The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1912-07-12
BARBARY PIRATES
These Fiends Terrorized the Sea
For Five Centuries.
DEFIED THE ENTIRE WORLD
They Held at One Time Forty Thou
sand Captives as Slaves, Among
Whom Was Cervantes--The Cam
mons Mouth For a French Envoy.

mons Mouth For French Envoy.
Those pests Of the sea, the Barbary
| pirates, who deGed the civilized world
for 800 years. had at one time 10000
Christian slaves in bondage In Algeria
The methods by which they were OBJ
tanned and how treated are described
by Sir Henry Norman In Scribner's
Magazine:
"Ships were seized In all European
waters, even off the coast of Ireland
and their crews taken into slavery
So were the crews Of vessels which
came TO trade. When any state at
tempted punishment the consul OF that
country was sent TO the galleys. and
Sir Lambert Playfair. British consul
general and erudite author of Muir
rays Handbook. tells us that In one
instance on the approach Of Il French
feet their representative was blown
toward them from mortar Ger
vantes himself was II slave there In
1865
'In the seventeenth century the
n
100000 francs Again and again the
Christian powers Of that and the next
century failed to inilict II lasting de-
feat upon this 'scOnrge of Christcn
dom The British parliament passed
an act to undertake the Christian
work of the redemption Of the cap
tives from the cruel thralldom they
lay under, but its intention exceeded
It's power, for not long afterward 800
English ships were captured and 0.O00
English slaves brought into Algiers In
the space of seven years, and when
after five years war between England
and the pirate state peace was sign
ed the dcy refused to surrender sin
gle English slave, and the treaty had
n 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 i'm 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
tons to join forces for one object at
least and wipe this puny pirate state
off the earth. yet for 500 years Bar
barry held them at bay.
"Just as the old sailors chantry about
the coast of the wild Burbaree took
its origin in the terrorS of that coast,
so the religious order Of the Fathers OF
the Redemption was originally founded
to collect aims for the ransom of the
Algerian slaves, and many of its mem
bers. with perhaps the noblcSt Chris
tian charity on record. voluntarily
shared the lot of the captivcs for the
comfort they could give and the scrv
ices they could render In negotiations
of ransom.
"One ghost of all these unhappy thou.
sands takes literally concrete shape.
An Arab Christian named GcrOni.
mo, taken as II baby by Spanish sol
diers and educated by the vicar gen.
eral, was captured by the pirates dur
ing raid AS renegade he was, of
course, the subject of the utmost per.
secution, and when no inducement or
suffering could make him apostatize
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 Il new bastion or
of embracing Islam. He chose the
martyrdom and was flung into the
mold with his hands tied behind him
and the concrete poured over him. This
was in 1863,
"In 1912 n Spanish Benedlctine IN
thcr wrote n history of Algiers in the
course Of which he narrated at length
the martyrlom of Geronimo and de-
scribed particularly the situation Of the
bastion in which his body lay. In lS+I
translation OF this passage was pub
lished in an Algerian newspaper, and
I'm 1853. when the old fortress was de
stroyed. search was made. Exactly rs
had been described the Skeleton was
discovered, and OH plaster OF paris
being poured into the impression in
the cement the figure of the martyr
emerged. the hands tied behind II,
much rs he had been three centuries
before. This plaster cast is today in
the Bibliotheque musee."
The Pole Star.