Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1886-06-23
THE MEDITERRANEAN C0RsAIRs.

vi all the oarDar0uS communities Win
which the civilized world has had to deal in
modern times, perhaps none have made 80
much trouble as the Musselman states on
the southern shore of the Mediterranean.
After the breaking up OF the great Moorish
Kingdoms of tho Middle Ages, this region
had fallen under the nominal control of the
Turkish sultanB as lords paramount of the
orthodox Mohammedan world. It's misera-
BILE populations became the prey OF banditti.
Swarms Of halfsavage chieftains settled
down upon the land like locusts, and out of
such psndemonium of robbery and MUIR
der as has scarcely been equaled in historic
times the pirate states of Morocco and
Algiers, Tunis and Tripoli, gradually
emerged Of these communities history has
not one good word to say. In these fair
lands, once illustrious for the genius and
virtues of Hannibal and the profound
philosophy of st. Augustine, there grew up
the most terrible despotisms ever known to
the world. The things done daily by the
robber sovereigns were such as to make
civilized imagination recoil with horror.
One Of these cheerful creatures, who
reigned in the middle of the eighteenth
century, and was called Muley Abdal-
lah, especially prided himself on his
peculiar skill in mounting horse. Rest
ing bis left hand upon the horses
neck, as he sprang into the saddle he stimuli.
taneousiy swung the sharp scimiter in his
right hand SO deftly as to cut of the head of
the groom who held the bride. From his
behavior in these sportive moods one may
Judge what he was capable of on serious oc-
casions He was fair sample OF the Bar
barry monarcns. The foreign policy of these
wrotchea was summed up in piracy and
blachmail. Their corsairs swept the Medit-
terranean and ventured far out upon the
ocean, capturing merchant vessels, and
numbering or ensIaving their crews. OF the
rich booty II fixed proportion was paid over
to the robber sovereign, and the rest was
divided among the gang. So lucrative was
this business that it attracted hardy ruflians
from all parts of Europe, and the misery
they inflicted upon mankind during four
centuries was beyond calculation. One Of
their favorite practices was the kidnapping
of eminent or wealthy persons, in the hope
of extorting ransom. Cervantes and Vim
cent de Paul were among the celebrated
men who thus tasted the horrors of Moorish
slavery but it was calamity that might
fall to the let of any man or woman, and it
was but rarely that the victims ever re-
gained their freedom. Against these pirates
the governments of Europe contended in
vain. Swift cruisers frequently captured
their ships, and from the days Of Joan of
Arc down to tho days of Napoleon their
skeletons swung from long rows Of gibbets
on all the coasts of Europe, as terror and a
warning. But their losses were easily re-
paired, and sometimes they cruised in fleets
of seventy or eighty sail, defying the naVes
of England and France. 1t was not until
after England, in Nelson's time, had &C.
quired supremacy in the Mediterranean that
this dreadful scourge was destroyed. Amer
leans, however, have just ground for pride
in recollecting that their government was
foremost in chastising these pirates in their
own harbors. The exploits of our little
navy in the Mediterranean at the beginning
of the present century form an interesting
episode in American history, but in the
weak days of the confederation our COM
merce was plundered with impunity, and
American citizens were seized and sold into
slavery in the markets of Algiers and Trip
OIL Ono reason for the long survival of this
villainy vas the low state of humanity
among European nations. An Englishman's
sympathy was but feebly aroused by the
plumber of Frenchmen, and the bigoted
Spaniard looked on with approval SO long
as it was Protestants that were kidnapped
and bastinadoed. IN 1853 Lord Sheffield
published pamphlet on the commerce of
the United States in which he shamelessly
declared that the Barbary pirates were really.
useful TO the great maritime powers, be-
cause they tended to keep the weaker ma
tions out of their share in the carrying trade.
This, he thought, was valuable Offset to
the Empress GATHERINGS device OF the arm.
cd neutrality, whereby small nations were
protected and on this wicked theory, as
Franklin tells US, London merchants had
been heard to say that ''if there were no
Algiers, it would be worth Engand's while
to build one" 1t was largely because of
such feelings That the great States of Eu-
rope SO long persisted in the craven policy
of paying blackmail to the robbers, instead
of Joining in crusade and destroying them.
In 1856 Congress felt it necessary to take
measures for protecting the lives and liber-
ties of American citizens. The person who
called himself Emperor" of Morocco at
that time was different from most of his
kind. He had taste for reading, and had
thus caught glimmeriDg of the enlighten.
ed liberalism which French philosophers
were preaching. He wished to be thought
a benevolent despot, and with Morocco, ac-
cordinely, Congress succeeded in making a
treaty. But nothing could be done with
the other pirate States without paying
blackmail Few scenes in our history are
moro amusing, or more Irritating, than the
interview OF John Adams with an envoy from
Tripoli in London. The oily-tongued bar