sued even to Rhodes. So far indeed did their audacity proceed, that having seized a Dutch ship and poleacre at Scanderoon, they ventured on shore, plundered the magazines and warehouses, and then set them on fire. Though the Porte resented these depredations as an open defiance of its authority, it was then too much occupied by the Persian war, to be able to check them; and the vizier and courtiers compounded with the Algerines for a share of the spoils.

"For many years the piracies of these corsairs continued the terror and the shame of the Christian powers. At length, in the year 1652, a French fleet being driven by accident into the bay of Algiers, the admiral demanded the release of all the prisoners of his nation, without any exception. When his demand was refused, he carried off, without ceremony, the Turkish bashaw and his cadi, who had just arrived from Constantinople, with all their equipage and retinue. The Algerines, in revenge, attacked a French fort lately erected by Louis XIII. called the bastion of France, and carried off the inhabitants, with all their effects; an outrage which so provoked the French admiral, that he threatened to pay them a visit next year.

"Undismayed by this menace, the Algerines fitted out a fleet of sixteen galleys, well manned and equipped, destined to seize the treasure of Loretto. Prevented by adverse winds from accomplishing their design, they made a descent upon Puglia, in the kingdom of Naples, ravaged the territory of Nocotra; and then, steering towards Dalmatia, scoured the Adriatic, leaving the inhabitants of the coasts in the utmost consternation.

"Provoked by these outrages, the Venetians sent out a fleet of twenty-eight sail, under the command of Admiral Capello, with orders to take, sink, or burn all the Barbary corsairs, wherever he found them. Capello soon came up with the Algerine fleet, which, after an obstinate conflict,

he entirely defeated; but a ball from one of the Venetian galleys having struck a Turkish mosque, the whole action was considered as an insult upon the Grand Signior. Capello was recalled, and the Venetians were obliged to purchase peace of the Porte with the sum of five hundred thousand ducats. Algiers was filled with consternation at the news of this defeat; but they repaired their loss with amazing activity, and were soon able to appear at sea with a fleet of sixty-five sail.

"A squadron consisting of five galleys and two brigantines, commanded by the Algerine admiral Pinchinin, was defeated by a Dutch merchantman of twenty-eight guns, after a fierce engagement, in which the Dutch displayed uncommon valour; but the rest of the fleet returned to Algiers crowded with captives, and laden with an immense quantity of spoils. Such was the general terror which these corsairs excited, that the English, French, and Dutch, were glad to obtain peace from them even on very degrading terms; while against the Spaniards, Portuguese and Italians, the inveterate enemies of the Mahometan faith, they vowed eternal war. The outrages which they committed on the French coast, at last provoked Louis XIV. to send out a strong fleet against them, under the command of the Marquis du Quesne, vice-admiral of France. Du Quesne sailed to Algiers in August, 1682, and bombarded it with such fury, that the whole city was soon in flames, and the terrified inhabitants were preparing to leave it, when the wind suddenly veering about, obliged the admiral to return to Toulon. The Algerines in revenge for this outrage, immediately sent to the coast of Provence a number of galleys and galliots, which committed dreadful ravages, and carried off a great number of captives. A new armament was fitted out at Marseilles and Toulon; and the Algerines informed of these preparations, repaired their walls, and fortified their ca

pital, to be ready for the expected assault. The squadron of Du Quesne appeared before Algiers in the beginning of the following summer, and bombarded it with such activity, and with such dreadful execution, that the Dey and Bashaw immediately sued for peace. An immediate surrender of all the French captives was insisted upon as a preliminary; but a delay in the execution of that condition occasioned a renewal of hostilities. In less than three days most of the city was reduced to ashes, and the flames was so violent as to illumine the sea for several leagues around. The distress of this scene served only to inspire the Algerine commander with frantic rage. Not content with butchering all the French in the city, he ordered their consul to be fastened alive to the mouth of a cannon, whence he was shot away against their navy. By such unheard of atrocity, the French admiral was so much exasperated that he did not leave Algiers till he had destroyed all its fortifications and shipping, and rendered the city almost a heap of ruins. This disaster so completely humbled the Algerines, that they immediately sent an embassy to France, begging for peace in the most abject terms, and supplicating pardon for the murder of the consul, which they attributed to the ungovernable rage of the populace. Their request was granted, and from that time they began to pay more regard to other nations, and to be more cautious of incurring their displeasure. In 1686 they entered into a treaty with England on terms highly advantageous to that country. The treaty was renewed at different times; but it was not till the English obtained possession of Gibraltar and Port Mahon, that they could compel those perfidious pirates to pay proper regard to the obligation of treaties."

In the year 1775 the Spaniards attacked it by sea and land with fifty thousand men; but they were unsuccessful, and obliged to retire with defeat and disgrace: they, how

ever, again came before it, in the year 1783-4, and bombarded it with a large naval force, but could not destroy either the town or the shipping.

The British government at length resolved to do something against the Barbary states; and Lord Exmouth, the commander-in-chief in the Mediterranean, was entrusted with the execution of their orders. Accordingly he, by negociation with them, succeeded in prevailing upon them to liberate above two thousand five hundred Christian slaves, principally Neapolitans, Sicilians, and Sardinians. He also prevailed on the Deys of Tripoli, Tunis, and Algiers, and the Emperor of Morocco, to promise to abstain from piracy and slavery. But it was hardly to be expected that these promises would be kept; and it soon appeared that Lord Exmouth's negociation, at least with regard to Algiers, had been of very little service; for the Algerines, indignant at the conduct of their Dey in making this treaty, murdered him, and chose another more conformable to their views. Soon after Lord Exmouth's negotiation, also most cruel depredations were committed even on the English. At Bona, a small port between Algiers and Tunis, there was a massacre of the Christians.

In consequence of this and other atrocities, the British government resolved to send Lord Exmouth, who had just returned from the Mediterranean, back against Algiers; and he was instructed so to punish the Algerines as would effectively prevent their future piracies and atrocities.

The result of this enterprise, sacred in the eyes of justice and humanity, is so well told in the official dispatch of Lord Exmouth, not more remarkable for the modesty than for the elegance of its narration, and in the private accounts which we subjoin to the official accounts, that we shall lay the whole before our readers.

"Admiralty Office, September 15:

"Captain Brisbane, of His Majesty's ship Queen Charlotte, arrived at this office last night, with the following dispatches from Lord Exmouth.

"SIR,

"Queen Charlotte, Algiers Bay, August 28.

"In all the vicissitudes of a long life of public service, no circumstance has ever produced on my mind such impressions of gratitude and joy as the event of yesterday. To have been one of the humble instruments, in the bands of Divine Providence, for bringing to reason a ferocious government, and destroying for ever the insufferable and horrid system of Christian slavery, can never cease to be a source of delight and heartfelt comfort to every indivi dual happy enough to be employed in it.

I may, I hope, be permitted under such impressions to offer my sincere congratulations to their lordships on the complete success which attended the gallant efforts of His Majesty's fleet in their attack upon Algiers of yesterday; and the happy result produced from it on this day by the signature of peace. Thus has a provoked war of two days' existence been attended by a complete victory, and closed by a renewed peace for England and her ally, the King of the Netherlands, on conditions dictated by the firmness and wisdom of His Majesty's government, and commanded by the vigour of their measures. My thanks are justly due for the honour and confidence His Majesty's ministers have been pleased to repose on my zeal on this highly important occasion. The means were by them made adequate to my own wishes, and the rapidity of their measures speak for themselves. Not more than an hundred days since, I left Algiers with the British fleet, unsuspicious and ignorant of the atrocities which had been com.