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Title: The Story of the Barbary Corsairs
Author: Lane-Poole, Stanley, Kelley, Lieut. J. D. Jerrold
Language: English
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The Story of the Nations
THE STORY OF THE
BARBARY CORSAIRS
BY
STANLEY LANE-POOLE.
AUTHOR OF "THE LIFE OF LORD STRATFORD DE REDCLIFFE," "TURKEY,"
"THE MOORS IN SPAIN," ETC., ETC.
WITH THE COLLABORATION OF
LIEUT. J. D. JERROLD KELLEY, U.S. NAVY
NEW YORK
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
LONDON: T. FISHER UNWIN
1890
COPYRIGHT
BY G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
1890
_Entered at Stationers' Hall, London_
BY T. FISHER UNWIN
Press of
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
New York
THE STORY OF THE NATIONS
12MO, ILLUSTRATED. PER VOL., $1.50
THE EARLIER VOLUMES ARE
THE STORY OF GREECE. By Prof. Jas. A. Harrison
THE STORY OF ROME. By Arthur Gilman
THE STORY OF THE JEWS. By Prof. Jas. K. Hosmer
THE STORY OF CHALDEA. By Z. A. Ragozin
THE STORY OF GERMANY. By S. Baring-Gould
THE STORY OF NORWAY. By Prof. H. H. Boyesen
THE STORY OF SPAIN. By E. E. and Susan Hale
THE STORY OF HUNGARY. By Prof. A. Vámbéry
THE STORY OF CARTHAGE. By Prof. Alfred J. Church
THE STORY OF THE SARACENS. By Arthur Gilman
THE STORY OF THE MOORS IN SPAIN. By Stanley Lane-Poole
THE STORY OF THE NORMANS. By Sarah O. Jewett
THE STORY OF PERSIA. By S. G. W. Benjamin
THE STORY OF ANCIENT EGYPT. By Geo. Rawlinson
THE STORY OF ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. By Prof. J. P. Mahaffy
THE STORY OF ASSYRIA. By Z. A. Ragozin
THE STORY OF IRELAND. By Hon. Emily Lawless
THE STORY OF THE GOTHS. By Henry Bradley
THE STORY OF TURKEY. By Stanley Lane-Poole
THE STORY OF MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. By Z. A. Ragozin
THE STORY OF MEDIÆVAL FRANCE. By Gustave Masson
THE STORY OF MEXICO. By Susan Hale
THE STORY OF HOLLAND. By James E. Thorold Rogers
THE STORY OF PHŒNICIA. By George Rawlinson
THE STORY OF THE HANSA TOWNS. By Helen Zimmern
For prospectus of the series see end of this volume.
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS, NEW YORK AND LONDON
[Illustration: ALGIERS, 1700.
(_From a Map in the British Museum._)]
CONTENTS.
_INTRODUCTION._
I.
PAGES
THE REVENGE OF THE MOORS. 3-13
Centuries of piracy, 3--The Moslems take to the sea, 4--African
fleets, 7--Effects of the expulsion of the Moors from Spain, 8--The
delights of piracy, 9--Retaliation of the Moors, 10--Don Pedro
Navarro, 12--The building of the Peñon de Alger, 13.
II.
THE LAND OF THE CORSAIRS. 14-27
The Barbary Peninsula, 14--Command of the narrow seas, 15--Barbary
ports and havens, 16--Character of the country, 20--North-African
dynasties, 21--Relations between the rulers of Barbary and the
Christian States, 22--Piracy discountenanced, 24--Christian
Corsairs, 25--Growth of sea-roving, 26--The coming of the Turks, 27.
_PART I._
THE CORSAIR ADMIRALS.
III.
Urūj Barbarossa. 1504-1515 31-44
Lesbos, 31--Birth of Urūj and Kheyr-ed-dīn Barbarossa, 31--Arrival
of Urūj at Tunis, 32--Capture of Papal galleys, 35--The epithet
Barba-rossa, 36--Galley slaves, 39--Jerba, 40--Unsuccessful siege of
Bujēya, 40--Doria besieges the Goletta of Tunis, 43--Second attack
on Bujēya, 44--Urūj becomes king of Jījil, 44.
IV.
THE TAKING OF ALGIERS. 1516-1518 45-52
Death of Ferdinand, 45--Algerines appeal to Urūj to deliver them
from the Spaniards, 46--His doings at Algiers, 49--Defeat of a Spanish
armada, 50--Victory over the prince of Tinnis, 50--Great authority of
Urūj, 51--Expedition of the Marquis de Comares, 51--Death of Urūj
Barbarossa, 52.
V.
Kheyr-ed-dīn Barbarossa. 1518-1530 53-60
Departure of the Spanish troops, 53--Character of Kheyr-ed-dīn,
53--Policy towards the Sultan, 54--Is made Beglerbeg of Algiers,
54--Disaster to Don Hugo de Moncada, 55--Kheyr-ed-dīn's cruises
and his captains, 56--"Drub-Devil" at Majorca, 57--Defeat of Portundo,
58--Storming of the Peñon de Alger, 59--Kheyr-ed-dīn's fleet, 59.
