# The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade/Chapter 6

Contents
CHAPTER VI.
Christian Slavery in Northern Africa.
Barbary is the general and somewhat vague denomination adopted by Europeans to designate that part of the northern coast of Africa which, bound-ed on the south by the desert of Sahara, is comprised between the frontiers of ​Egypt on the Mediterranean, and Cape Nun, the western spur of the lofty Atlas range, on the Atlantic. Imperfectly known even at the present day, in ancient legend it was peculiarly the land of mystery and fable. It was there the Grecian poets, giving their airy nothings a local habitation and a name, placed the site of the delightful gardens of Hesperides, whose trees bore apples of the purest gold; there dwelt the terrible Gorgon, whose snaky tresses turned all living things into stone; there the invincible Hercules wrestled and overthrew the mighty Antæus; there the weary Atlas supported the ponderous arch of heaven on his stalwart shoulders. Almost as mythical and mysterious is the little we know of the Phœnicians, the greatest maritime people of antiquity, who planted their most powerful colony, the proud city of Carthage, on these fertile shores of Northern Africa. Of the Carthaginians, we can glean a little from the Greek and Roman historians. We know that in turn becoming the rulers of the seas, they explored and founded colonies and trading-depots in what were at that time the most distant regions; extending their commercial relations from the tropical banks of the Niger to the frost-bound beach of the Baltic. A powerful people ere Rome was built, they long enjoyed their supremacy; at last, the thirst of territorial conquest brought the two great nations into rivalry, and the rich temples of Carthage fell a prey to the legions of Scipio. For a short period after the destruction of Carthage, the energetic subtlety of Jugurtha prevented the conquerors from extending their dominion; but in a few years, the whole coast, as far as the waves of the Atlantic, became a Roman province. It remained so till about the year 428 of the Christian era, in the reign of the Emperor Honorius, when Genseric, king of the Vandals, crossed over to Africa, conquered the Roman territory, and founded a dynasty which reigned for about 100 years. The Greek emperor Justinian then sent Belisarius to reconquer the country; he defeated the Vandals, made their king prisoner, and added Northern Africa to the Greek Empire.
History presents us with a series of conquering races, following each other as the waves upon the sea-beach, each washing away the impression made upon the sand by its forerunner, and each leaving a fresh impression to be washed out by its successor. The irruption of the Saracens followed hard upon the conquering footsteps of Belisarius. Swarm after swarm of the Arabs came up out of Egypt, till Northern Africa was under the rule of the caliphs, excepting a small part of the sea-coast held by the Spanish Goths. They at last were driven out by Musa, about the year 710; and then Tarik, Musa's lieutenant, crossing the narrow straits, carried the war into Europe, defeated Roderick, the last Gothic king, and laid the foundation of Arab dominion in Spain. The ruthless spirit of religious fanaticism which inspired the followers of Mohammed, destroyed everything it could not change. Romans, Vandals, Greeks, Goths, their laws, literature, and religions, all have disappeared in Northern Africa; the recollection of the most powerful of them is only preserved in the word Romi — a term of reproach to the Christians of all nations. Of their more material works, the learned antiquary still finds some traces of Roman ​edifices, and the remains of a sewer are supposed to indicate the site of Car- thage. The warlike enthusiasm of the Saracens was better adapted for making conquests than for preserving them. The great distance from the seat of em- pire, the revolutions caused by rival houses contending for the caliphate, the ambitious projects of the viceroys inclining them to league with native chiefs, led to a dissolution of the Arabian power in Northern Africa. Consequently, when the dawn of modern history begins to throw a clearer light upon the scene, we find the territory divided into a number of petty sovereignties.
The Saracens in Africa intermixing with the barbarous native tribes, never reached the high position in the arts of peace and civilization attained by their brethren, the conquerors of Spain. The devastating instinct of Islamism seems to have yielded to a more benign influence, as soon as it entered Europe. When Spain was thoroughly subdued, the natives were permitted, with but few restrictions, the full enjoyment of their own laws and religion ; and the Arabs, enjoying almost peaceable possession for nearly three centuries after the con- quest, devoted their fiery energies to the acquisition of knowledge. Enriched by a fertile soil and prosperous commerce, they blended the acquirements and refinements of intellectual culture with Arabian luxury and magnificence ; the palaces of their princes were radiant with splendor, their colleges famous for learning, their libraries overflowing with books, their agricultural and manufacturing processes conducted with scientific accuracy, when all the rest of Europe was buried in midnight barbarism. To those halcyon days of comparative peace succeeded four centuries of bitter conflict between the invaders and the invaded, exhibiting one of the grandest romances of military history on record. It was long doubtful on which side the honors of victory would descend. At last, the ardor and audacity of the Mussulman succumbed to the patriotic cour- age of the Christian, and the reluctant Moor was compelled to abandon the lovely region he had rendered classical by the exercise of his peculiar taste and genius.
Immediately after the fall of Granada in 1492, about 100,000 Spanish Moors passed over into Africa with their unfortunate king, Boabdil. Some ruined and deserted cities on the sea-coast, the remains of Carthaginian and Roman power and enterprise, were allotted to the exiles ; for though of the same religion, and almost of the same race and language as the people they sought refuge amongst, yet they were strangers in a strange land ; the African Moors termed them Tigarins (Andalucians) ; they dwelt and intermarried together, and were long known to Europeans, in the lingua franca of the Mediterranean, by the appellation of Moriscos. At the period of this forced migration, the Barbary Moors knew nothing of navigation ; what little commerce they had was carried on by the ships of Cadiz, Genoa, and Ragusa. But the Moriscos, confined to the sea-coast, and debarred from agriculture, had no sooner rendered the ancient ruins habitable, than they turned their attention to naval affairs. Build- ing row-boats, carrying from fourteen to twenty-six oars, they boldly put to sea, and incited by feelings of the deadliest enmity, revenged themselves on the ​hated Spaniard, at the same time that they plundered for a livelihood. Crossing the narrow channel which separates the two continents, and lying off out of sight of the Spanish coast during the day, they landed at night — not as strangers, but on the shores of their native land, where every bay and creek, every path and pass, every village and homestead, were as well known to them as to the Christian Spaniard. In the morning, mangled bodies and burning houses testified that the Moriscos had. been there; while all portable plunder, every captured Christian not too old or too young to be a slave, was in the row-boat, speeding swiftly to the African coast. The harassed Spaniards kept watch and ward, winter and summer, from sunrise to sunset, and sometimes succeeded in cutting off small parties of the piratical invaders; yet such was the audacity of the Moriscos, and so well were their incursions planned, that frequently they plundered villages miles in the interior. Then ensued the hasty flight and hot pursuit; the freebooters retreating to the boats, driving before them, at the lance's point, unfortunate captives, laden with the plunder of their own dwellings; the pursuers, horse and foot, following into the very water, and firing on the retiring row-boats till their long oars swept them out of gunshot. The Barbary Moors soon joined the Moriscos in those exciting and profitable adventures; and thus originated the atrocious practice, which being subsequently recognized in treaties made by various European powers, became, according to the laws of nations, a legally organized system of Christian slavery. In 1509, Ferdinand the Catholic, anxious to stop the Morisco depredations on the Spanish coast, sent a considerable force, under the celebrated Cardinal Ximenes, to invade Barbary. During this expedition, the Spaniards released 300 captives, and took possession of Oran and a few other unimportant places on the coast. One of those was a small island, about a mile from the main, lying exactly opposite the town since known as Algiers, but previously so little recognized by history, that it is not certain when it received the name. In all probability, it acquired the high-sounding appellation of Al Ghezire (The Invincible) at a subsequent period. Carefully fortifying this insulated rock, the Spaniards, by the superiority of their artillery, held possession of it for several years, as a sort of outpost, and a curb upon the piratical tendencies of the native powers.
