The exultation of the pirates at their success knew no bounds. With sarcastic profusion, an onion became the market-price of a captive Spaniard; and the situation of Charles was such during the remainder of his reign, that he could make no further attempt to redeem his lost laurels in Algeria. he extols the high enterprise and valeaunt- openly displayed itself when in the year ness' of the emperor-bewails' the myser- 1652, a French fleet was forced by stress able chaunces of wynde and wether, with of weather into their harbor, and the addyverse other adversities dable to move miral demanded the release of all his couneven a stonye hearte to pray to God for his trymen who happened to be confined in the ayde and succor.' town. A contemptuous refusal was the only answer vouchsafed by the pirates; and the Frenchman retaliated this insult by carrying off in durance the Turkish viceroy and his principal cadi. Maddened by this abduction, the Algerines swept the coast of France with fire and sword; and a buecaneering warfare commenced between the two coasts of the Mediterranean. But though unattempted by the govern- Louis XIV. at length determined to chasment of Spain, such a fair field for chival- tise the insolence of the corsairs in the rous enterprise could not remain long un- most signal manner, and he announced his occupied. John Gascon, a young Valen- intention of laying Algiers in ashes. The tian noble, was the next who volunteered reply of the dey to this threat tells more to break a lance for the security of travel- for his humor than his patriotism. Let lers. His plan, though rash, was not ill-him,' quoth he, 'send me half the money imagined. Assembling a few adventurous it would cost him, and I will do it for friends, he sailed straight to Algiers, and, him more effectually.' The pirate's coolfavored by the night, approached unchal-ness, however, did not avail him, for lenged the famous Mole-gate. Had his the celebrated Du Quense, with the aid machinery been equally prompt with his of bomb-vessels (which had then been courage, he would have avoided his subse- recently invented by Bernard Renaud, quent fate, and the questionable advantage a young French artisan) found little diffiof ranking among the martyrs of Spain. But gunnery and all the arts subsidiary to it were at that period in their infancy, and bad powder marred many a hopeful design, and sacrificed many a brave soldier. The fire-ships destined to blow up the Algerine fleet would not explode, and the chivalrous Gascon scorning to escape unperceived, struck his dagger into the Mole-gate, and It was not, however, only by the secular left it sticking there, in fatal derision of arm that efforts were from time to time their careless sentinels. A race for life or made to rescue unhappy Christians from death followed; but the long polaccas of paynim bondage. The court of Rome exthe pirates gained rapidly on the Spanish vessels, though urged with all the energy of despairing men; and a torturing death, to which it would be useless to do more than allude, ended the career of the gallant but rash Valentian. culty in fulfilling the threat of his sovereign; and the humbled and frightened inhabitants, after having endeavored to atone for their resistance by murdering its promoter-a common expedient enough in despotic governments-obtained peace from France, and leisure to recruit their coffers by depredations elsewhere. erted its influence in their cause, and under her auspices, a society of monks-the Mathurin Trinitarian Fathers-established themselves at Fontainebleau, from whence from time to time they despatched bands of missionary traders to traffic with the slaveThe Quixotic attempt of John Gascon merchants of Algiers. Their design was was not the only one directed against Al- humane, and it would be unjust to sneer giers by the prowess of individuals. In because the friars yearned after the acquithe year 1635, four young Frenchmen re-sition of sequins, as well as of communisolved to win renown by reducing this nest cants. of freebooters with a single privateer. Their expedition, though not so tragical in its termination as that we have just related, was not more successful. Its only effect was to leave in the minds of the Algerines a rankling enmity to the French flag, which in time surpassed their hereditary dislike to that of Spain. This feeling first Philemon de la Motte is the Chaucer of these ambi-dextrous pilgrimages, and he evidently considers the chance of reward for himself and his associates in another world, as unaffected by the trivial circumstance of their having made it answer' in the present. And perhaps he is right. The immediate effect, however, of this philanthropic bartering was unfortunate, Jington did not, indeed, send his picture, for the Algerines found the traffic so much but he despatched deputies with plenary to their mind, that to replenish their stock powers to purchase, at any reasonable more rapidly than they could do by casual price, the captured Americans. But the captures on the sea, they commenced again bill was heavy, and made out with comharassing the coast of Spain with maraud-mercial accuracy: 2 Passengers at 4000 14 Seamen 66 at 1400 . 