Star. — London, England, 1814-10-13 00:00:00

.3 iM B r coßsif.rßs. The following is an interesting Narrative of the treatment recently ex:erienced by a tnoit respectable individual (a British subject) who v..as taken by the Algerines, when on his voyage from England to in a vessel belonging to the latter country : 4. We set sad irorn the Island of St. Pietro, where we had taken shelter from several suspicious vessels that had been seen h.)vering around us th , 2 day before. The inhabitants of this iittle spot are a gcod and a peaceful people. They enjoy a perfect ire.edorn, and would be corn;iletely happy, but for the veil frequent landings and incursions of the AlgerineF, who some pew years ba,:k carried away the whole population to hard labour and slavery, from winch they were afterwards rescued by the munificence of the King of Uardinia. " The sun was slowly rising above the horizon, II when four sitspicioussail, the same which had been seen two days before, appeared in sight. On approaching nearer, the whole extent of our dangerous situation became mote evident. We immediately attempted to alter our course ; but by an unlucky fatality, the wind, which hitherto had been rather fresh, failed us on a sud.ien. An iron hand seemed to fasten us to the waves. The seamen b stupified by terror and grief , at the sight of those well-known ships, forgot their duties, and nothing was attempted for our safety.— For six long hours did we remain in this awful state of suspense, till at last the four strange sail, which we now made out to be the Algerine squadron, came within pistol-shot of us. Their boats were soon hoisted out, and we were boarded in an instant, amidst the clash cf naked scinietars, and the heart-rending, hor rible noise of the most barbarous and insulting exul tation. As soon as the vessel had been taken pos. session of, and part of the passengers, amongst whom I found myself, had been handcuffed and thrown ipto the boats, we were taken on board their flag-ship. —On our arrival thither, the Turks and the Moors raised their ferocious shouts of victory, and we were dragged before the first Rais, who assigned to the whole of us a most wretched hole in the cable tier, surrounded by darkness, and lying upon hard coils of ropes ! Who shall describe the horrors of our situa tion ? It seemed to us a dream full of horrible sha dows and unreal mockery. On all parts we were assailed by the cries of desrair. The sullen blasphe mies of the sailor, our fellow-sufferer ; the impreca tions of the unhappy father, who had left his children behind him.; the loud grief of the weeping mothers; arid the sobs of the innocent babes, reached us from every point of this dar k abode, and deafened onr ears! 0 Gon! what a eight ! " We continued ci nizing for two-and-twenty days in search rf prey, ourselves become corsairs ; and two basons of /u.icurv: formed our daily focd. Lock. man v. - as asked, ashy he travelled in company with ei ? ' Ti) see how they have contrived to be come so wicked and profl.gate,' was his reply. " At lair Alters came in view, and such had been our state of uncertain and tormenting suspense, as well as the treatment which we had experienced on board of the Algei ate frigate, that we hailed the capital of those free-benters with the same joy with which the Knights of Christ bowed to the Sarine of Jerusalem. We were landed amidst a noisy multitude, who followed us to the house in which the Mi..isters of the Regency were ranged in a barbifous attire.— Here we found bc , l . .h the Consul and Vice-Consul of Great Britain, and we tremblingly awaited fur the great sentence which was to decide our destiny. Our papers were examined, and in spite of the efforts' inade in our favour by the Consul, M. Macdonald, our vessel arid cargo were condemned as lawful prize, and ourselves sent to the Bagno, or. great Galley.