One of those extraordinary adventurers, who, rising from nothing, carve out kingdoms for themselves with the edge of their sabres, and gleaming at intervals on an astonished world, vanish into utter darkness, like comets in their erratic orbits, appeared at this time, and changed the destinies of the greater part of Northern Africa. The son of a poor Greek potter in the island of Mitylene worked with his father till a younger brother was able to take his place in assisting to support the family; then going on board a Turkish war vessel, he signified his desire to become a Mussulman, and enter the service. His offer was accepted, he received the Turkish name of Aroudje — his previous appellation is unknown — and in a short time, his fierce intrepidity and nautical skill raised him to the command of a vessel belonging to the sultan. Intrusted ​with a considerable sum of money, to pay the Turkish garrisons in the Morea, he sailed from Constantinople, and having passed the Dardanelles, he mustered his crew, and declared his intentions of renouncing allegiance to the Porte. He told them that, if they would stand by him, he would lead them to the western waters of the Mediterranean, where prizes of all nations might be captured in abundance, where there were no knights of Rhodes to contend against, and where they would be completely out of the power of the sultan. A project so much in unison with the predilections of the rude crew, was received with enthusiastic acclamations of assent. Aroudje then steered for his native island of Mitylene, where he landed, and gave a large sum of money to his mother and sisters; and being joined by his brother, who, becoming a Mohammedan, assumed the name of Hayraddin, he weighed anchor, and turned his prow to the westward. Arriving off the island of Elba, he fell in with two portly argosies under papal colors. Piracy in these western seas having previously been carried on in the Morisco row-boats only, the Christians were not alarmed, but believing Aroudje to be an honest trader, permitted him to run alongside, as he seemed to wish to communicate some information. They were quickly undeceived. Boarding the nearest one, he immediately took possession of her, and then dressing his men in the clothes of the captured crew, he bore down upon her unsuspecting consort. She was captured also, with scarcely a blow; and Aroudje found himself in possession of two ships, each much larger than his own, with cargoes of great value, and some hundreds of prisoners. The fame of this bold action resounded from the southern shores of Europe to the opposite coast of Africa. Such captives as were ransomed, when describing the appearance of Aroudje, did not fail to recount the ferocious aspect of his hug red beard, so unusual an appendage to a native of the south, and thus he obtained the name of Barbarossa (Redbeard), so long the terror of the Mediterranean. Taking his prizes to Tunis, one of the small states that had once been part of the great Saracen Empire in Barbary, Aroudje was well received by the king, who allowed him to use the island and fort of Goleta as a naval depot, on condition of paying a certain percentage on all prizes. Adding daily to his wealth and fleet, the daring sea-rover had no lack of followers. Turkish and Moorish adventurers eagerly enrolled themselves under his fortunate banner.
The precarious position of the petty Barbary states, threatened by the Berbers and Bedouins of the interior on the land-side, and menaced by the Spanards on the sea-board, was highly favorable to the ambitious aspirations of the potter's son. The district of Jijil being attacked by famine, he seized the corn-ships of Sicily, and distributed the grain freely and without price among the starving inhabitants, who gratefully proclaimed him their king; and in a few years his army equaled in magnitude his still increasing fleet. The fort built by the Spaniards on the island off Algiers was a great annoyance to Eutemi, the Moorish king of that little state. Unwisely, he applied to Barbarossa for aid to evict the Spaniard, and eagerly was the request granted. With 5000 ​men, the pirate chief marched to Algiers, where the people hailed him as a deliverer; Eutemi was murdered, and Aroudje proclaimed king. The throne thus usurped by audacity, he established by policy; profusely liberal to his friends, ferociously cruel to his enemies, he was loved and dreaded by all his subjects. His reign, however, was short, being defeated and killed in battle by the Spaniards, only two years after he ascended the throne. In such estimation was this victory held, that the head, shirt-of-mail, and gold-embroidered vest of the slain warrior were carried on a lance, in triumphant procession, through the principal cities of Spain, and then deposited as sacred trophies in the church of St. Jerome at Cordova. Hayraddin, who is styled by the old historians, Barbarossa II., succeeded his brother, but, feeling his position insecure, he tendered the sovereignty of Algiers to the Grand Seignior, on condition of being appointed viceroy and receiving a contingent of troops. Sultan Selim, gladly accepting the offer, sent a firman creating Hayraddin pacha, and a force of 2000 janizaries. From that period, the Ottoman supremacy over the Moorish and Morisco inhabitants of Algiers was firmly established.
Piracy upon all Christian nations was still vigorously carried on from Tunis and other ports of Barbary; but the harbor of Algiers being commanded by the island fort in possession of the Spaniards, was deprived of that nefarious source of wealth. This island was long the "Castle Dangerous" of the Spanish service; nor was it till 1530, that, betrayed by a discontented soldier, it fell into the hands of Hayraddin. Don Martin, the Spanish governor, who had long and nobly defended the isolated rock, was brought a wounded captive before the truculent pacha. "I respect you," said Hayraddin, "as a brave man and a good soldier. Whatever favor you may ask of me, I will grant, on condition that you will accede to whatever I may request."
"Agreed," replied Don Martin. "Cut off the head of the base Spaniard who betrayed his countrymen."
The wretch was immediately brought in, and decapitated on the spot.
"Now," rejoined Hayraddin, "my request is that you become a Mussulman, and take command of my army."
"Never!" exclaimed the chivalrous Don Martin; and immediately, at a signal from the enraged pacha, a dozen yataghans leaped from their sheaths, and the faithful Christian was cut to pieces on the floor of the presence-chamber.
The island, so long a source of danger and annoyance to the Algerines, was now made their safest defense, Hayraddin conceiving the bold idea of uniting it to the mainland by a mole and breakwater. This really great undertaking, which still evinces the engineering and mechanical skill of its promoters, was the work of thousands of wretched Christian slaves, who labored at it incessantly for three years before it was completed. Thus the Algerines obtained a commodious harbor for their shipping, secure against all storms, and, at that time, impregnable to all enemies.
In 1532, the people of Tunis rebelling, deposed their king, and invited the willing Hayraddin to become their ruler. With this increase of power his ​boldness increased also. Out of his many daring exploits at this period, we need mention only one. Hearing that Julian Gonzago, the wife of Vespasian Colonna, Count of Fondi, was the most beautiful woman in Europe, Hayraddin made a descent in the night on the town of Fondi; scaling the walls, the fierce Moslems plundered the town, and carried off numbers of the inhabitants into slavery. Fortunately, the countess escaped to the fields in her night-dress, and thus evaded the clutches of the pirate, who, to revenge his disappointment, ravaged the whole Neapolitan coast before he returned to Tunis.
The eyes of all Europe were now turned imploringly to the only power considered capable of contending with this 'monstrous scourge of Christendom.' The Emperor Charles V. eagerly responded to the appeal, and summoned forth the united strength of his vast dominions to equip the most powerful armada that had ever plowed the waves of the Mediterranean; the Low Countries. Spain, Italy, Portugal, and Genoa, furnished their bravest veterans and best appointed ships; the Knights of St. John supplied a few vessels, small, yet formidable from the well-known valor of the chevaliers who served in them; the pope contributed his blessing; and the immense armament, inspired with all the enthusiasm of the Crusades, but directed to a more rational and legitimate object, rendezvoused at Cagliari — a convenient harbor of Sardinia.
Hayraddin, aware of the object and destination of this vast armament, energetically prepared to give it a suitable reception. Night and day the miserable Christian slaves, rivetting their own fetters, were employed in erecting new, and strengthening old fortifications; and as a last resource, in case of defeat, the shrewd pacha sent eighteen sail of his best ships to Bona. In July, 1531, the emperor's fleet was descried from the towers of Tunis; and Hayraddin made the last dispositions for defense by placing his treasure, seraglio, and slaves in the citadel, under a strong guard, with the intention of retreating thither if the city and port were taken.