18,000 8,000 8,000 19,600 53,600 For Custom 11 per cent. 5,896 Total 59,496 ing incursions; and their spoliation became For 3 Captains at 6000 dollars each re-embarked thein and returned home. dier of fortune. that time afford, and several years elapsed before such of the prisoners as had survived their treatment, were liberated. This was more than America could at Hitherto we have seen the wicked' flour ishing like a green bay-tree;' but the climax is past; humanity re-asserts her rights; and we Punishment, are about to record the During the struggle between Napoleon and the allied powers, Algiers was but little heeded. In vain did the expectant pirates, «Gaze where some distant sail a speck supplies, With all the thirsting eye of enterprise." Hitherto the states of Europe alone had been insulted by the corsairs, but we have now to recount their relations with a transAtlantic power. On the first appearance For under the policy of Buonaparte comin the seas of the white stars of the United merce languished almost to inanition-and States, the dey inwardly rejoiced, and at a crisis when the liberties of Europe promised himself and his associate thieves hung suspended in the balance, few vesmost thoroughly to despoil the infant re- sels cared to cross the seas unless guarded public then struggling into existence. An by the all-sufficient protection of an EngAmerican vessel was soon captured, and lish frigate. But when the fall of Napoleon with a coolness that recalls to the mind the gave tranquillity once more to the world, grim politeness sometimes recorded of the and men began again to busy themselves more civilized 'minions of the moon,' his with trade, and in the pursuit of riches, the highness consoled his captives, while su-piracies committed by the states of Barperintending the riveting of their manacles, bary became once more the subject of rewith praises of the immortal Washington,' mark and indignation. and conjured Congress, in answer to its demands for their liberation, to send him that general's portrait, that he might always have before his eyes the asserter of independence and liberty.' England, which had just chastised, at such a fearful cost to herself, the great archrobber of Europe, was not likely to permit the petty depredations of a few insignificant states to remain any longer unreprov America, although in no mood for jest-ed. To her, as the constituted protectress ing, was at that time unable to resent this of the civilized world, seemed naturally to impertinence of Omar, son of Mohammed. belong the office of exterminating th s nest Her contest with England had, indeed, of robbers. Accordingly, in the year 1816, proved triumphant; but another such vic- a discussion arose in parliament, on the tory would have been her ruin, and she had motion of Mr. Brougham, as to the proprieemerged from the conflict crippled and re-ty of our compelling the piratical governsourceless. Though sorely against her nents of Algiers, Tripoli and Tunis, to will she was compelled to eat the leek' observe the conventionalities of the law of proffered her by the insolent dey. Wash-nations in their intercourse with other states. Up to this period our own rela-ing that, by force of arms: first, the unetions with them had been on the whole quivocal abolition of Christian slavery; amicable. In the time of Elizabeth, in-secondly, the recognition of the Ionian deed, Sir E. Mansel had conducted thither Islands as possessions of our crown; and an expedition, which he mismanaged so lastly, an equitable peace for the kingdoms much as to weaken in some degree the in- of Sardinia and Naples. fluence of our flag; and Admiral Blake The appearance of the English squadron still later had stormed the Goletta, at Tu-off the coast of Barbary apparently sufficed nis, in revenge for some insults offered to to obtain all these concessions. With revessels under our protection, and had pre-gard, indeed, to the article respecting slasented himself before Algiers, and demand- very, the Dey of Algiers demurred, and ed satisfaction from that city also. The suddenly remembering his allegiance as a Algerines bid him do his worst; and Blake, vassal of the Ottoman empire, which had after having curled his whiskers,' (his long since become merely nominal in its constant custom, it is said, when irritated,) character, suggested the necessity of obcaptured two of their vessels, and compelled taining the concurrence of the Sublime them to sue for peace. These misunder- Porte. standings, however, had been only tempo- Lord Exmouth, on the dey's first answer, rary and in the reign of Charles I. a which was a point blank refusal, had vigortreaty had been concluded with them, ously prepared for hostilities; but this latter which was then still subsisting, and had proposal threw him off his guard. His been adhered to on their parts with toler-lordship's honest English heart was no able fidelity. Some, therefore, urged, that, match for the cunning of the Algerine, under these circumstances, it was incon- whose only object was to gain time for finsistent with good faith on our part to com- ishing the defences of his capital. Unsusmence hostilities; and it was moreover, picious of this ulterior object, he even suggested that, waiving the question of placed a frigate at his command, in order right or wrong, success itself would be doubtful; for it was by no means an easy exploit to bombard a city in which all the houses were flat-roofed, and built of stone, after the fashion of Rosetta and Buenos Ayres. that the desired permission might be more speedily obtained-and, contenting himself with stipulating for a final answer to his demands at the end of three months, sailed back to England, where the fleet was paid off. To these arguments, however, it was re- Hardly, however, had this been accomplied with irresistible force by the promo-plished, when tidings arrived of an outrage ters of the Algerine expedition, that the so cruel and unprovoked, that we scarcely pirates, by indiscriminately attacking all na- know whether to admire the folly or the tions they fancied weaker than themselves, treachery of the dey under whose orders it had