The Pirates Own Book (50 page)

When it was broad day, we once more applied to the sentinel, to point
out the way to the nearest house or town, which he did, directing us to
a house about two miles distant; but our feet were so raw and blistered
by the sun that it was long before we could get this short journey over;
and then, the owners of the house, concluding from our garb that we came
with a pilfering design, presented a fowling-piece, charging us to
stand. The first of our number, who could speak the language of the
country, mildly endeavored to undeceive him, saying, we were a company
of poor creatures, whom the wonderful providence of God had rescued from
the slavery of Algiers, and hoped that he would show mercy to our
afflictions. The honest farmer, moved with our relation, sent out
bread, water and olives. After refreshing ourselves with these, we lay
down and rested three or four hours in the field; and, having given him
thanks for his charity, prepared to crawl away. Pleased with our
gratitude, he called us into his house, and gave us good warm bean
pottage, which to me seemed the best food I had ever ate. Again taking
leave, we advanced towards Majorca, which was about ten miles distant.

Next morning we arrived in the suburbs, where the singularity of our
attire, being barefoot and bare legged, and having nothing on except
loose shirts, drawn over our coats, attracted a crowd of enquirers. We
gave a circumstantial account of our deliverance; and, as they were
willing to contribute to our relief, they supplied us with food, wine,
strong waters, and whatever else might renovate our exhausted spirits.
They said, however, that we must remain in the suburbs until the viceroy
had notice of our arrival. We were called before him, and when he had
heard the account of our escape and dangers, he ordered us to be
maintained at his expense until we should obtain a passage to our own
country; and, in the meantime, the people collected money to buy clothes
and shoes.

From Majorca they proceeded to Cadiz, and from thence to England, which
they reached in safety.

Several expeditions at different periods were fitted out by different
European nations to chastise the pirates. The Emperor, Charles V., in
the plenitude of his power, sailed with a formidable armament in the
year 1541, and affected a landing. Without doubt he would have taken the
city, if a terrible storm had not risen, which destroyed a great part of
his fleet and obliged him to re-embark with his shattered forces in the
greatest precipitation. The exultation of the Algerines was unbounded;
they now looked on themselves as the special favorites of heaven; the
most powerful army which had ever attempted their subjection had
returned with the loss of one third their number, and a great part of
its ships and transports. Prisoners had been taken in such abundance,
that to show their worthlessness, they were publicly sold in the
market-place at Algiers, at an onion a head.

For nearly a century after this, little occurs of note in Algerine
history except a constant system of piracy. In 1655 the British Admiral
Blake gave them a drubbing.

The French were the next to attack these common enemies of Europe.
Admiral Duguesne commanded the expedition, and after bombarding the
place a short time, the Dey himself soon began to be terrified at the
destruction these new engines of naval war made, when an unfavorable
wind arising, compelled the fleet to make all sail for Toulon.