Charles, after landing his troops, commenced a simultaneous attack by land and sea. Hayraddin, with much inferior force, yet greater advantage of position, conducted the defense with skill and determination. But in the heat of the conflict, the Christian slaves, distracted with suspense, and excited to frenzy by the thunder of the cannonade, burst their bonds, overpowered their guards, and turned the guns of the citadel upon their Moslem masters. Hayraddin, then seeing that the day was irrecoverably lost, fled with the remnant of his army to the ships at Bona. Charles reinstated the deposed king of Tunis as his vassal, and on condition, that for the future, all Christians brought as captives to Tunis should be liberated without ransom. With 20,000 Christians released from slavery by the power of his arms — the noblest trophy conqueror ever bore — Charles returned in triumph to Europe. Not only did he restore these unfortunate captives to liberty, but he furnished all of them with suitable apparel, and the means of returning to their respective countries. Such munificence spread the fame of Charles over all the world; for though it entailed on him immense expense, he had personally gained nothing by the ​quest of Tunis: disinterestedly ho hud fought for the honor of the Christian name, for Christian security and welfare. Yet we regret to have to add one fact, highly characteristic of the age: when Charles left Africa, he also carried off 10,000 Mohammedans to be slaves for life, chained to the oars in the galleys of Spain, Italy, and Malta.
We must now return to Hayraddin, the second Barbarossa, whom we left in full retreat to Bona, where he had sagaciously sent his ships to be out of harm's way at Tunis. As soon as he arrived at Bona, he embarked his men, and put to sea.
"Let us go to the Levant," said his officers, "and beg assistance from the sultan."
"To the Levant, did you say?" exclaimed the incensed pirate." Am I a man to shew my back? Must I fly for refuge to Constantinople? Depend upon it, I am far more likely to attack the emperor's dominions in Flanders. Cease your prating; follow me, and obey orders." Steering for Minorca, he soon appeared off the well-fortified harbor of Port Mahon. The incautious Minorcans believing the pirates utterly exterminated, and that the gallant fleet entering their harbor was returning from the conquest of Tunis, ran to the port to greet and welcome the supposed victors. Not a gun was loaded, not a battery manned, when Hayraddin, swooping like an eagle on its prey, sacked the town, carried off an immense booty in money and military stores, and with 6000 captive Minorcans, returned in triumph to Algiers. This was his last exploit that falls within our province to relate. Earnestly solicited by the sultan, he relinquished the pachalic to take supreme command of the Ottoman fleet. After a life spent in stratagem and war, he died at an advanced age; and still along the Christian shores of the Mediterranean, mothers frighten their unruly children with the name of Barbarossa.
Hassan Aga, a Sardinian renegade, was next appointed to the vice-royalty. A corsair from his youth, he was well fitted for the office, and during his rule the piratical depredations increased in number and audacity. The continuous line of watch-towers that engirdle the southern coast of Spain, and have so picturesque an effect at the present day, were built as a defense against Hassan's cruisers. Once more all Europe turned to the emperor Charles for relief and protection Pope Paul III. wrote a letter imploring him "to reduce Algiers, which, since the conquest of Tunis, has been the common receptacle of all the freebooters, and to exterminate that lawless race, the implacable enemies of the Christian faith." Moved by such entreaties, and thirsting for glory, Charles equipped a fleet equal in magnitude to that with which he had conquered Tunis. A navy of 500 ships, an army of 27,000 picked men, and 150 Knights of Malta, with noblemen and gentlemen volunteers of all nations, many of them English, sailed on this great expedition. To oppose such a powerful force, Hassan had only 800 Turks and 5000 Moors and Moriscos. On arriving at Algiers, Charles summoned the pacha to surrender, but received a most contemptuous reply. The troops were immediately disembarked, though ​with great difficulty, owing to stormy weather; and the increasing gale cutting off communication with the fleet, before sufficient stores and camp equipage could be landed, Charles and his army were left with scanty provision, and exposed to torrents of rain. A night passed in this miserable condition. The next day, the tempest increased. The next night, the troops, exhausted by want of food and exposure to the elements, were unable to lie down, the ground being knee-deep in mud. Hassan was too vigilant a warrior not to take advantage of this state of affairs. Before daybreak, on the second morning, with a strong body of horse and foot, he sallied out upon the Christian camp. Weak from hunger and want of rest, benumbed by exposure to the cold and rain, their powder wet, and their matches extinguished, the advanced division of Charles's army were easily defeated by Hassan's fresh and vigorous troops The main body advanced to the rescue, and after a sharp contest, Hassan's small detachment was repulsed, and driven back into the city. The Knights of Malta, among whom a chivalrous emulation existed with respect to which of them would first stick his dagger in the gate of Algiers, rashly following the retreating Hassan, led the army up to the city, where they were mowed down in hundreds by the fire from the walls. Retreating in confusion from this false position, they were again charged by Hassan's impetuous cavalry, and the Knights of Malta, to save the whole army from destruction, drew up in a body to cover the rear. Conspicuous by their scarlet upper garments, embroidered with a white cross, they served for a short time as a rallying-point; but it was not till Charles, armed with sword and buckler, joined his troops, and stimulated them to fresh exertions by fighting in their ranks, that the Algerines were compelled to return to their strongholds. In this desperate conflict, the Knights of Malta were nearly all killed. Only one of them, Tonce de Salignac, the standard-bearer, had reached and stuck his dagger in the gate, but, pierced with innumerable wounds, he did not live to enjoy the honor of the foolhardy feat. Another night of tempest and privation followed this discouraging battle; hundreds of the debilitated troops were blown down by the violence of the wind, and smothered in the mud. When the day broke, Charles saw 200 of his war-ships and transports, containing 8000 men, driven on shore, and such of their crews as were not swallowed up by the waves, led off into captivity by the exulting enemy. The rest of the fleet sought shelter under a headland four miles off, and thither Charles followed them; but his famished troops, continually harassed by the enemy, were two days in retreating that short distance. With great difficulty, Charles, and a small remnant of his once powerful army, reached the ships, and made sail from the inhospitable coast. So many captives were taken, and such was their enfeebled condition, that numbers were sold by the captors for an onion each. "Do you remember the day when your countryman was sold for an onion?' was for years afterwards a favorite taunt of the Algerine to the Spaniard. Enriched with slaves, valuable military and naval stores, treasure, horses, costly trappings — all brought to their own doors — the pride of the Algerines knew no bounds, and they sneeringly said that ​Charles brought them this immense plunder to save them the trouble of going to fetch it. Hassan generously refused to take any part of the spoil, saying that the honor of defeating the most powerful of Christian princes was quite sufficient for his share.
After this great victory, the Algerines, confident of the impregnability of their city, turned their attention to increasing their power on sea. The vessels hitherto used for warlike purposes in the Mediterranean were galleys, principally propelled by oars rowed by slaves; and in quickness of manœuvre and capability of being propelled during a calm, were somewhat analgous to the steam-boat of the present day, and had a decided advantage over the less easily managed sailing-vessels. Not constructed to mount heavy ordnance, the system of naval tactics adopted in the galleys was to close with the enemy, whenever eligible, and then the battle was fought with small-arms — arrows, and even stones, being used as weapons of attack and defense. The Algerines, however, laboring in their vocation, as Falstaff would have said, captured many large ships of Northern Europe, built for long voyages and to contend with stormy seas. Equipping these with cannon, they were enabled to destroy the galleys before the latter could close with them; and thus introducing a new system of naval warfare, they gained a complete ascendancy in the waters of the Mediterranean. Nor did they long confine their depredations to that sea. In 1574, an Algerine fleet surprised the tunny fishery of the Duke of Medina, near Cadiz, and captured 200 slaves; but one of the piratical vessels running ashore, a large number were retaken by their countrymen. In 1585, Morat, a celebrated corsair, landed at night on Lancelote, one of the Canary Islands, and carried off a large booty, with 300 prisoners; among whom were the wife, mother, and daughter of the Spanish governor. Standing out to sea the next morning, until out of gun-range, the pirate hove-to, and showing a flag of truce, treated for the ransom of his captives; and afterwards, eluding, by seamanship and cunning, a Spanish fleet waiting to intercept him at the mouth of the straits, exultingly returned to Algiers. In the following century, pushing their piracies still further, the English Channel became one of their regular cruising-grounds. In 1631, the town of Baltimore, in Ireland, was plundered by Morat Rais, a Flemish renegade, and 237 men, women, and children, "even to the babe in the cradle," carried off into captivity. Aware of the strong family affections of the Irish, we can well believe Pierre Dan, a Redemptionist monk, who saw those poor creatures in Algiers. He says: "It was one of the most pitiable of sights to see them exposed for sale. There was not a Christian in Algiers who did not shed tears at the lamentations of these captives in the slave-market, when husband and wife, mother and child, were separated. Is it not," indignantly adds the worthy father, "making the Almighty a bankrupt, to sell His most precious property in this manner?" About the same time, two corsairs, guided by a Danish renegade, proceeded as far as ​Iceland, where they captured no less than 800 persons, a few of whom were ransomed several years afterwards by Christian IV., king of Denmark.