become hostes humani generis, and was perpetrated. out of the pale of ordinary treaties; that The town of Bona, to the east of Algiers we merely owed our own exemption from in the province of Constantina, has from a insult to the salutary dread they entertained very early period been famous for the exof British guns; that as to the difficulty of cellence and abundance of the coral found the enterprise, it did not become those who in the gulf of the same name on which it is had sustained the hostility of Europe, to situated. These fisheries had been forflinch from punishing half-disciplined bar- merly in the hands of the Catalans, then of barians; and, finally, that it was not in- the Genoese, and afterwards of the French, tended to interfere with their independ- under whom the Compagnie d'Afrique' at ence, but simply to compel their adherence one time rivalled in wealth and prosperity to those principles, in their foreign inter-our own Hudson's Bay Company.' Orecourse, which humanity and justice ren- gon however is not the only debatable terridered imperative on every government. tory in the world, and those coral banks These considerations prevailed; in the often changed masters. At length, in 1807, summer of the same year, a fleet was placed England was duly invested by the dey with under the command of Edward Pellew, the seignorial possession of this fishing staAdmiral Lord Viscount Exmouth; and that officer was directed to obtain from the Aboulfeda, who flourished about the year 700 of * The coral fisheries of Bona are mentioned by several states of Algiers, Tripoli, and the Hej ra, in his Tunis, if possible by negotiation, but fail-Magreb.' VOL. VIII.-No. II. 49 Description du Pays du tion; and at the time of Lord Exmouth's ernments; and for ample satisfaction for the expedition it was occupied for the most part by Genoese, Neapolitan, or Sardinian traders, under the protection of our flag. Upon this defenceless colony, as soon as the now hated sails of the English fleet had disappeared, the dey of Algiers, with all the wayward folly of a child, poured out his pent up indignation. His soldiers laid waste the town, massacred many of the inhabitants and enslaved the remainder; and, failing there, wreaked their vengeance upon the English flags, which they tore to ribands and dragged through the mire in insane triumph. insults offered to our own. Three hours were all that was to be allowed the dey for deliberation, and M. Salemé was directed to return at the expiration of that time if no answer was previously given. Even this short interval was considered too long by the gallant spirits on board our fleet. Salemé,' playfully exclaimed an officer of the Queen Charlotte, as the interpreter stepped over the side into his boat, if you return with an answer from the dey, that he accepts our conditions without fighting, we will kill you instead!' And that the same ardor animated the whole fleet, their subsequent conduct abundantly testified. followed in the wake of the Queen Charlotte, and took up their allotted stations with admirable precision. The commotion excited in England by this burst of foolish fury may easily be im- At the expiration of the appointed time, agined. It had at least the effect of silenc-Salemé returned without any reply from his ing those disposed to advocate conciliatory highnesss, and at the same instant a light measures with the pirates, and Lord Ex-breeze springing up, Lord Exmouth gave mouth set off again for the Mediterranean the signal for advance. Turning the head with the full determination not to be again of his own ship towards the shore he ran deceived by his highness. across the range of all the batteries withOn arriving at Gibraltar, Lord Exmouth out firing a shot, and lashed her to the was joined by the Dutch admiral Van Cap-main-mast of an Algerine brig which lay pillen, who had been ordered by his govern- about eighty yards from the mole that enclosment to co-operate with the British com-ed the inner harbor. The other vessels mander, and the combined fleet set forward in company for the coast of Barbary. The dey now felt that he must throw away the scabbard; and on a frigate appearing in the port of Algiers to take off the English consul, Mr. Macdonald, he placed that gentleman in chains, and hearing to his vexation that his wife and daughter had effected their escape in the dresses of midshipmen, he ordered two boats belonging to the frigate which happened to be in the harbor to be detained with their crews. When these fresh misdemeanors were reported by the fair fugitives on their arrival on board the fleet, they of course added new fuel to the general indignation, and on the 17th of August, Lord Exmouth anchored his fleet, which consisted of twenty-five English and five Dutch vessels, three or four leagues from Algiers, in no mood to digest any further coquetry on the part of the dey. A dead silence prevailed during these evolutions; the Algerines were taken by surprise, and their guns were not shotted, so that a brief interval elapsed during which the scene must have been one of the most thrilling interest. This frightful repose was soon broken. The Algerines took the initiative, and a gun fired athwart the poop of the admiral's vessel begun the battle. A furious cannonade on both sides continued for several hours without intermission. The bombboats belonging to our fleet pressed forward close under the batteries, and caused immense havoc among the troops which crowded the mole; and, when at last the enemy's fire became more slack, an explosion ship which had been kept in reserve was brought forward close under the walls, and the devastating effects it produced