says that a much great­er number were left behind, than were saved, which makes the story worse and worse. On details of this kind, we cannot dwell with pleasure. One circumstance is evident, that the Spanish commanders did not understand their business.

CHAPTER V. State of America as to Algiers. Conduct of Britain. Con­cluding Remarks.

IN the two last Chapters, we have seen the Algerines succes­sively set at defiance, several of the most formidable nations of Europe. When the United States of America had obtained their infant independence, it was naturally to be expected, that they also should, in some degree, suffer, by the ravages of the corsairs. Various circumstances pointed them out, as eligible objects of piratical rapine. They possessed an extensive trade with Europe, which in the first place, presented a splendid temptation to plunder. There was, on the part of the Alge­rines, a second and irresistible motive to hostilities. America did not support, at her national expence, any maritime force whatever; and thirdly, had she even established an armed navy, this country lies at the distance of more than three thousand miles, from the common range of the privateers of Barbary. Hence, to reduce them to submission, must always require a proportion of trouble and expence greatly superior to the sub­stantial magnitude of the object of attack; and this remoteness of our situation might be considered as an additional induce­ment to the regency of Algiers for interrupting our navigation. Of the number and strength of the corsairs, it is impossible to give an accurate statement. Their actual force, however, compared with that which the United States could easily fit out, is but trifling. To bring their whole ships of war, at once, to a regular engagement, never can be practicable, but should it happen, it may without presumption be supposed, that fifteen or twenty American forty gun frigates would send their navy to the bottom. When we reflect on the numerous and peculiar incitements which these Africans had, to commence depreda­tions on the commerce of the United States, instead of being surprised at our having suffered so much, it rather becomes an object of wonder that we have suffered so little. The late alarming intelligence from Lisbon has excited universal atten­tion from the public to that subject, which may be divided into two questions. First, why, excepting two vessels,^* have not [Page 34] the ships of this country met with any interruption since the end of the war with Britain? Second, why has our trade now suf­fered so unexpected and severe a check?

In answer to the first query, it has happened, that since the independence of North-America, the Algerines have been con­stantly at war, with the Dutch, or the Portuguese, or both at once; and as either of these nations is greatly superior, in regular strength at sea, to the corsairs, they have, hitherto, for the security of their own commerce, watched the entrance of the Mediterranean so carefully, that the corsairs have been seldom able to get out of it. That they sometimes did so, is unfortunately certain, from the fate of the two American ves­sels above-mentioned; but, in general, they were shot up in the Mediterranean as in a prison, without a possibility of extending their depredations on the Atlantic ocean. Into the former, American vessels but sometimes ventured, and when they did so, they derived security from forged or purchased Mediterranean passes. A British ship has for her protection a pass, which is written on a large sheet of parchment, and has, by way of ornament, some figures or dashes drawn with a pen, or engraved on the margin. The Algerines cannot read English, and it would most likely cost the captain of a corsair his head, were he to carry a British vessel, by mistake, as a prize into the harbour of Algiers. They have adopted a sagacious contrivance to discover whether such passes are genuine. They keep a stick marked with notches corresponding to the shape of those figures, that are uniformly delineated on the margin of the parchment. When the pass is produced, their measure is applied. In this was, it cannot be difficult for the most bungling artist, who has an original pass before him, to deceive them, and, by this means, it is said, upon repu­table authority, that many vessels have been preserved. Be­sides, even in the Mediterranean itself, the progress of the Al­gerines has been considerably cramped by the Portuguese and Dutch ships of war, and both these nations, as well as the Spaniards, from a regard to their own interest, as well as from the common principles of justice and humanity, have been for­ward to extend their protection to the American flag.

