The Grenada gazette., 1886-07-31
A NATIONAL HONOR.
The Sweeping Of Corsairs From
the High Seas.

Of all the barbarious communities
with which the civilized world has had
to deal in modern times, perhaps none
have made so much trouble as the Mus
sulman states on the southern shores
of the Mediterranean. After the break
ing up of the great Moorish kingdoms
of the Middle Ages, this region had
fallen under the nominal control of the
Turkish sultans as lords paramount of
the orthodox Mohammedan world. It's
miserable populations became the prey
OF bandtti. Swarms of half-savage
cheftains settled down upon the land
like locusts, and out of such a pande-
monium of robbery and murder as has
scarcely been equaled in historic times
the pirate states of Morocco and AL
giers, 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. Angus
tine, there grew up the most terrible
despotisms ever known to the world.
1hc things done daily by the robber
sovereigns were such as to make
a civilized Imagination recoil with hor-
ror One of these cheerful creatures,
who reigned in the middle of the eight
centh century, and was called Muley
Abdailah, especially prided himself on
his peculiar skill in mounting horse.
Resting his left hand upon the horses
neck, as he sprang into the saddle he
simultaneously swung the sharp scimi-
ter in his right hand so deity as to cut
off the head of the groom who held the
brldle. From his behavior in these
sportiye moods one may judge what he
was capable of on serious occasions.
lie was fair sample of the Barbary
monarchs. The foreign policy of these
Wretches was summed up in piracy and
blackmail. Their corsairs swept the
Mediterranean and ventured far out
upon the ocean, capturing merchant
vessels, and numbering Or enslav-
ing their crews. Of the rich booty,
a 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 calcula-
ton. One of their favorite practices
was the kidnapping of eminent or
wealthy persons, in the hope of ex-
torting ransom. Cervantes and Vim
cent de Paul were among the celebrat-
Ell men who thus tasted the horrors
OF Moorish slavery; but it was ca
lamity that might fall to the lot of any
man or woman, and it was but rarely
that the victims ever regained their
freedom. Against these pirates the
governments of Europe contended in
vain. Swift cruisers frequently capt
ured their ships, and from the days of
Joan of Arc down to the days of Ma
poleon their skeletons swung from long
rows of gibbets on all the coasts of |
Europe, as a terror and warning.
But their losses were easily repaired,
and sometimes they cruised in fleets Of
seventy or eighty sail, defying the ma
vies OF. England and France. 1t was
not until after England, in Mel
sons time, had acquired suprema-
cy in the Mediterranean that this
dreadful scourge was destroyed. Amer
leans, however, have just ground for
pride in recollecting that their Govern
ment was foremost in chastlsing these
pirates in their own harbors. The ex-
ploits OF our little navy in the Mediter-
ranean at the beginning Of the present
century form an interesting episode in
American history, but in the weak days
of the confederation our commerce was
plundered with impunity, and Ameri-
can citizens were seized and sold into
slavery in the markets of Algiers and
Iripoli. One reason for the long sur
vival of this villainy was the low
state Of humanity among European
nations. An Englishman's sympathy
was hut fccbly aroused by the plum
der Of Frenehmen, and the bigoted
Spaniard looked on with approval so
long as il was Protestants that were
kidnapped and bastinadoed. In 1888
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,
because they tended to keep the weak
Or nations out Of their share in the car
rying trade. This. he thought, was
offset to the Empress Cathe-
rine's device OF the armed neutrality,
whereby small nations were protected;