The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1825-03-02 00:00:00

ALGIERS.

PORTSMOUTH, FEZ. 28.

The arrival of the Camelion at this port, enables us to correct
several mis-statementa which have been niade relative to her visit,
'with the Naiad, to the port of Algiers. The specific object which
induced our Government to order these ships thither was, to de-
mand from the Dey satisfaction, or an apology, for tuning made
an attack on and broken open the house of Mr. Macdonald, our
Consul, in order to search for and take away two of his servants,
who are Cabbais, natives of the interior. against whom the Dey
had c,rnimenced • war of extermination and of plunder. Capt.
Spencer was also to demand permission for ;he English Consul to
hoist the British colours on the Consular Town-house. as a pro-
tection of himself and family from unprovoked insult. Capt.
:Spencer, on his arrival at Algiers, found two Spanish vessels it:
the Mole, which had been just captured by the Algerine corvette
Tripoli, and the crews of which were destir.ed to slavery. Capt.
Spencer, therefore, with the most praiseworthy feeling, made the
ease of these poor captives a part of his demand* to the Dey, agree-
ably to the E' mouth Treaty, which renounced the right of the
Dey to this inhuman practice over Christian subjects. Capt.
Spencer having waited four days for the Dey'ii reply to his de-
mands, became apprehensive fur the safety of the Consul and his
family ; he, therefiere, as a stratagem, to get them on board, gave
out that he meant to give a drjeune a la joatchelle, and, accord-
ingly, sent invitations to the Consulate and all the Merchants and
Europeans on shore, to honour him with their company. The next
day (the 31st ult.) the Dey not having made any reply to the de-
mands, Capt. Spencer made the signal for the Camelion to !
get under way, and he left the Bay, with all his pretended
guests, on board the Naiad. Whilst the ships were working
out of the Bay, the Algerine corvette, which had captured
the two Spanish vessels before alluded to, was espied close under
the land, running for the Mole, which anchorage she would have
reached had not the Camelion instantly laid her on board, when
Linitenant Bagwell, at the head of a party of the Camelion's crew,
resolutely jumped into the main chains, followed by the Second
Lieutenant, Master, and remainder of the crew, excepting about
tell men, who, after having killed seven and wounded twelve of the
.11gerines, drove the remainder below, and captured the Tripoli
' corvette, of 18 guns, and 100 men, in tine style. The crew of the
! Naiad (which ship was outside of the bay), observing the gallant
efforts of the Camelion, manned the rigging, and gave three cheers
at the moment of boarding. Captain Spencer took out the Captain,
but the corvette, being in a leaky state and disabled by the tire
! she hail sustained both from the Naiad, in passing her, and the
Camelion, was abandoned. Captain Spencer proceeded to Malta,
Ito apprise the Commander-in-Chief (Sir llarry Neale) of what had
occurred, and he despatched the Camelion to England, with the
result of his communication to the Vey. It was obweryed that the
Algerinea had considerably strengthened their weak points ; the
Crown and Seraglio batteries, in particular. They tned the effect
of their shells, from one of the batteries nearest to the Camclion,
whilst she was attacking the Camelion, but she was at too great a
distance (about four miles) to receive any harm from them. When
the Camelion sailed (on the Ist inst.) the Algerine squadron was at
sea, cruising against the defenceless Spaniards. A large rases fri-
gate was cruising off Cape St. Vincent; two smaller frigates, sod
live corvettes, were off Minorca and Majorca. It is, however,
supposed thati they all returned to port in a day or two afterwards,
as, whilst the Naiad and Camelion lay there, a brig sailed sud-
denly, it is presumed, to recal them. The Carnelian stayed at
Gibraltar only a few hours. There was no British ship of war theta
there. The Camelion is rennin,' at Spithead : it is expected she
will be the next convoy to Gibraltar.