The existence of such an organized system of piracy may well excite our wonder at the present day; but the truth is, that since the time of the Vikings, to the latter part of the last century, the high seas were never clear of pirates belonging to one nation or another. Besides, the commercial jealousies and almost continual wars of the European nations, prevented them from uniting to crush the Barbary rovers. The English and Dutch maintained an extensive commerce with the Algerines, supplying them with gunpowder, arms, and naval stores; and found it more profitable to pay their customers a heavy tribute for a sort of half-peace, than to be at open war with them. De Witt, the famous Dutch admiral and statesman, in his Interest of Holland, thus views the question: "Although," he says, "our ships should be well guarded by convoys against the Barbary pirates, yet it would by no means be proper to free the seas from those freebooters — because we should thereby be put on the same footing as the French, Spanish, and Italians; wherefore it is best to leave that thorn in the sides of those nations." An English statesman, in an official paper written in 1671, amongst other objections to the surrender of Tangier, urges the advantage of making it an open port for the Barbary pirates to sell their prizes and refit at, in the same manner as they were permitted to do in the French ports. It is an actual fact that, in the seventeenth century, when England and France were at peace, Algerine cruisers frequently landed their English captives at Bordeaux, whence they were marched in handcuffs to Marseille, and there reshipped in other vessels, and taken to Algiers. This proceeding was to avoid the risk of recapture in the Straits of Gibraltar, and also to allow the pirates to remain out longer on their cruise, unencumbered with prisoners. Numerous instances of the complicity of European powers with this nefarious system might be adduced. Sir Cloudesley Shovel, in 1703, protected a Barbary pirate from receiving a well-merited chastisement from a Dutch squadron; but that need not surprise the reader, for at the same time the gallant admiral had power under the Great Seal to visit Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, make the usual presents, and 'if he could prevail with them to make war against France, and that some act of hostility was thereupon committed, he was to give such farther presents as he should think proper.'
The political system of the Algerines requires a few words. The authority of the Porte was soon shaken off, and then the janizaries, or soldiers, forming a kind of aristocratic democracy, chose a governor from their own number, under the familiar title of Dey (Uncle); and ruled the native Moors as an inferior and conquered race. Neither Moor nor Morisco was permitted to have any voice in the government, or to hold any office under it; the wealthiest native, if he met a janizary in the street, had to give way to let the proud soldier pass. The janizaries were all either Turks or renegades (slaves who had turned Mohammedans): so strictly was this rule earned out, that the son of a janizary by a Moorish woman was not allowed the privileges of his father, though ​the offspring of a janizary and a Christian slave was recognized as one of the dominant race. The janizaries were in number about 12,000; their ranks were annually recruited by renegades ami adventurous Turks from the Levant; they served by sea as well as by land, and were employed in controlling the tributary native chief's of the interior, and sailing in the piratical cruisers. Piracy being the basis of this system, the whole foreign policy of the Algerines consisted in claiming the right of maintaining constant war with all Christian nations that did not conciliate them by tribute and treaties. When a European consul arrived at Algiers, he always carried a large present to the dey, and as the latter would, in a short time, quarrel with and send away the consul, in expectation of receiving the usual present with his successor, it was found more convenient to make an occasional present, than incur the trouble and risk of a continual change of consuls. In course of time, these occasional presents became a tribute of 17,000 dollars, regularly paid every two years.
The miseries of Algerine bondage have long been proverbial over all the Christian world, yet they appear light when calmly examined and contrasted with other systems of slavery. Most travelers in Mohammedan countries have remarked "the general kindness with which slaves are treated. General Eaton, consul of the United States at Tunis in 1799, writes thus: "Truth and justice demand from me the confession, that the Christian slaves among the barbarians of Africa are treated with more humanity than the African slaves among the Christians of civilized America." John Wesley, when addressing those connected with the negro slave-trade, said: "You have carried them into the vilest slavery, never to end but with life — such slavery as is not to be found with the Turks at Algiers." In fact, the creed of Islam, not recognizing perpetual and unconditional bondage, gave the slave a right of redemption by purchase, according to a precept of the Koran. This right of redemption was daily claimed and acknowledged in Barbary; and though it was only the richer class that could immediately benefit by it, yet it was a great alleviation to the general hardship of the system; and numbers of the poorer captives, by exercise of their various trades and professions, realized money, and were in a short time able to redeem themselves. Again, no prejudice of race existed in the mind of the master against his unhappy bondsman. The meanest Christian slave, on becoming a Mohammedan, was free, and enrolled as a janizary, having superior privileges even to the native Moor or Morisco, and he and his descendants were eligible to the highest offices in the state. Ladies, when captured, were invariably treated with respect, and, till ransomed, lodged in a building set apart for that purpose, under the charge of a high officer, similar to our mayor. The most perfect toleration was extended to the exercise of the Christian religion; the four great festivals of the Roman Church — Christmas, Easter, and the nativities of St. John and the Virgin — were recognized as holidays for the slaves. We read of a large slaveholder purchasing a priest expressly for the spiritual comfort of his bondsmen; and of other masters who regularly, once a week, marched their slaves off to confession. The Algerines ​were shrewd enough to prefer a religious slave to his less conscientious fellows. "Christianity," they used to say, "was better for a man than no religion at all." Nor were they zealous to make adult converts. "A bad Christian," they said, "can never make a good Mussulman." It was only slaves of known good character and conduct who were received into the Moslem community. Children, however, were brought up Mohammedans, adopted in families, and became the heirs of their adoptors. Captured ecclesiastics were treated with respect, never set to work, but allowed to join the religious houses established in Algiers.
​proprietior paid one dollar to the Father Administrator, which, if the patient recovered, was returned to the master, but if he died, was kept to defray his funeral expenses, For a long period, there was no place of interment allotted to the captives; their dead bodies were thrown outside the city walls, to be devoured by the hordes of street-dogs which infest the towns of Mohammedan countries. At length, by the noble self-denial of a private individual, whose name, we regret to say, we are unable to trace, a slave's burial ground was obtained. A Capuchin friar, the friend and confessor of Don John of Austria, natural so of the Emperor Charles V., was taken captive. Knowing the esteem in which he was held by the prince, an immense sum was demanded for his ransom. The money was immediately forwarded, but instead of purchasing his freedom, the disinterested philanthropist bought a piece of ground for a burial-place for Christian slaves, and, devoting himself to solace the spiritual and temporal wants of his unhappy co-religionists, uncomplainingly passed the rest of his life in exile and captivity.