Relieved from the terror of immediate destruction, the Algerines
returned to their old ways, making descents on the coast of Provence,
where they committed the most dreadful ravages, killing, burning and
destroying all that came in their way. The Dey also recovered, not only
his courage, but his humor; for learning what a large sum the late
expedition against his city had cost, he sent to say, "that if Louis
would give him half the money, he would undertake to burn the whole city
to please him." The French accordingly sent a new expedition under the
same officers the next year. Duguesne again sailed, and in front of the
city was joined by the Marquis D'Affranville, at the head of five other
stout ships. A council of war was held and an immediate attack resolved
upon, in consequence of which, the vessels having taken up their
stations, a hundred bombs were thrown into the town during that day, and
as many more on the following night, when the town was observed to be on
fire in several places; the Dey's palace, and other public buildings
were in ruins; some of the batteries were dismounted, and several
vessels sunk in the fort. This speedy destruction soon determined the
Dey and Janissaries to sue for peace; and a message to this effect was
sent to Duguesne, who consented to cease firing, but refused to
negociate regarding terms, until all the captives taken fighting under
the French flag were given up as a preliminary step. This was agreed to,
and one hundred and forty-two prisoners immediately sent off. In the
mean time the soldiery becoming furious, assassinated the Dey and
elected a new one, who ordered the flag to be hoisted on the city walls.
Hostilities were now renewed with greater fury than before, and the
French admiral threw such volleys of bombs into the city, that in less
than three days the greatest part of it was reduced to ashes; and the
fire burnt with such vehemence that the bay was illuminated to the
distance of two or three leagues. Rendered desperate by the carnage
around him, the new Dey ordered all the French captives who had been
collected into the city to be cruelly murdered, and binding Father
Vacher, the French Resident, hand and foot, had him tied to a mortar and
fired off like a bomb against the French fleet. This wanton piece of
atrocity so exasperated Duguesne, that, laying his fleet as near land as
possible, he continued his cannonade until he had destroyed all their
shipping, fortifications, buildings; in short, almost the whole of the
lower town, and about two-thirds of the upper; when finding nothing else
which a naval force could do, and being unprovided for a land
expedition, he stood out leisurely to sea, leaving the Algerines to
reflect over the sad consequences of their obstinacy. For several years
after this they kept in the old piratical track; and upon the British
consuls making a complaint to the Dey, on occasion of one of his
corsairs having captured a vessel, he openly replied, "It is all very
true, but what would you have? the Algerines are a company of rogues,
and I am their captain."

To such people force was the argument; and in 1700 Capt. Beach, falling
in with seven of their frigates, attacked them, drove them on shore, and
burnt them. Expeditions at various times were sent against them, but
without effecting much; and most of the maritime nations paid them
tribute. But a new power was destined to spring up, from which these
pirates were to receive their first check; that power was the United
States of America.

In 1792 his corsairs, in a single cruise, swept off ten American
vessels, and sent their crews to the Bagnio, so that there were one
hundred and fifteen in slavery.

Negociations were at once set on foot; the Dey's demands had of course
risen in proportion to the number of his prisoners, and the Americans
had not only to pay ransom at a high rate, with presents, marine stores,
and yearly tribute, but to build and present to the Dey, as a
propitiatory offering, a thirty-six gun frigate; so that the whole
expenses fell little short of a million of dollars, in return for which
they obtained liberty for their captives, protection for their merchant
vessels, and the right of free trade with Algiers. The treaty was signed
September 5th, 1795; and from that time, up to 1812, the Dey continued
on tolerable good terms with Congress; indeed, so highly was he pleased
with them, in 1800, that he signified to the consul his intention of
sending an ambassador to the Porte, with the customary presents, in the
Washington, a small American frigate, at that time lying in the harbor
of Algiers. In vain the consul and captain remonstrated, and represented
that they had no authority to send the vessel on such a mission; they
were silenced by the assurance that it was a particular honor conferred
on them, which the Dey had declined offering to any of the English
vessels then in harbor, as he was rather angry with that nation. The
Washington was obliged to be prepared for the service; the corsair flag,
bearing the turbaned head of Ali, was run up to her main top, under a
salute of seven guns; and in this respectable plight she sailed up the
Mediterranean, dropped anchor before the seven towers, where, having
landed her cargo, she was permitted to resume her own colors, and was
thus the first vessel to hoist the American Union in the Thracian
Bosphorus.

In 1812, however, the Dey, finding his funds at a low ebb, and receiving
from all quarters reports that a wealthy American commerce was afloat,
determined on trying them with a new war. He was peculiarly unfortunate
in the time chosen, as the States, having about a month previously
declared war with Great Britain, had, in fact, withdrawn most of the
merchant ships from the sea, so that the only prize which fell into the
hands of the Dey's cruizers was a small brig, with a crew of eleven
persons. The time at length came for putting an end to these lawless
depredations, and peace having been concluded with England, President
Madison, in 1815, despatched an American squadron, under commodores
Bainbridge and Decatur, with Mr. Shaler, as envoy, on board, to demand
full satisfaction for all injuries done to American subjects, the
immediate release of such as were captives, the restitution of their
property, with an assurance that no future violence should be offered,
and also to negociate the preliminaries of a treaty on terms of perfect
equality, no proposal of tribute being at all admissible. The squadron
reached its destination early in June, and, having captured an Algerine
frigate and brig-of-war, suddenly appeared before Algiers, at a moment
when all the cruizers were at sea, and delivered, for the consideration
of the Divan, the terms on which they were commissioned to make peace,
together with a letter from the President to the Dey. Confounded by the
sudden and entirely unexpected appearance of this force, the Algerines
agreed, on the 30th of June, to the proposals of a treaty, almost
without discussion.