—, There we were told that all were slaves who set their feet in that place ; and there was written on those gates as on those of hell, " Uscite dl speranaa o Voi, the entrate." " The troubles and agitation of our mind may be more readily imagined than described. We, accus tomed to live among civilized nations, and in the so ciety of genteel and amiable people, to be thus con demned to pass our miserable days amidst barbarians! We, coming from happy England, from the seat of true liberty and the sacred laws, to be robbed of our freedom and property, to be insulted and made wretched by a contemptible race of slaves and assas sins ! And in what times—in what circumstances ? Wl.en the sun of liberty dawned on the world—when, after so many years of calamity, Europe began to ...hope for some serene days—when, in fine, we could have returned to our own country, and to the enjoy ment of long-suspended tranquillity. And shall we, at such a time, be condemned to drag a miserable existence as slaves, and die on the wretched shores of Africa ? I had been given to understand that great inte rest had been made for me ; and in fact, a Turkish soldier cantle to us to desire that I, in particular, might be treated with some respect. Rape bcgari to cheer tr a y dt. jectvii cenntenance. But evening came, srd with it the fatal badges of slavery. The fetters which each slave carries to his feet, were brought, and, as a special mark of favour, I was permitted to wait till next day, when I should be suffered to put them on myselt. • iat dawn of day our jailors waked us, and we pr. hared ourselves to march off to the morning la b.:ti:i. si.2!it of those fitters harrowed up my and it shrunk within me. I grasped them with my parched and convulsive Lands, and encircled my legs with them, while teats of rage ran down pny c:letks, and a chilly shuddering shook all my limbs, To HEAVEN I then raised my hands—my head sunk how on my breast, and I surrendered myself in silent sorrow to my wretched destiny. • • The same day on which I saw my ltgs encircled by tie letteit; of slavery, I was srt free throsth the intercesson of iLc liri!klt Consul. I have not suf- ficient expiessiuns to thank that worthy Minister as he deserves. That life which I owe to his kind and powerful intercession, will be for ever conse,trated to his service. t , Two hours after this happy event, I was told th.rt I might go to the port and recover my baggage, but every thilig had vanished—all was lost. The linen, dresses, trinkets, a good sum of money, and even the trunks themselves were no where to be fouad, and I was left in a state of absolute wretchedness.— Even a box of choice books, although entirely useless to those barbarians, bad disappeared ; bin they said, perhaps, as that Caliph who set fire to the library of Alexandria, g , if :hero books are conformable to the Alcomn they are useless—if contrary to it they ought to be burned." _ . ‘g What grieves me more, however, is the irrepa rable loss of all my manuscripts. This very nume rous collection of inedited papers, in prose. and in verse, to which I intended devoting part of my time in preparing them for the press, formed the principal objects of my voyage, and promised me some delight ful occupation :tad a flattering prospect. Alas ! all is gone. Six ye:us labour, reseal diel, and meditation, are last for ever ; as are the wish and courage of writing again in future. I longed for an honourable employment of my time, and find myself condemned to ignominious indolence and obscurity—to a life without an object, and without any brilliant illusion. Alfieri used to say, that in order to insure content, a man ought either to be full of some noble passion, or have in view some noble object. It was Om opinion of Lord Rochester, that to live a happy and a merry life, one ought either to write fine things, or perform things worthy of being written. 66 Without some ray of glory—without the warmth of some noble sentiment, life is not worth having.-- This agitation of feelings, or this vanity, if you chose to call it so, will be readily forgiven to any unfortu nate author. It is well known that when Camoens was shipwrecked, he swam ashore .with one hand, while with the other he kept his immortal poem above the water. " The servant-maid of the celebrated lyric poet Le Brun, appearing one day before him with all his ma nuscripts in her hands, threatened him to consign all his glory to the flames if he did not marry her. Le Brun, frightened at the imminent danger in which his verses were of being reduced to ashes, and of thus losing his hopes of immortality, sent iur a lawyer immediately and married her. I am neither Camoens nor Le Brun, but every one loves his children, and to save my own manuscripts I could" hive married the Bey's grandmother. "During the few days which I continued in Africa, living in the country, and at the house of the British Consul, I used to go every morning into town to visit my unfortunate companions, and particularly the two brothers, Messrs. Terrens