governments, whose very establishment is founded upon the law of the strongest, plunder and proscription? It is indeed sincerely to be wished that a long and perpetual one may continue towards the debilitated states of Italy, and unprotected Hanse Towns. But it is also of the first consequence to become thoroughly acquainted with the objects of our just apprehension in order clearly to ascertain the best measures of precaution against their machinations, let us besides keep in mind the crying injuries we have for so long a period experienced at the hands of these merciless people, as another means of guarding against future aggression.
Under all these considerations, it will not perhaps be either useless or uninteresting to narrate the circumstances attending a late voyage to the inauspicious coast of Barbary, made by a person, who was transported thither by one of those dreadful calamities, which, to the shame of civilization, human nature has been for many centuries doomed ineffectually to deplore. In the following pages the author proposes to describe what he has witnessed, and draw as faithful a picture as he can of the melancholy scenes and dreadful atrocities which his evil genius destined him to see in one of the piratical states. Those parts of his work which relate to government, manners and customs, or the interior which he had no opportunity of visiting, are derived from the best and most intelligent authorities he could find during his residence in Algiers; and he is only induced to offer them. from a conviction of their authenticity. The whole is submitted to the public with those imperfections which are, no doubt, profusely scattered through the work; but however multiplied these may be, the author confidently relies on the impartiality of its decision in favour of a book written for the sole purpose of aiding the cause of religion, justice, and humanity.