It had long been a reproach to Great Britain, the mistress of the sea,
that she had tamely suffered a barbarian power to commit such atrocious
ravages on the fleets and shores of the minor states along the
Mediterranean. At length a good cause was made for chastising them.

At Bona, a few miles to the east of Algiers, was an establishment for
carrying on a coral fishery, under the protection of the British flag,
which, at the season, was frequented by a great number of boats from the
Corsican, Neapolitan, and other Italian ports. On the 23d of May, the
feast of Ascension, as the crews of all the boats were preparing to hear
mass, a gun was fired from the castle, and at the same time appeared
about two thousand, other accounts say four thousand, infantry and
cavalry, consisting of Turks, Levanters, and Moors. A part of these
troops proceeded towards the country, whilst another band advanced
towards the river, where the fishing boats were lying at different
distances from the sea; and opening a fire upon the unfortunate
fishermen, who were partly on board and partly on land, massacred almost
the whole of them. They then seized the English flags, tore them in
pieces, and trampling them under foot, dragged them along the ground in
triumph. The men who happened to be in the country saved themselves by
flight, and declared that they saw the soldiers pillage the house of the
British vice-consul, the magazines containing the provisions, and the
coral that had been fished up. A few boats escaped, and brought the news
to Genoa, whence it was transmitted by the agent of Lloyd's in a
despatch, dated June 6th.

No sooner had the account of this atrocious slaughter reached England,
than all ranks seemed inflamed with a desire that a great and signal
punishment should be taken on this barbarian prince, who was neither
restrained by the feelings of humanity nor bound by treaties. An
expedition, therefore, was fitted out with all speed at Portsmouth, and
the command intrusted to Lord Exmouth, who, after some delays from
contrary winds, finally sailed, July 28th, with a fleet complete in all
points, consisting of his own ship, the Queen Charlotte, one hundred
and twenty guns; the Impregnable, rear admiral, Sir David Milne; ninety
guns; Minden, Superb, Albion, each seventy-four guns; the Leander fifty
guns, with four more frigates and brigs, bombs, fire-ships, and several
smaller vessels, well supplied, in addition to the ordinary means of
warfare, with Congreve rockets, and Shrapnell shells, the destructive
powers of which have lately been abundantly proved on the continent.
August 9, the fleet anchored at Gibraltar, and was there joined by the
Dutch admiral, Van Cappillen, commanding five frigates and a corvette,
who had been already at Algiers, endeavoring to deliver slaves: but
being refused, and finding his force insufficient, had determined on
joining himself with the English squadron, which it was understood was
under weigh. Meanwhile, the Prometheus, Captain Dashwood, had been sent
forward to Algiers to bring off the British consul and family; but could
only succeed in getting his wife and daughter, who were obliged to make
their escape, disguised in midshipmen's uniform; for the Dey, having
heard through some French papers of the British expedition, had seized
the consul, Mr. Macdonnell, and put him in chains; and, hearing of the
escape of his wife, immediately ordered the detention of two boats of
the Prometheus, which happened to be on shore, and made slaves of the
crews, amounting to eighteen men. This new outrage was reported to Lord
Exmouth soon after leaving Gibraltar, and of course added not a little
to his eagerness to reach Algiers. He arrived off Algiers on the morning
of the 27th of August, and sent in his interpreter, Mr. Salame, with
Lieutenant Burgess, under a flag of truce, bearing a letter for the Dey,
demanding reparation.