completed their confusion. His lordship's interpreter, M. Salemé, was immediately despatched with a letter containing the ultimatum of the English admiral. His demands were brief and The total cessation of the enemy's fire stern; though not more so than the con- towards the close of the evening convinced duct of his highness fully justified. In ad- Lord Exmouth that his victory was complete, dition to our previous requisitions, they and he therefore drew off his vessels out of comprised stipulations for the immediate gun-shot, and early the next day despatched delivery of all Christian slaves without ran-Salemé with a second note to the dey, re-itsom; for the settlement of the grievances erating the demands which had been treated of the Sardinian, Sicilian and Dutch gov- so disdainfully the preceding morning. At the same time preparations were made for | became evident that even plunder had berenewing the bombardment, but they were come a secondary object with the Algerine unnecessary. The haughty Algerine was government; and that hatred to the French effectually humbled. The greatest part of power was now the ruling passion by which his capital was reduced to ashes, and his it was actuated. Among the signs which very palace at the mercy of our troops; from time to time gave evidence of this his ships were burnt or taken, and his nu- hostile feeling was a tax, which in 1824 merical loss was very great. Under these Hassein Pasha levied on all French goods circumstances no alternative remained to of whatever description; and as may easily him. A gun was fired in token of his ac- be imagined, the French, the most irascible ceptance of the terms offered, and an officer people in the world, bore with the utmost imwas sent on shore to superintend the em- patience these marks of enmity, and eagerly barkation of the liberated slaves, and the longed for some occasion for an open rupture. restoration of the immense sums the dey When both sides were thus ripe for a quarhad from time to time exacted from the rel, an opportunity was sure to present itSardinian and Neapolitan governments as self, and the petulant ill-temper of the dey ransom for their captured subjects. The furnished a causa belli perfectly legitimate. demeanor of his highness on this trying oc- Upon some trivial dispute with the French casion was very entertaining. The most consul, his highness so far forgot his dignibitter pill appears to have been the apology, ty and his safety, as to strike him across the which we required on behalf of our con- face with a fly-flap he held in his hand; and sul. Seated cross-legged on his divan, the this outrage being followed by an attack dey sulkily gave the requisite orders for the on some French establishments near Bona, freedom of the slaves, and even the deliv-war was declared. A blockade commenced ery of the treasure; but when Salemé hint- which continued for three years, greatly to ed that now was the proper time to ask par- the expense of France, but not much to the don of Mr. Macdonald for the insults to annoyance of the Algerines, who being able which he had been exposed, his highness to draw boundless resources from the inshook his head, and puffed his chibouque in all the bitterness of wounded pride. But the English officer was inexorable, and Omar at length muttered, that M. Salené might say for him what he pleased. This is not sufficient,' was the answer, 'you This unpardonable breach of the laws of must dictate to the interpreter what you in-legitimate warfare put all France in comtend to express.' And the dey at last motion. The national honor had been outcomplied. More than a thousand slaves raged in the most open manner, and it on this occasion were restored to liberty, must be as openly vindicated. It was thereand as they embarked on board the vessels fore resolved, not only to visit the authors employed to convey them to Europe, they of this crime with condign punishment, but exclaimed in grateful chorus: 'Viva il Red' also to take that opportunity of repairing Ingliterra, il padre eterno! è il ammiraglio the recent dismemberment of the French Inglese che ci ha liberato di questa secondo colonial possessions, by reducing Algeria Inferno!' Among them were inhabitants itself to a province, and establishing there from almost every state of Europe, but sin-a permanent French supremacy. This progularly enough not a single Englishman. The punishment which England thus inflicted seemed severe enough to have produced caution, if not penitence; but the habits of the Algerines were too inveterate to be changed. Under Ali, the successor of Omar, who did not long survive his disasters, they returned to their old courses; and so early as 1819, a combined fleet of French and English vessels were compelled to threaten a second bombardment, if their flags were not respected. But from the moment that the last Dey of of Algiers, Hassein Pasha, succeeded to the divan, it terior, treated the blockading fleet with contempt, and at length fired on the ship of Admiral de la Bretonniere, which had approached their harbor bearing offers of accommodation. ject pleased every body. The patriot exulted in the idea of rivalling, if not eclipsing the splendor of England in the East; the philanthropist anticipated the blessings which would enure to Africa from European civilization; and the speculatist already saw himself possessed of the rich plain of the Metidja, and the orange gardens of Koleah and Blidah, whose fame had even at that time penetrated to Paris, and had there excited a mania for foreign acquirements not unlike that which raged in the days of Law and the Mississippi Scheme. Having thus determined upon the subju |