of Leghorn, one a respectable merchant, the other an excellent painter. They were both slaves in Algiers, and by special fa vour exempt from the public labours. My visits could be but short, and I always returned full of sorrow from that horrible city. The heart feels op pressed and heavy within the walls of Algiers—it seems as if you breathed with difficulty and pain in that land of terror and despotism. " The sight of tyrants and slaves, of oppressors and oppressed, of haughty barbarians and unhappy wretches—that contrast of arrogance and submisAon, of vi . fence and fear—the possibility of being insulted and ill-treated with impunity, of being imprisoned and pat to death on a mere suspicion or whim of an absclute tyrant—all tended to render one miserable, to disturb and agitate the mind, and finally to sus pend even the faculty of thinking. " Whoever has not experienced what slavery is, and has not seen what takes place in Algiers, does not know the most horrible of all misfortunes, and in what state of wretchedness and dejection the mind of an unhappy mortal may fall. There were in Algiers above 1600 slaves, and every year more than one hundred die of anger and sorrow, or from fatigue and repeated blows. Shut up every night in the Bagno, the naked earth is the it bed in places open to the wind and rain. They are called tip again at the dawn of day, and hurried with heavy blows to their daily hard labours, which last till evening. " Some amongst them are employed in the arse nal, and for the smallest transgression they Pre un mercifully beaten, even to the infliction of five hun dred strokes of bastinado. Others are condemned like beasts to drag or carry huge stones from the mountains, and often fall and are buried under those ample ruins. I have seen some of them return to town mutilated and reeking with blood—l have seen them fall on the road, and be obliged, like the vilest brute, to rise under the infliction of heavy and re peated blows, whilst others would suffer the treat ment, and remain prostrate and insensible, waiting and wishing for death. " The nourishment of these wretches consists of, two loaves of bread in the morning, and one in the' evening—a bread as black as charcoal, and bitter as poison. They are all miserable, without hope or comfort—they are despised, insulted, and ill-treated by the Moorish and Turkish rabble. Without mi nisters or the exercise of religion, these poor aban doned wretches are deprived even of the consolations deriving from them. There is onlyone poor priest, paid' by Spain, who has the care of a small hospital, and attends to the burying of Christians. Some years ago, I before Spain had bought the present small cemetery, the poor deceased Christian slaves were denied the sacred rites of sepulture, and remained in the open air apt): rid food for the dogs. _ _ " Unfortunakely the ransom is rendered extremely difficult on account of the cleat sums they demarld., The Bey asked fifteen hundred piastres for every Si. cilian individual ; the predominant passions of these barbarians being avarice and ambition, they think of little else but of getting money. " The Bey and some other families are possessed •f immense riches. Justice with him is summary, harsh, and arbitrary ; every thing is corrupted and bought with gold. The A lgerines are cunning, wicked, and perspicacious. To know how to deceive and avoid deception is what forms their great politi cal study, and they bast of it. " The present Bey, Hadgy.Aly-Pascie, is the most cruel and ferocious of any that Algiershas ever had. He is in the sixth year of his reign, and owes this long duration to his extreme vigilance and cru elty. His government is made up of injustice, vio lence, and desrtism. There is, indeed, a Regency in Algiers, composed of several Ministers, and a Divan of c ld Agas, but both these bodies are subser vient to tho imperious will of the tyrant, or are de spised by him. Whenever he shews himself to the public, numerous guards surround him on every side, and the people, not daring to lcok the monster in the face, fall prostrate to the ground, and exclaim Sala meleck, as he palsos. This fellow boasts that his king. dom is a cave of robbers. He once complained that the English had taken a small vessel belonging to him, and on that occasion he observed to them -- c It is wrong in you to do so; if wz do it, it is because we are robbers, and I am at the head of them.'