The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1896-02-15

'OooOAo3 ohA VIC bOooluS WuFOb WOlO
casting up and down among the
rocks, or had swallowed up in their
depths, the bodies of more than a
thousand children. The other five
vessels outrode the storm and pro-
ceeded on their way.
In i he country of Algiers, on the
north coast of Africa, is town called
by the French Brengie, and by the
Saracens, Bujeiah, which has the best
and safest harbor on that coast. Its
harbor made it city of great COM
mercial Importance even in the thir
teenth century. The five vessels, with
four thousand children on board,
reached this harbor in safety. Here
they were attacked by enemies, three
of the vessels captured, the children
taken ashore and sold into hopeless
slavery. For hundreds of years that
coast was the resort OF pirates, who
have been driven out from their
strongholds within modern times.
Whether the vessels were attacked by
pirates, or whether the two merchants
of Marseilles were slave dealers and
had contracted to deliver the children
to Mohammedan slave buyers, is not
proven, but it is believed that the
merchants were slave dealers, ,and that
the children, and all on board the
vessels were betrayed by pretended
friends into the hands of enemies.
How they learned of their betrayal we
do not know; we only know that they
were sold to the highest bidder in the
slave market of that city; that they
all died in slavery; not one returned
to his home.
The vessels that escaped from
Bujeiah went on to the port of Alex
andria. There is no account of any at
tack here, but the children were taken
on shore and sold the same as those
at Bujeiah, which confirms the idea
that the merchants who furnished the
ships willfully and maliciously be-
trayed all on board. Many of them
were bought on the spot by the Gov
ernor of Alexandria. The Sultan of
Egypt bought four hundred clerks,
among whom were eighty priests.
They dwelt by themselves in his pal
ace, their only duty teaching him
and any whom he invited to study
with him. 1t was one of these priests
who returned in 1880 to tell the story
of betrayal and disaster. Some of
the unfortunate children fell into the
hands of Saracen slave dealers, who
conveyed them to be sold in Damas-
Gus and Bagdad beyond the Euphra-
tes. Their route lay through the
land of Palestine; but alas! they
came to it, not as conquerers, but as
slaves, to stopping place on the way
to lifelong bondage. They reached
the Euphrates, crossed the plain on
foot and came at last to Bagdad on
the Tigris.
Not long after the arrival of these
young captives, meeting of Saracen
princes was held at Bagdad. During
the course of the proceedings it was
suggested by some one more Jealous
than the rest that it would be becom-
ing in them to attempt the conversion
of these Youthful unbelievers. Every
artifice was employed to wean them
away from the Christian faith; they
were coaxed and threatened both.
They were offered all the comforts of
the city, all the sensual delights of
the Moslem heaven, on one hand, and
threatened with torture and death on
the other. Eighteen were put to
death, when, for some reason, perhaps
their owners had respect to their
money value) the persecution stopped.
Those that remained lived and labor
ed, grew old and died on the banks
of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers,
waiting in vain for some interposition,
human or divine, for their deliver
ance.
What became of their leader, Steph-
en- of GLOVES, is not known. Whether
he embarked with those who sailed
from Marseilles or not the history of
this tragedy does not record. The
two merchants who furnished the
ships entered into an agreement
some time after with Emir Mirabel,
ruler of the Saracen colony in Sicily,
either to capture or to assassinate,
Frederick, Emperor of Germany. The
plot was discovered before it could
be put into execution. Mirabel, his
two sons and the two merchants were
all hung on one gallows.
When the fate of the children be-
came known, through the return of
the aged priests, Pope Gregory TX
resolved to erect a monument to their
memorv. He. therefore- eaused