A few years after the founding of this House of the Spanish Hospital, as it was termed, another Christian religious establishment, the House of the French Mission, was planted in Algiers. A certain Duchess d'Eguillon, at the suggestion of the celebrated philanthropist Vincent de Paul, who had himself been an Algerine captive, commenced this good work by an endowment of 4,000 livres per annum. These two religious houses were exempted from all duties or taxes, and mass w r as performed in them daily with all the pomp and splendor of the Romish Church. There was also a chapel in each of the six bagnes — the prisons where the slaves were confined at night — in which service was performed on Sundays and holidays. The Greek Church had also a chapel and small establishment in one of the bagnes. Brother Comelin, of the order of redemption, tells us, in his Voyage, that they celebrated Christmas in the Spanish Hospital "with the same liberty and as solemnly as in Christendom. Midnight mass was chanted to the sound of trumpets, drums, flutes, and hautboys; so that in the stillness of night the infidels heard the worship of the true God over all their accursed city, from ten at night till two in the morning." Such was Mohammedan toleration in Algiers, at the period, too, we should recollect, of the high and palmy days of the Inquisition. We may easily conceive what would have been the fate of the infidels if they, by any chance, had invaded the midnight silence of Rome or Madrid with the sounds of their worship. The only exceptions to the general good treatment and respect bestowed upon Christian ecclesiastics in Algiers was, when inspired by a furious zeal for martyrdom, they openly insulted the Mohammedan religion; or when the populace were excited by forced conversions and other intolerant cruelties practiced upon Mussulman slaves in Europe. We shall briefly mention two instances of such occurrences.
One Pedro, a brother of Redemption, had traveled to Mexico and Peru, and collected in those rich countries a vast amount of treasure for the order. He then went to Algiers, where he employed half the money in ransoming, ​captives, and the other half in repairing and increasing the usefulness of the hospital, where he resided, constantly attending and consoling the sick slaves. At last, thirsting for martyrdom, he one day rushed into a mosque, and, with crucifix in hand, cursed and reviled the false Prophet Mohammed. In all Mohammedan countries, the penalty of this offense is death. But so much were the piety and good works of Pedro respected by the Algerine government, that they anxiously endeavored to avoid inflicting the punishment of their law. Earnestly they solicited him, with promise of free pardon, to acknowledge that he was intoxicated or deranged when he committed the rash act, but in vain. Pedro was burned; and one of his leg-bones was long carefully preserved as a holy relic in the Spanish Hospital.
In 1612, a young Mohammedan lady, fifteen years of age, named Fatima, daughter of Mehemet Aga, a man of high rank in Algiers, when on her way to Constantinople to be married, was captured by a Christian cruiser, carried into Corsica, and a very large sum of money demanded for her ransom. The distressed father speedily sent the money by two relatives, who were furnished with safe-conduct passes by the brothers of Redemption. On their arrival in Corsica, they were informed that the young lady had become a Christian, was christened Maria Eugenia, and married to a Corsican gentleman; and that the money brought for her ransom must be appropriated as her dowry. The relatives were permitted to see Maria; she declared her name was still Fatima; and that her baptism and marriage were forced upon her. The return of the relatives without either the lady or the money caused great excitement in Algiers. By way of retaliation, the brothers of Redemption were loaded with chains, and thrown into prison, and compelled to pay Mehemet Aga a sum equal to that which he had sent for his daughter's ransom. In a short time, however, they were released, and permitted to resume their customary duties.
When returning from a successful cruise, as soon as an Algerine corsair arrived within sight of the harbor, her crew commenced firing guns of rejoicing and triumph, and continued them at intervals until she came to anchor. Summoned by these signals of success, the inhabitants would flock in numbers to the port, there to learn the value of the prize, the circumstances of its capture, and to congratulate the pirates. Morgan, a quaint old writer, many years attached to the British consulate, says: "These are the times when Algiers very visibly puts on a quite new countenance, and it may well be compared to a great bee-hive. All is hurry, every one busy, and a cheerful aspect succeeds a strange gloom and discontent, like what is to be seen everywhere else, when the complaint of dullness of trade, scarcity of business, and stagnation of cash reigns universal; and which is constantly to be seen in Algiers during every interval between the taking of good prizes." The dey received the eighth part of the value of all prizes, for the service of the government, and had the privilege of selecting his share of the captives, who were brought from the vessel to the court-yard of his palace, where the European consuls attended to claim any of their countrymen who might be considered free in accordance with the ​terms of previous treaties. In many instances, however, little respect was paid by the strong-handed captors to such documents. The following reply of one of the deys to a remonstrance of the English consul, contains the general answer given on such occasions: "The Algerines being born pirates, and not able to subsist by any other means, it is the Christians' business to be always on their guard, even in time of peace; for if we were to observe punctilios with all those nations who purchase peace and liberty from us, we might set fire to our shipping, and become degraded to be camel-drivers." When the newly made captives were mustered in the dey's court-yard, their names, ages, countries, and professions, were minutely taken down by a hojia, or government secretary, appointed for the purpose; and then the dey proceeded to make his selection of every eighth person, and of course took care to choose such as, from their appearance aud description, were likely to pay a smart ransom, or those acquainted with the more useful professions and the mechanical arts. After the dey had taken his share, the remainder of the prisoners, being the property of their captors, were taken to the bestian, or slave-market, and appraised, a certain value being set upon each individual. From the slave-market the unfortunates were then led back to the court-yard, and there sold by public auction; and whatever price was obtained higher than the valuation of the slave-market, became the perquisite of the dey.
The government, or, in other words, the dey, was the largest slaveholder in Algiers. All the slaves belonging to the government were termed deylic slaves, and distinguished by a sin ill ring of iron fastened round the wrist or ankle; and excepting those who were employed in the palace, or hired out as domestic servants, were locked up every night in six large buildings called bagnes. Rude beds were provided in the bagnes, and each deylic slave received three small loaves of bread per day, and occasionally some coarse cloth for clothing. All the carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, ropemakers, and others among the deylic slaves who worked at trades connected with house and ship-building, received a third part of what they earned, when hired out to private persons, and even the same sum was paid to them when employed on government works. Besides, both at the laying down of the keel and launch of a new ship, a handsome gratuity was given to all the slave-mechanics employed upon her. Indeed, all the work connected with ship-building was performed by Christian slaves.
The janizaries never condescended to do any kind of work; the native Moors were too lazy and too ignorant; and the Moriscos being forbidden, by the jealous policy of the dominant Turkish race, to practice the arts they brought with them from Spain, sank, after the first generation, to a level with the native Moor. Shipwrights were consequently well treated, many of them earning better wages than they could in their own countries. Numbers were thus en abled to purchase their freedom; but many more, seduced by the sensual debaucheries so prevalent wherever slavery is recognized, preferred remaining in Algiers as slaves or renegades, to returning as freemen to their native lands. Deylic slaves, when hired out as sailors, received one third of their hire, and ​one-third of a freeman's share in the prize-money. Invariably at the hour of prayer termed Al Aasar, all work was stopped for the day, and the remaining three hours between that time and sunset were allowed to the slaves for their own use; on Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath, they were never set to work; and besides the Christian holidays already mentioned, they had a week's rest during the seasom of Ramadam. Such of the deylic slaves as were employed at the more laborious work of drawing and carrying timber, stone, and other heavy articles, were divided into gangs, and taken out to work only on alternate days.
