Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1912-07-12
eARBARY PIRATES
These Fiends Terrorizsd the Sea For
Five Centuries.

BARBARY PIRATES
These Fiends Terrorizsd the Sea For
Five Centuries.
Those pests Of the sea, the Barbary
pirates, who defied the civilized world
for 500 years, had at one time 10000
Christian slaves In bondage In Algeria.
The methods by which they were OBJ
tained and how treated are described
by Sir Henry Norman In Scribner's
Magazine:
Ships were seized In all European
waters, even of the coast of Ireland,
and their crews taken into slavery. SO
were the crews Of vessels which came
to trade. When any state attempted
punishment the consul Of that country
was sent to the galleys. and Sir Lam
bert Playfair, British consul general
and erudite author of Murray's Hand
book tells US that in one instance on
the approach Of q French feet their
representative was blown toward them
from mortar. Cervantes himself was
a slave there In 1866.
Tn the seventeenth century the Al
gerine pirates held prizes worth 20.-
100000 francs. Again and again the
Christian powers Of that and the next
century failed to infiict lasting de-
feat upon this 'scourge OF Christen-
DOM The British parliament passed
an act to undertake the Chri o..
work Of the redemption of the captives
from the cruel thralldom they lay un-
der but It's intention exceeded its
power, for not long afterward $50 Eng
lish ships were captured and 5000
English slaves brought into Algiers In
the space Of seven years, and when az
ter five years war between England
and the pirate state peace was sign
ed the dey refused to surrender sim
gle English slave, and the treaty had a
clause to the effect that 'the king of
Great Britain shall not be obliged by
virtue Of this treaty to redeem any Of
his subjects now In slavery probably
the most degrading treaty, as Sir Lam
bert Playfair remarks, ever signed be-
tween England and foreign power.
AT one time 10000 Christian slaves
were In bondage in Algeria, of all the
nations of Europe, many Of them men
Of rank, learning and piety and all OF
them suffering daily the most cruel
hardships, starvation and torture. One
would have expected the Christian ma
tions to Join forces for one object at
least and wipe this puny pirate state
Off the earth, yet for 500 years Barbary
held them at bay.
"Just as the ca sailors chantry
about "the coast cf TIE wild Barbaree'
took its origiT IN The terrors Of that
coast, so the religious order Of the
Fathers of lhe REDEEM ption was origi-
nally founae'a to coliact aims for the
ransom of ne Algerian slaves, and
many IL its members, with perhaps
the nobllst Christian charity on record
voluntarily shared the lot Of the cap
tives for the comfort they could give
and the services they could render In
Of ransom.
"One ghost Of all these unhappy
thousands takes literally concrete
shape. An Arab Christian named Ge-
roulmo. taken as baby by Spanish
soldiers and educated by the vicar gem
eral, was captured by the pirates dur
ing a raid. AS q renegade he was, OF
course. the subject Of the utmost per-
secution. and when no inducement or
suffering could make him apostalize
he was at length offered by the dey
the choice of being thrown alive into
a mold Of concrete which formed part
Of the foundation Of new bastion or
Of embracing Islam. He choose the
and was flung into the
mold with his hands tied behind him
and the concrete poured over him.
This was in 1862
I'm 1912 a Spanish Benedictine ia
ther wrote history Of Algiers in the
course Of which he narrated at length
the martyrdom Of Geroulmo and de-
scribed particularly the situation OF the
bastion in which his body lay. In 1S47
q translation of this passage was pub
lished in an Algerian newspaper, and
In 1853, when the old fortress was d.
stroyed, search was made. Exactly as
had been described the skeleton was
and on plaster Of paris be-
Ing poured into the impression In the
cement the figure OF the martyr
emerged, the hands tied behind It,
much as he had been three centuries
before. The pastor cast is today In
the Bibliatheque musee."