—lt is quite an enigma, that with so small a naval force as these scoundrels have, and so ill managed as their corsairs are, they should be the terror of the seas, and the desolation of the neighbouring countries. —While Christian nations are making long and de structive wars against each other, for trivial objects, often from mere rivaiship and ambition, they allow these infidels, who are the perpetual enemies of the civilised world, to trample on every right and the laws of nations—to destroy commerce—ta annihilate the mutual exchange of benefits deriving from the intercourse of one kingdom with another—to give to war an atrocious aspect ; and they sufFer that the in habitant of civilised Europe should become the slave of a Mahometatt and a barbarian ! Oh, shame ! shame on her who is Quern of the Seas ! Europe expects from England security of n.tvigatiun, and England owes it to her high character to obtain it.— We should never cease to call aloud for war—for a war of extermination against the African monsters, against the ferocious tyrants cf Barbary !" GIBRALTAR, SEII'EMBIR 17. WEEKLY RETURN Or SICK AND DEATHS, FROM THE 10TH TO THE 16TH SEPTEMBER INCLUSIVE. Lazaret. Town. Total. Remained 9th Sept. 8 22 30 Admitted since - 33 35 70 • Total - - 46 54 100 Convalescents - 54 13 31 Deaths - - 10 12 Remaining - - 12 27 (Signed) W. W. Fa...sae, Acting Deputy Inkpector of t The admissions of fever cases have matel ially de creased in the regiment of Dillon for these 1 - .1%t few days.. The rest of the garrisna continue as last week. A Lieutenant of Dillon's, and two merchants (their names, I believe, Moons and Nlet.vim,x) art. the (Ill) deaths during the week, except among people of the humblest class, to whom, in a great measure, the fever seems confined. Every possible precaution continue to be taken to prevent the contagion spreading. crYrroiv T RADE. From Cadiz, of the 20th ult. we have received the following mitigation of the Decree regarding Cotton, extending the tvrni for the exportation of the commo dity to the List day of the present year. ROYAL MANDATE. MOST EXCELLENT• SlR—His Majesty the King being made acquainted by a petition made by several merchants of your city, in cancurrence with the Chamber of Commerce of the said city, with the se vere losses occasioned by not proroguing the licence, granted by the Government on the 29th of Novem ber last, to export to America fine English cotton goods, and further made acquainted with the repre sentations made to this effect to the Secretary of State by his Excellency.. the English Ambassasbr strength ening the said petition, on the grounds of the aforesaid disadvantages, and accumulated losses suffered by thv ra :retrains, unless a vent was opened to goods which they have imported, confiding in a prorogation of the licence, and owing to having paid into the Custom- House of the said city considerable sums for duties. " His Majesty desiring to obviate such inconveni encies, and in consideration of the insinuations made by the said English Ambassador, has been pleased to order that affix your Excellency his taken an exact account of all the cotton goods that may have been im ported, and have paid the duties in the Custom-house of that city up to the date of the receipt of this order, wit:: the ex press purpose of re-exporting them to America, the said exportation be freely permitted (under the con ' ditions with which the license was originally granted) until 31st December of the present ye ir, without leave to petition a further prorogation ; as it om Ist January, 1815, the licencegranted in 29. h August, 1813, is to be continued to the Philippine Company t constitute its privileges. " Charging your Eseellency, the Administrator of the Custom,house, and all those employed in it, to ex. erci,e a most scrupulous exactness in informing your selves, by all possible means, respecting all the goods which have been imported and have paid duties, in order that the goods only may be permitted to be ex ported, for which alone his M ijesty grants this prom. gallon. Which Royal Order 1 forward to your Ex cellency, fur your Excellency's information and its punctual observance. May Goo preserve you, &c. " Madrid, Sept 18, m 1 4." GONGORA." " To his Excellency the Governor of Cadiz." FRENCH PAPERS. VIENNA SEPTEMBER Yesterday her Majesty the Empress of Russia arrived in this capital. The Empress of Austria went to a certain distance to meet her. The Emperor of