The Massachusetts spy, and Worcester County advertiser. [volume] ([Worcester, Mass.]) 1825-1831, 1830-07-21
From the Albany Daily Advertiser.

HoRRORs OF ALGIERs. We have read
an account lately published in the Courier
des Etats Unis, of the situation of Alglers
and its vicinity, written by one who says
that his knowledge is obtained from a resi- !
dence there. If this account be correct,
the inducements to the soldiers in the ex-
petition of France against the place, are
but sad ones, and their suffsrings, if unsuc-
cesslul, will far exceed those of their cOun-
trymen engaged in the expedition to Egypt,
under Bonaparte.
The writer states that " Algiers is a
dreary town, built on an iron soil, full OF
barbarians of soldiers and citadels. 1t is
surrounded with deserts, in which are heard
the cries of the lion, the jackal, and the n.y.
ena, and in which glides the serpent Boa,
as in the time of Regulus. In the richest
houses of the city are scorpions whose sting
! is mortal. When summer arrives, the 10
Gusts, the true plague of Egypt, hasten for
ward, intrepid as the armies of Genghs
Khan, devouring even the bark of the trees.
You kindle fires to check their invasion, the
fires are extinguished by the number of the
dead; you dig pits, the pits are filled, and
the enemy pass over them. You are obliged
to yield, and at last, when the locust is of a
reasonable size, it puts forth wings, and the
scourge quits the earth to torment the air.
As the only compensation you have for this
destruction, you have at intervals the wear
led quail, which, having deserted the fra
grant heaths OF Europe, alights on the shore,
incapable of further progress"
"Besides these general evils, not to speak
! of the sands of the desert, the perils which
beset the traveller, on the back of the cam.
! Ell or light footed dromedary, and the ST.
NOON, a sort Of land hurricane, the pest O
, every day, called in the scripture corruption
you are exposed to a thousand particular
misfortunes. You lose yourself in mixed
population; Turks, Moors, Jews, Christians
. and Bedoween Arabs, the most supportabl'
; people of the country, all hate you, becaus,
:, you bear the name Of Christian. If the,
:, make you prisoner, better were it for yo
!. to be the most wretched convict condemne
q to the galleys for life.
They make more account of cat than q
&c a slave in this dreary country. Let thos
i then who enter it, take care to enter onl
as master, and with flourish Of warlik
trumpets, a thing which to say the truth, ha
not often happened since the time of Charlie
the Fifth. But victory vi s gffllffs ffSocE.. T6
business is not now to descend victoriou
- into the bosom of soft Italy, after havin
- scaled the Alps to the skies, nor to oene
= trate by night into street of Seville to tn
:. plaintive tones Of guitar.
y The people of Algiers are not peopl,
a Take from these vulgar Ottomans their pipe
n and some moments of pleasant repose, whe
i the true believer, reclined on a carpe
!. smokes, and thinks of nothing, and Their
"a no longer remains any thing of human
~ They strangle the chiefs to excite emula
" ton among the subalterns. They rob tn
. Jews who enrich themselves. by usur,
"a Otherwise they are nearly just to ever
body except to the Francs; whose ordinar
- fate is blows, Bullets, fines, hands cut of
- noses slit, apostacies compelled by torture
= and stabs of the poignard in the back.
" 1t is said that the French, fearing tina
\ the Algerines or Arabs may resort to tn
a. expedient Of poisoning the wells along tn
- - coast, have taken 600 dogs with them a
- tasters. If the four footed animals drin
. with IMMUNITY, the bipeds will have nothing
- to fear"