Many slaves never did an hour's work during their captivity; for by the payment of a monthly sum, equivalent to about seventy cents of our money, any one might be exempted from labor; and even those who could afford to fee their overseers only with a smaller sum, were put to the lightest description of toil. Slaves when in treaty for ransom were never required to work; aud as no person was permitted to leave Algiers in debt, money was freely lent at moderate interest to those whose circumstances entitled them to hope for ransom. Money, also, was readily obtained through the Jews, by drawing bills of exchange on the various mercantile cities of Europe. Many slaves, however, by working at trades and other means, were enabled to pay the tax for immunity from public labor, and support themselves comfortably in the bagnes. Of this latter class were tailors, shoemakers, and, strange to say, a good many managed to live well by theft alone. In each bagne were five or six licensed wine-shops, kept by slaves. This was the most profitable business open to a captive — a wine-shop keeper frequently making the price of his ransom in one year; but, preferring wealth to liberty, these persons generally remained slaves until they were able to retire with considerable fortunes. As there was constantly free ingress and egress to and from all the bagnes during the day, the wine-shops were always crowded with people of all nations; and though nominally for the use of the slaves, yet the renegades, who had not forgotten their relish for wine, drank freely therein; and even many of the "turbaned Turks," forgetting the law of their Prophet, copiously indulged in the forbidden beverage. The Moslem, however, was, like Cassio, choleric in his drink, and frequently, brandishing his weapon, and threatening the lives of all about him, would refuse to pay his shot. As no Christian dare strike a Mussulman, an ingenious device was resorted to on such occasions. A stout slave, regularly employed for the purpose, would, at a signal from the landlord, adroitly drop a short ladder over the reeling brawler's head; by this means, without striking a blow, he was speedily brought to the ground, where he was secured till his senses were restored by sleep; and then, if found to have no money, the landlord was entitled to retain his arms until the reckoning was paid.
The largest private slaveholder in Algiers was one Alii Pichellin, Capitan Pasha, or High-Admiral of the fleet, who flourished about the middle of the seventeenth century, and holds a conspicuous position in the Algerine history of the period. He generally possessed from 800 to 900 slaves, whom he kept ​in a bagne of his own. Emanuel d'Aranda, a Flemish gentleman, who was for some time Piqhellin'a slave, gives a curious account of bagne-life as he witnessed it. The bagne resembled a long narrow street, with high gates at each end, which were shut every evening after the slaves were mustered at sunset, and opened at sunrise every morning. Though the deylic slaves each received three loaves of bread per day for their sustenance, Fichellin never gave any loud whatever to his slaves, unless they were employed at severe labor; for he said that "a man was unworthy the name of slave, if he could not earn or steal between Al Aasar and Al Mag-rib," (the three hours before sunset allowed to the slaves,) "sufficient to support him for the rest of the day." We may observe here, that a Moor, Morisco, or Jew, if detected in a theft, was punished by the loss of his right hand, and by being opprobiously paraded through the streets mounted upon an ass. At the same time, neither Moor nor Jew dare even accuse a janizary of so disgraceful a crime. Slaves, however, might steal from Moor or Jew with open impunity; for even if caught in the act, neither dare strike a slave; and if complaint was made to the dey, he would merely order the restitution of the stolen goods, refusing to inflict punishment on the following grounds: "That as the Koran did not condemn a man who stole to satisfy his hunger, and as a slave was not a free agent, but compelled to depend upon his master for food, he could not legally be punished for theft." Under such circumstances, we may readily believe that the bagnes, and especially that of Pichellin, were complete dens of thieves. Every evening, as soou as the gates were closed, the plunder of the day was brought forth and sold by auction; the sale being conducted, to the great amusement of the slaves, with all the Turkish gravity and formality of the slave-market. Articles not thus disposed of were left in the hands of one of the captives, who made it his business, for a small commission, to negotiate between the loser and the thief, and accept ransom for the stolen property. An Italian in Pichellin's bagne, named Fontimana, was so expert and confident a thief, that without possessing the smallest fraction of money in the morning, he would invite a party of friends to sup with him in the evening, trusting to his success in thieving through the day to provide the materials for the feast. Of course no satisfaction was obtained when the sufferers complained to Pichellin. "The Christians," he would say, "are all pilfering rascals. I cannot help it. You must be more careful for the future. Have you yet to learn that all my slaves wear hooks at the ends of their fingers?" Indeed, he seems to have recognized the slaves' right of theft so fully, that he was not angry when he himself became the victim. On one occasion, Fontimana stole and sold the anchor of his master's galley. "How dare you sell my anchor, you Christian dog!" said Pichellin. "I thought," replied the thief, "that the galley would sail better without the additional weight." The master laughed at the impudent reply, and said no more on the subject. Another characteristic anecdote is recorded of Pichellin and a Portuguese slave, his confidential steward and chamberlain. One day, when cruising off the coast of Portugal," the Capitan ​Pasha ran his vessel close in towards the land, and having ordered the small boat to be lowered, called the slave, and pointing to the beach, said: "There is your native country. You have served me faithfully for seventeen years. I now give you your freedom." The Portuguese, falling on his knees, kissed the hem of his late master's robe, and was profuse in his thanks; but Pichellin stopped him, coolly saying: "Do not thank me, but God, who put it into my heart te restore you to liberty." While the boat was being prepared to laud him, the Portuguese, apparently overpowered with feelings of joy, descended into the cabin, as if to conceal his emotions, but in reality to steal Pichellin's most valuable jewels and other portable property, which he quickly concealed round his person. As soon as the boat was ready, Pichellin ordered him to be set ashore, and not long after discovered his loss when the wily Portuguese was far out of his reach. Pichellin had some rough virtues: he prided himself on being a man of his word. A Genoese, who had made a fortune by trade at Cadiz, was returning to his native country with his only child, a girl nine years of age, when his vessel was taken on the coast of Spain by Pichellin's cruiser. Not being far from land, the crew of the Christian vessel escaped to the shore, the terrified Genoese going with them, leaving his daughter in the hands of the pirates. Immediately, when he saw that his child was a captive, he waded into the water, and waved his hat as a signal to the Algerines, who, thinking he might be a Moslem captive about to escape, sent a boat for him. On reaching the cruiser, Pichellin, seeing a Christian, exclaimed: "What madman are you that voluntarily surrenders himself a slave?" "That girl is my daughter," said the Genoese: "I could not leave her. If you will set us to ransom, I will pay it; if not, the satisfaction of having done my duty will enable me to support the hardships of slavery." Pichellin appeared struck, and after musing a moment, said: "I will take fifteen hundred dollars for the ransom of you and your daughter." "I will pay it," replied the Genoese. "Hold, master!" exclaimed one of Pichellin's slaves; "I know that man well: he was one of the richest merchants in Cadiz, and can afford to pay ten times that amount for ransom." "Silence, dog!" said the old pirate. "I have said it: my word is my word." Pichellin was further so accommodating as to take the merchant's bill for the money, and set him and his daughter ashore at once.