Austria, accompanied by the Emperor of Russia, set out a little later. All these great personages having met at the church of Maria-Brunn, the two Empresses and the two Empercrs mounted an open carriage, and, escorted by a iletachirent of the no , Ic German and Hungarian Guards, and the Pages of the Court, proceeded to the Imperial Palace. A detach ment of Hulans opened, and another brought up the rear of the procession, which consisted or a long line of Austrian and Russian carriages. When the Empress of Russia alighted from her carriage, she was received by the Courts of Austria and Russia, and conducted to her apartments with the ceremonial customary on such occasions. Between twelve and one o'clock, all the Ladies who go to Court were presented in demi-gala to the Empress of Russia. Their Majesties the King and Queen of Bavaria, and the Prince Charles, arrived this evening, and were received with the honours due to their rank.— In the King's suite are his Minister the Count Mont. gelas, the Prince of Taxis, &c. We also count among the arrivals, the reigning Duke of Brunsu ick, Prince Anthony of Hohes.zAlcrn Signiaringrn, the Portuguts,. Ambassador, Count Palmela, and the Prince of li.tqlEs.Grcitr. SEPT. 2 2 9.-I'o-day there was a presentation cf Ladies to her Majesty the Queen of Bavaria. The august Sovereigns have paid mutual visits. According to the Au:trigs Observer, thefites will follow one another, in this order On the 29th there will be grand fire-wo ks in the Prater, and the Sovereigns will afterwards view the illuminations cf the city. On the 30th, in th e e ven i ng , a gran d drawing.' room and gala at Court. In the lust days of October, a grand ridotto for 10,000 persons ; some days afterwards, a grand ro . pular fete in the Augarten, a fete at Sclionbrunr., grand concert of 700 amateurs, ice. A grand fete is also announced for the even:ng of the 18th of October, the anniversary of the battle of Leipsic. It will be held in the Palace of Prince Met- I ternich, Minister for Foreign Affairs. They still talk of a pleasure camp of 60,030 men, to he formed of the regiments that ate in Moravia and Upper Austria. Tcere will be grand reviews cf these troops during the stay at the Allied Prince% One of our Journals remarks, that if earl, of te strangers who are now here, with the view of tnakl:ig come demand, Lai it subm;tted to discussion and et. cisioa, the Congress would last a century. it is frr this reason, that a Committee has been app Ant:d to examine these claims. FROXI Tug GAZETTE DE FRANCS. Nil reliente.— In every kind of business, tle t is the motto of the wise. Happy for mankind wasp it be comes a maxim of state for those who ere eel/et to the government of empire , ! It should sera, copi er certain restless spirits and impetieet puliticietts, tlat they think to pronsete the felicity of a nation reilelree no efforts. They will not perceive that the pri er . City of a country cannot be the work of 4 day, utiles; that care be taken to render the duration of that pre. sperity longer than the period employed in prepariog it: they neither consider what France was, nor %vie % France now is : they do not reflect that the slit:l:eh; which is in all cases experienced in doitee geed, is here augmented by the evil which has elreatly Lea done. Their precipitaticn will not allow to rtud.acl: time to canine, to Reason the faculty at choosing, nor to Expel - kr:cc the opportunity of i ureter illation. How profound in their conceptioes, erompt in their judgments, ardent in their wiebie.! GliC may ask these Gentlemen--bad )ou, during a limit silks of years, administered a rich and megnificent estate, in which, after a long absence, you tind eta • your return the land laid wage, the houses deorcyed, and the plains sterile, would you at once rebuild new editices, cover your uplands with wood, and 10W al your fields? More wise and circumspect, would y' u not rather take care that each of these labours shoele be performed in its turn? Yatt would study ai.ew the ground, you would consult the season, and above all, you would he far from expecting that harvest should precede cultiration.