Portland gazette and Maine advertiser., 1815-05-15
@isrfilaisg+
The Algerines.


THE following Is Al inseseang extract from the
narranve of the treatment recently experienced
by respectable Individual a Bsltiih fubjeca) who
was taken when on his v ,yase from England TO
Sicily in ve1el belonging to the latter country
and carried TO Algers. The following day after
his arrival and Whit they were preparing the
badges of n4vsry ADD fervitude. he wa. 20 fortu
nate as to obtain his Liberation through the inter
csiIion of he Bdtilh confu.]
During the few days which contin.
ucd IN Africa living in the country, aud
at the houie of the Brltih conlul ufed
TO g. every morning in town to Witt my
unfortunste companions, and particular
" the two brothers, Mefrs ferrcns Of
Leghorn, one Respectable merchant, the
other an excellent painter. They were
both HAYES in AIgiers. and by ipecial ia
vor exempt from the pubic labours
My Wills could be but fhort, and always
returned full of forrow from that horri
bic city. The heart feels oppreGed and
heavy within the walls of Algiers !; it
feems as if you breathed with difficulty
and pain in that land of terror and def
potifm.
The fight Of tyrants and flaves, of op.
prsdors and opprefed, of naughty barba-
rians and unhappy wretches--that con-
TRAIT of arrogance and fubmiGon, of vio-
lence and fear--the poilibility of being
i'll treated with impunity. of being i'm
prlsoned, and put to death on mere fuf
picion or within of an abfolute tyrant
all gended to render one miferable, to dit
turb and agitate the mind, and finally to
fufpend even the faculty of thinking.
Whoever has not experienced wha,
fiavery is, and has not seen what takes
place in Algiers, does nor know the mott
horrible of all msfortunes, and into what
a fate of wrechedneis and detection the
mind of an unhappy mortal may fall.
"There were in Algiers above 1900
ilayes, and every year more than one
hundred die of anger and forrow, or ftom
fatigue and repeated blows. Shut up
every night in the Bagno, the naked
earth is their bed, in places open to the
WIND and aIn.--They are called up again
at the dawn of DAY, and hurried with
heavy blows TO their daily hard labours,
which tait till evening.
Some amongh them are employed
in the arlenai, and for the lmalIeit trans.
greilion they are numerically beaten,
even TO the infection Of five hundred
itrokes of the baainado Others are
condemned like BEATS to drag or carry
huge tones from the mountains, and of
ten fall and are buried under thofe ample
ruins have feen them fall on the road
and be obliged, like The vilelt brute, to
rife under the infection OF heavy and re-
peated blows, Whit others would suffer
the treatment and remain proitrate and
inienGble, waiting and whining for death.
9 The nourifhment Of thefe wreichcs
conGffs of two loaves of bread in the
morning, and one in the evening bread
as black as charcoal, and bitter as potion
They are all miferable, without hope of
comfort they are defpifed, infuIted, and
i'll treated by the Moorifh and Furkifh
rabble Without minifters or the exer-
cife of religion, thefe poor abandoned
wretches are deprived even of she COMO
lations derived from them. There is
only one poor prisf, paid by Spain, who
has the care of fmall hofpital, and at
tends to he burying of Christians. Some
years ago, before Spain had bought the
prefent fnall elementary, the poor de-
ceafed Chriltian nayes were denied the
facred rites of iepulture, and remained
in the open air horrid food for the dogs"
Unfortunately the ranfom is render
ed extremely difficult on account of the
great fums they demand. The Dey
affixed fifteen hundred piaftres for every
SiciIian individual; the predominant pas.
lions of theie barbarians being avarice
and ambition, they think of nothing but
getting money.
The Dey and fome other families
are poaef1cd of immenfe riches. Juifice
with him is fummary. harih and arbi
trary every thing is corrupted and
bought with gold. The Algerines are
cunning, wicked and perspicacious. To
know how to deceive is what forms their
great political ftudy, and they boat OF
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