Each slave who, from poverty, ignorance of a trade, or want of cunning, was compelled to work in the gangs, always carried a bag and a spoon — the bag, to hold anything he might chance to steal; the spoon, in case any charitable person, as was frequently the case, should present him with a mess of pottage. Only those, however, worked in the gangs who could not by any possibility avoid it; and numberless were the schemes adopted by the slaves to raise money to support themselves and secure their exemption from that description of labor. Some, at the risk of the bastinado, smuggled brandy — a strictly forbidden article — into the bagnes, and sold it out in small quantities to such as wanted it. Scholars were well employed by their less learned fel ​low-captives, to correspond with friends in Europe. Latin was the language preferred for this correspondence, because it was unintelligible to the masters; and the letters frequently contained allusions to property, family affairs, and other circumstances, which, if known, would raise the price of ransom. The great object of all the captives whose wealth entitled them to hopes of ransom, was to simulate poverty, conceal i Dg their real circumstances or station in life as much as possible; and not unfrequently the Algerines, deceived by those professions, permitted persons of wealth and consequence to redeem themselves for a trilling sum. On the other hand, persons in much poorer circumstances were often detained a long time in slavery, ill treated, and held to a high ransom, on the bare suspicion of their being wealthy. The Jews, though not permitted to possess slaves, had, through their commercial ramifications in Europe, means of obtaining correct intelligence respecting the property and affairs of many captives, which they did not fail to profit by, receiving a percentage on the increased ransom gained by their information. In a similar way, some artful old slaves, of various countries, lived well by making friends with new captives, treating them at the wine-shops, and, under the pretext of advising them how to act, inducing them to reveal their true circumstances, which the spy immediately communicated to his master. A grave Spanish cavalier made his living by settling quarrels among his countrymen, and deciding all disputes respecting rank, precedence, and the code of honor; a small fee being paid by each of the parties, and his decision invariably respected. A French gentleman contrived to live, and dress well, and give frequent dinnerparties, by a curious financial scheme he invented and practiced. Knowing many of the French renegades, he borrowed money from them for certain periods at moderate interest; and as one sum fell due he met it by a loan from a new creditor. This system, at first sight, would not appear to be profitable; but the renegades being constantly employed in the cruisers, as in a state of continual warfare, some of the creditors were either killed or captured yearly, and having no heirs, the debts were thus canceled in the French captive's favor. "In fine," says D'Aranda, to whom we are indebted for the preceding peculiarities of bagne-life, "there can be no better university to teach men how to shift for their livelihood; for all the nations made some shift to live save the English, who, it seems, are not so shiftful as others. During the winter I spent in the bagne, more than twenty of that nation died from pure want." It is clear that the unfortunate captives here alluded to must have been persons unfit for labor, and unable to procure ransom; and thus, being of no service to their brutal master, were suffered to live or die as it might happen. There can be no doubt that the English and Dutch captives, of the reformed churches, suffered more privations than any others at that period, ere knowledge and intercourse had dulled the fiery edge of religious bigotry. All the public charities for slaves were founded by the Roman Church, and their bounties exclusively bestowed on its followers. No relief was ever given to a heretic unless he became a convert; and it is an exceedingly curious illustration of ​this religious hatred, that it was as rife and virulent in the breasts of the renegades who had adopted Mohammedanism, as it was amongst those who remained Christians. Another-great disadvantage which the English captives must have labored under, was their ignorance of the language. The lingua franca spoken in Algiers was a compound of French, Spanish, and Italian, with a few Arabic words; consequently, any native of those countries could acquire it in a few days, while the unfortunate Briton might be months before he could express his meaning or understand what was said to him.
The hardships of slavery were, in all truth, insufficient to extinguish the religious and national animosities of the captives. Dreadful conflicts frequently occurred between the partisans of the eastern and western churches — Spaniards and Italians uniting to batter orthodoxy into the heads of schismatic Greeks and Russians. Nor were such disturbances quelled until a strong body of guards, armed with ponderous cudgels, vigorously attacking both parties, beat them into peaceful submission. Life was not unfrequently lost in these contests. A most serious one, in which several hundred slaves took part on both sides, occurred during D'Aranda's captivity. At the feast of the Assumption, the altar of one of the churches was decorated with the Portuguese arms, with the motto: "God will exalt the humble, and bring down the haughty." The Spaniards, conceiving this to be an insulting reflection on their national honor, tore down the obnoxious decoration, and trampled it under their feet. The Portuguese immediately retaliated, and a battle ensued between the captives of the two nations, which lasted a considerable time, and cost several lives. The ringleaders were severely bastinadoed by their masters, who tauntingly told them to sell their lands and purchase their freedom, and then they might fight for the honor of their respective countries as long and as much as they liked. It is pleasing, however, after reading of such scenes, to find that the slaves frequently got up theatrical performances. One of their favorite pieces was founded on the history of Belisarius.
The negotiations for ransom were either carried on through the Fathers of Redemption, the European consuls, or by the slaves themselves. When a province of the order of Redemption had raised a sufficiently large sum, the resident Father Administrator in Algiers procured a pass from the dey, permitting two fathers to come from Europe to make the redemption. The rule of the order was, that young women and children were to be released first; then adults belonging to the same nation as the ransomers; and after that, if the funds permitted, natives of other countries. But, in general, the fathers brought with them a list of the persons to be released, who had been recommended to their notice by political, ecclesiastical, or other interest. Slaves, who had earned and were willing to pay part of their ransom, found favor in the eyes of the fathers; and slaves with very long beards, or of singular emaciated appearance, were purchased with a view to future effect, in the grand processional displays made by the Redemptionists on their return to Europe.
From a published narrative of a voyage of Redemption made in 1720, we ​extract the following amusing account of an interview between two French Redemptionists and the dey. The fathers had redeemed their contemplated number of captives with the exception of ten belonging to the dey, but he, piqued that his slaves had not been purchased first, demanded so high a price for each, that they were unwillingly compelled to ransom only three — a French gentleman, his son, and a surgeon. "These slaves being brought in, we offered the price demanded (3,000 dollars) for them. The dey said he would give us another into the bargain. This was a tall, well-made young Hollander, one of the dey's household, who was also present. We remonstrated with the dey, that this fourth would not do for us, he being a Lutheran, and also not of our country. The dey's officers laughed, and said, he is a good Catholic. The dey said, he neither knew nor cared about that. The man was a Christian, and that he should go along with the other three for 5,000 dollars."
After a good deal of fencing, and the dey having reduced his demand by 500 dollars, the father continues : "We yet held firm to have only the three we had offered 3,000 dollars for. 'All this is to no purpose,' said the dey; 'I am going to send all four to you, and, willing or not willing, you shall have them at the price I specified, nor shall you leave Algiers until you have paid it.' But we still held out, spite of all his threats, telling him that he was master of his own dominions, but that our money falling short, we could not purchase slaves at such a price. We then took leave of him, and that very day he sent us the three slaves we had cheapened, and let us know we should have the other on the day of our departure." The reader will not be sorry to learn that the fathers were ultimately compelled to purchase and take away with them the "young Lutheran Hollander"
The primary object of the Redemptionists being to raise money for the ransom of captives,' every advantage was taken to appeal successfully to the sympathies of the Christian world, and no method was more remunerative than the grand processions which they made with the liberated slaves on their return to Europe. Father Comelin gives us full particulars of these proceedings. The ransomed captives, dressed in red Moorish caps arid white bornouses, and wearing cliains — they never wore them in Algiers — were met at the entrance of each town they passed through by all the clerical, civil, municipal, and military dignitaries of the place. Banners, wax-candles, music, and "angels covered with gold, silver, and precious stones," accompanied them in grand procession through the town ; the chief men of the district carrying silver salvers, on which they collected money from the populace, to be applied to future redemptions.
The first general ransom of British captives was made by money apportioned by parliament for the purpose, during the exciting events of the civil war. The first vessel dispatched was unfortunately burned in the Bay of Gibraltar, and the treasure lost. A fresh sum of money was again granted ; and in 1646, Mr. Cason, the parliamentary agent, arrived at Algiers. In his official dispatch to the "Committee of the Navy," the agent states that, counting renegades, there were then 750 English captives in Algiers; and proceeds to ​say that "they come to much more a head than I expected; the reason is, there be many women and children, which cost £50 per head, first penny, and might sell for £100. Besides, there are divers which were masters of ships, calkers, carpenters, sailmakers, coopers, and surgeons, and others who are highly esteemed." The agent succeeded in redeeming 244 English, Scotch, and Irish captives at the average cost of £38 each. From the official record of their several names, places of birth, and prices, it appears that more was paid for the females than the males. The three highest sums on the list are £75, paid for Mary Bruster, of Youghal; £65, for Alice Hayes, of Edinburgh; and £50, for Elizabeth Mancor, of Dundee. The names of several natives of Baltimore — in all probability some of those carried off when that town was sacked fifteen years before — are in this list of redeemed. It will scarcely be believed, that strong opposition was made by the mercantile interest against k money being granted by parliament for the ransom of those poor captives — on the ground, as the opposers' petition expresses: "That if the slaves be redeemed upon a public score, then seamen will render themselves to the mercy of the Algerines, and not fight in defense of the goods and ships of the merchants." A more curious instance of wisdom in relation to this subject, occurred during the profligate reign of the second Charles. A large sum of money appropriated for the redemption of captives having been lost, somehow, between the Navy Board and the Commissioners of Excise, it was gravely proposed: "That whatever loss or damage the English shall sustain from Algerines, shall be required and made good to the losers out of the estates of the Jews here in England. Because such a law may save a great expense of Christian treasure and blood!"