—Can it then be different with the Government of a country over which 25 years of revolution have passed ? It belongs only to the wisdom of PROVIDENCE to create and to rep use: human wisdom sees the good, desires it, prepares it, and advenres slowly towards it, in order to reach it with the greater e certainty, but enjoys no repose until that object be accomplished. To regulate our progress according to the extent of sp.tce through which we have to pass, is not to walk too slowly ; neither do we grasp too little when we hold merely that which we with to preset ve. Suet moderation, in.leed, no longer suits our tim.s, and yet what recent examples have we not had of disee. trous precipitancy ! Have we not seen ever thing un dertaken, every thing hurried, and every thing lost ? There is a time for forbearance, there is a time for a just firmness. That is not too late which does not rive until wanted. A skiltul watchmaker makes it his first object to understand the springs which are to form his work. He collects them, observes them, arid regulates their movements. The watch soon beers to go ; every moment it receives scene improvement; at length, regulated ir: all its parts, its motion equals that of time. When all the parts of the Empire shell li eve come, in their turn, under the attentive eye of the King, and have been the particular objects of his pa ternal care—when his wisdom and his informaticn shall successively have caused commerce to ti shall have restored to the Magistracy its lustre, shall have secured the privileges of the people, and :ball have caused the French Flag to & res i tectd 07 the re.u, as all Euriree already !inflow s and respects her stand irds —then shall we know how much vigilance end acti vity, if the expression may be allowed, belengs to this judicious delay. Then, henceforth, enjoying hap piness which'will be durable, because it will be the fruit of time, experience, and reflection, we will re peat, while we bless that ancient maxim of human prudence—Do nothing hastily—Mire/stele. The public Journals of Germany assure us, that the plague ravages Servia and Bosnia: Stalk) have died at Belgrade. The Austrian Government has taken every precaution to prevent it from p:netrain into Hungary. Coerussrs Pertrstc ?M....From the Jattxl In DAMS Rid its MOdtt.—Tke r.f.cr wL:ch we formerly men., 'sled, twin of beak in (tont, and are .loped towar Is 0.. temples. Among other new head-dre.scs, we have remarked borine.• with the Seim turned up in front, and whet.' tither turn -1 up on the # : the left side. The gauze which the mithaers at present use .s striped with chenille. These stripes are rather rose to tinn colour, or green. Some new stuff dime-cwt. are w .ts high collars, worn very open. Dresses which are made Inzh us the neck have a small collar of this kind trannscd with Black lace is now thsitu'ed fur black fringe nittn.l the was. ~ and falling collars of spencers of poppy-cokured ato.r.o.s. cite trimming and collars of these spencers are et black veer a. A Pamphlet entitled " Manair thltresid to the King in the month of July," appears to be trite of the writtligi which have attracted the notice of the French Govern.- , ment. M. Carnot, in a short letter, says it WAS pub lished without his consent, and coatrary to his mte3- don. This may be very true, but it will not acquit him of the offence of being the author, which is thus indirectly admitted. The title of the wick rung thus: " Memoir, &c. by M. Carnot, Lieutenant-General, Knight of the Royal and Military Order of St Louis, Member of the Legion of Honour, of the Institute of France," &c. The Journal des Delius contains a critique upon it, from which it arpears that t h e fol lowing are among the passages of the work considered must objectionable : " Tbey were tio: the regicides who voted for the dealt of the King. No; they were close rueaways who bay.: taken 0104 against their mother country. The others voted this Judges con-tituted by the nation, anti who are uet accountable to any person for their jotientent."—Again. " If the Judges of he King have brio wrong, they have been wrong with :he whole nation, whit.h called tor the j:idynlca:, anti a , terwards atlher/tIEO it by (no:nand' of Anitiresstb :Nat O: Commuoes "—Aral again, " Iney have been wrong, with all the nations of Europe eha have treated with then " The writer in the Journal des Debati comments tipoo these anJ other p.is:ages as he proceeds through the woik,which he censures in v er y strong terins , ► in. id a recrimination than a defence—and, in point ~ f 4r gument, totally unworthy of the reputed talents of its author. I t i s o b v i ous f rom t hi s explanatioo, t h at Cirnot is the regic de alluded to in the Paris l'Apers received on Saturship