In answer to the second query, this protection has, at pre­sent been suspended, because a cessation of hostilities has taken [Page 35] place between Holland and Portugal on the one side, and the regency of Algiers on the other. Spain, at the same time, has been engaged in the general conspiracy of the Domitians and Caligulas of Europe, against the republic of France; and as this country has contracted the guilt of becoming a free nation, we likewise are involved, though, as yet, but at second hand, in the vengeance of the imperial and royal Van­dals. The corsairs of Barbary are now at liberty to attack the vessels of the United States, not only in the Mediterranean, but also in the Atlantic ocean. From the final establishment of American independence, some attempts are reported to have been made by the American government, to conclude a pacifi­cation with the state of Algiers, but for some reason or other, these attempts have hitherto proved unsuccessful. The cir­cumstances which have always disappointed the pacific designs of our administration, deserve to be investigated.

Several of our late letters from Lisbon agree in asserting, that the present peace or truce between Algiers and Portugal has been formed by the officious intervention of England, without the knowledge of the latter. The same advices add, and their information is universally believed, that this has been done by England, that the corsairs of Barbary might have liberty to interrupt the commerce of this country with Europe. Since the commencement of the unfortunate war, that now spreads desolation and bankruptcy over so many countries in that quarter of the world, American bottoms, be­cause they were neutral, obtained the preference to those of England in the carrying trade. They were not liable to be seized by French privateers, and could, therefore, unmolested, trans­port the commodities of any one country to any other. This advantage gave our vessels a decided superiority; and the mas­ter of an American ship frequently received twenty per cent. more for the same freight, than would be given to the master of an English vessel. This humiliating distinction alarmed the pride of the English nation. Divested of the carrying trade, the naval despotism of England would at once shrink into nothing. The powers of Europe may reduce her to the natural level of her importance, without the expense of firing a single gun. Let them declare, that no vessel of that country shall bring into their harbours, any commodities but those of British growth or manufacture. Her navy, which has perpe­trated such incessant mischief, would then, if I may borrow the trite quotation from Shakespeare, vanish, like the baseless fabric of a vision.

The Americans, for some time time past, have been making rapid strides towards her expulsion from the carrying trade. [Page 36] England could hardly venture, at this crisis, to add a second republic to the catalogue of her enemies. She has, therefore, adopted the miserable expedient of turning loose the Algerines, that these execrable ruffians might plunder our property, and plunge our fellow-citizens into slavery.

Lord Sheffield, in a pamphlet which has obtained more notice than it deserved, informs the English nation, ‘That it will not be the interest of any of the great maritime pow­ers, to protect the American vessels from the Barbary states.’ This benevolent remark has received a proper answer from the author of "Observations" on his lordship's pamphlet. The moderation of stile, the candour of reasoning, and the un­questioned authenticity of the facts advanced by Mr. Coxe, deserve, in an uncommon degree, the attention, and the gra­titude of his countrymen.

In consequence of the peace so maliciously patched up through the interference of the British, considerable havoc has been made on the American commerce, a number of our vessels having been taken, and the crews, to the number of above 130, carried into the most cruel slavery. The whole of these depre­dations were committed in the month of October and November 1793. Shortly afterwards, the court of Portugal ordered its vessels on their old station, and since that time, they have kept the corsairs within the straits, and preserved our vessels from their rapine.

When the news of the misfortune of so many of our citizens arrived in America, the sympathy of the public was excited to the highest possible degree. Committees were appointed in se­veral places to collect money, for their relief, if not for their ransom. The committee appointed in Philadelphia for this purpose, received considerable sums; from the managers of the new theatre alone nearly one thousand dollars. But humanity has to deplore, that a most unaccountable torpor has taken place of benevolence and charity on this trying occasion. Curiosity has in vain exerted itself to discover, why a business so extremely in­teresting, and undertaken with so much ardour, has utterly died away, and even seemed to have been obliterated from public recollection!

During the last session of Congress, an act was passed em­powering the President to purchase, or cause to be built, a number of vessels for the defence of the commerce of the United States against the Algerines. These vessels are now building—and it is hoped, from the excellence of their construction, and the acknowledged abilities of the gentlemen appointed to com­mand them, that should they ever meet any of those detestable pirates, they will fully avenge the injured honour of America.