The first attempt to release English captives by force from Algiers was made in 1621, after the project had been debated in the privy council for nearly four years. With the exception of rescuing about thirty slaves of various nations, who swam off to the English ships, this expedition turned out a perfect failure. In 1662, another fleet was sent, a treaty was made with the dey, and 150 captives ransomed with money raised by the English clergy in their several parishes. In 1664, 1672, 1682, and 1686, other treaties were made with the Algerines: the frequent recurrence of those treaties shows the little attention paid to them by the pirates.
In 1682, Louis XIV. determined to stop the Algerine aggressions on France; and at the same time to try a new and terrible invention in the art of war. Renau d'Elicagarry had just laid before the French government a plan for building ships of sufficient strength to bear the recoil caused by firing bombs from mortars. Louis, accordingly, sent Admiral Duquesne with a fleet and some of the new bomb-vessels to destroy Algiers. The expedition was unsuccessful, the bombs proving nearly as destructive to the French as to their enemies. The next year, Duquesne returned, and, taught by experience, succeeded in firing all his bombs into the pirate city. The terrified dey capitulated, and surrendered 600 slaves to the fleet; but sixty-four of those unfortunate captives being discovered by the French officers to be Englishmen, were sent ​back to the dey! While a treaty was in preparation, the janizaries, indignant at the loss of their slaves, murdered lae dey, elected another, and manning their forts, commenced firing apon the French. Duquesne's bombs being all expended, he was obliged to sheer off and return to France. In 1688, Marshal d'Estrees, with a powerful fleet, arrived off Algiers. The bombs told with terrible effect, and the dey soon sued for peace; but d'Estrees replied that he came not to treat, but to punish. On this occasion, 10,000 bombs were thrown into Algiers; the city was reduced to ruins, and the humbled pirates compelled to sign a treaty dictated by the conqueror. In a few years, however, the demolished fortifications were reërected stronger than ever, and the incorrigible Algerines busy at their old trade of piracy.
Algerine slavery at last came to an end. At the close of the long European war in 1814, the chivalrous Sir Sidney Smith proposed a union of all orders of knighthood for the abolition of white slavery. His plan was to form "an amphibious force, to be termed the Knights Liberators, which, without compromising any flag, and without depending on the wars or political events of nations, should constantly guard the Mediterranean, and take upon itself the important office of watching, pursuing, and capturing all pirates by sea and laud." Though Sir Sidney's project fell to the ground, yet it had the good effect of calling the attention of the British nation to the subject; and in 1816, Lord Exmouth, with an English fleet, sailed to Algiers, destroyed the dey's shipping, leveled the fortifications, released altogether about 3,000 captives, and abolished forever the atrocious system of Christian slavery. The subsequent history of Algiers is foreign to our subject; we may merely add, that in 1830 it became, by right of conquest, a French colony.
Limited space compels us to say but little respecting the other piratical states of Barbary — Tunis, Tripoli, and Morocco. They, however, only dabbled in piratical slavery, not making it a systematized profession like the Algerines. When, about the middle of the seventeenth century, there were upwards of 30,000 Christian slaves in Algiers, there were not more than 7,000 in Tunis, 5,000 in Tripoli, and 1,500 in Morocco. In the latter part of the sixteenth century, Tunis and Tripoli fell under the power of the Porte, and for some time were ruled by Turkish viceroys; but in a few years the janizaries, as at Algiers, elected their own rulers; and subsequently the native race, overpowering the janizaries, gained the ascendency over their Ottoman masters. Since Blake humbled the pride of the Tunisians in 1665, and Narbro burned the Tripolitan fleet in 1676, neither of those states has inflicted much injury on British shipping. The treatment of slaves at Tunis and Tripoli was considered to be even milder than at Algiers: the Brothers of Redemption had establishments at both places. It was with Tripoli, in 1796, that the United States, through their envoy, Joel Barlow, made the treaty which caused so much animadversion. In that treaty, Mr. Barlow, to conciliate the Mohammedan powers, declared that "the government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion." Notwithstanding so bold an assertion, the faithless Tripolitans declared war against the United ​States in 1801; and after a contest highly creditable to the American navy then in its infancy, peace was concluded between the two powers, and 200 captives released from slavery. Both Tunis and Tripoli quietly renounced that practice of Christian slavery, when solicited to do so by Lord Exmouth, in 1816
All the territories which formed part of the Roman Empire in Africa, subsequently fell under the sway of Constantinople, except Morocco. Its fertile soil, almost within cannon-shot of Europe, "on the very verge and hem of civilization," has ever attracted European cupidity, and the patriotic energy of its people has ever repelled Christian domination. Almost all the semi-barbarous states of the world have fallen a prey to European ambition and enterprise; not only dynasties, but races have been extinguished; and yet Morocco is still as free from foreign influence as the surf of the Atlantic that thunders on its sands. At one period, indeed, almost subjugated, it was little more than a Portuguese province, when the Cherifs, a family of mendicant fanatics, claiming to be the lineal descendants of Mohammed, expelled the invaders, and founded the present dynasty. Spain, it is true, still holds two fortresses as penal settlements on the coast; but no Spaniard can ever look over an embrasure on the land-side without being saluted with a long Moorish rifle. It is an actual fact, that the governors of those prison forts receive intelligence of what passes in the interior of Morocco, from Madrid.
As in other parts of Barbary, it was the Moriscos, after their expulsion from Spain, that founded the system of piratical slavery in Morocco. Who has not read of the Sallee rovers in Robinson Crusoe, and the old ballads? Yet, compared with the Algerine, theirs was, after all, a very petty kind of piracy. The harbor of Sallee, the principal port of Morocco, Using only suitable for vessels drawing little water, piracy was carried on h galleys and row-boats, and was formidable only to small unarmed vessels. In 1637, an English fleet, under Admiral Rainborough, took Sallee, and released 290 British captives — "as many as would have cost £10,000." Soon after, the emperor of Morocco sent an ambassador to London, who, on his presentation to Charles I., went to court in procession, taking with him a number of liberated captives dressed in white, and many hawks and Barbary horses splendidly caparisoned. Christian slaves in Morocco were invariably the property of the emperor, and were mostly employed in constructing buildings of tapia — a composition somewhat resembling our concrete. In the latter part of the seventeenth century, during the reign of Muley Ishmael, a cruel tyrant to his own subjects, and who had a mania for building, the captives in Morocco were ill-treated, and compelled to work hard. Yet even then, one Thomas Phelps, who made his escape from Mequinez, tells us that the emperor came frequently amongst the slaves when at work, and would "bolt out encouraging words to them, such as: 'May God send you all safe home to your own countries!'" and any captive was excused from work by the payment of a blanquil — a sum equivalent to four cents — per day. In 1685, the emperor had 800 Christian slaves, 260 of whom were English; many of those, however, were subsequently ​ransomed. After Muley Ishmael's death, the captives were much butter treated. Captain Braithwaite, who accompanied Mr. Russell on a mission from the English government in 1727, thus describes the condition of the Christian captives in Morocco: "Most part of them," he says, "have expectations of getting back to their native country at one time or another. The emperor keeps most of them at work upon his buildings, but not to such hard labor that our laborers go through. The "Canute", where they are lodged, is infinitely better than our prisons. In short, the captives have a much greater property in what they get than the Moors; several of them being rich, and many have earned considerable sums out of the country. Several keep their mules, and some their servants, to the truth of which we are all witnesses." Morocco was the first of the Barbary states that gave up the practice of Christian slavery. In a treaty made with Spain in 1799, the emperor declared his desire that the name of slavery might be effaced from the memory of mankind.
* ↑ At a later period, the Algerines did not separate slave-families.
* ↑ Chambers' Miscellany.