VI.
THE OTTOMAN NAVY. 1470-1522 61-75
Rise of the Turkish navy, 61--Rivalry of Genoa and Venice, 62--The
fleet of Mohammed II., 65--The Knights Hospitallers, 66--Ship building
at Constantinople, 66--The Battle of Zonchio, 68--Fall of Lepanto,
71--Decline of Venice, 71--Siege of Rhodes, 73--Kheyr-ed-dīn
summoned to the Porte, 75.
VII.
DORIA AND BARBAROSSA. 1533 76-83
Andrea Doria, 76--Change of sides, 77--The two rivals, 78--Doria's
conquest of Coron, 78--Relief of Coron, 81--Kheyr-ed-dīn sails
to Constantinople, 82--Is made Admiral, 83--Building galleys, 83.
VIII.
TUNIS TAKEN AND LOST. 1534-1535 84-93
Kheyr-ed-dīn ravages the coasts of Italy, 84--Giulia Gonzaga, 84--The
Benī Hafs of Tunis, 85--Conquest of Tunis by Kheyr-ed-dīn,
86--Charles V. goes to Tunis, 86--Defeat of Kheyr-ed-dīn,
89--Brutality of the Imperial troops, 90--Joy throughout Christendom,
91--Kheyr-ed-dīn's expedition to Minorca, 93.
IX.
THE SEA-FIGHT OFF PREVESA. 1537 94-104
Kheyr-ed-dīn and Venice, 94--Venetian provocations, 95--Doria off
Paxos, 95--Kheyr-ed-dīn lays waste the Apulian coast, 96--Siege
of Corfu by the Turks, 96--Abandoned, 97--A raid among the isles of
Greece, 97--Rich prizes, 97--Kheyr-ed-dīn sails to combat Doria,
98--Battle off Prevesa, 101--Doria's galleasses, 102--Hesitation of
the Christians, 103--Doria's seamanship and Kheyr-ed-dīn's
audacity, 104.
X.
BARBAROSSA IN FRANCE. 1539-1546 105-111
Kheyr-ed-dīn retakes Castelnuovo, 105--Is invited by Francis I. to
come to Marseilles, 106--Attacks Nice, 109--Winters at Toulon,
109--Ransoms Dragut, 110--Returns to Constantinople, and dies, 111--His
tomb at Beshiktash, 111.
XI.
CHARLES AT ALGIERS. 1541 112-123
Barbarossa's successors at Algiers, 112--Charles V. resolves to
destroy piracy, 113--The expedition to Algiers, 113--Stormy voyage,
114--The Christian fleet, 114--Landing at Algiers, 117--Effects of the
rains, 118--Repulse of the besiegers, 118--Panic in the camp allayed
by the Emperor, 119--The Storm, 119--Charles orders a retreat, 120--The
remnant of the army sails away, 121--Another tempest, 122--Total
failure of the expedition, 123.
XII.
DRAGUT REÏS. 1543-1560 124-140
Dragut or Torghūd the Rover, 124--His captivity, 127--His lair at
Jerba, 128--The city of "Africa," 128--Early siege of "Africa" by the
Duke of Bourbon, 131--Retreat, 133--"Africa" (Mahdīya) taken by
Dragut, 133--Retaken by Doria and Garcia de Toledo, 134--Dragut's
escape from Jerba, 135--He joins the Ottoman navy, 136--Attack on
Malta, 136--Siege and conquest of Tripoli, 137--Christian fleets
assemble for recapture of Tripoli, 138--Disaster at Jerba, 139-140.
XIII.
THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA. 1565 141-159
Activity of Maltese galleys, 141--Fortifications of Malta,
142--Description of Malta, in 1565, 143--The Turkish forces,
144--Jean de la Valette, 145--Arrival of Dragut, 146--Siege of
Fort St. Elmo, 147--Fall of St. Elmo, 149--Death of Dragut, 149--Siege
of Fort St. Michael, 150--Ten assaults, 155--A false alarm, 157--Last
assault, 158--Arrival of relieving army, 158--The survivors of the
siege, 159.
XIV.
LEPANTO. 1571 160-178
Results of the siege of Malta, 160--Ochiali, 161--The Turks lay siege
to Cyprus, 162--Jealousies among the Christian admirals, 163--Cyprus
occupied by the Turks, 164--Efforts of Pope Pius V., 164--Don John of
Austria, 167--Muster of the Christian fleets, 167--The Turkish armada,
173--Meeting of the hostile fleets, 173--Giovanni Doria's tactics,
175--Marshalling of the Turkish array, 175--Beginning of the battle,
176--The victory, 177--Cervantes, 177--Subsequent career and death of
Don John, 178.
_PART II._
THE PETTY PIRATES.
XV.
THE GENERAL OF THE GALLEYS. _16th-18th Centuries_ 181-199
The last of the great Corsairs, 181--Ochiali, 182--Pashas of Algiers,
185--Renegades succeeded by Turks, 185--Beys of Tunis, 186--Blackmail
levied on the Christian Powers, 186--Deys of Algiers, 187--Violent
deaths, 187--Morocco, 188--Salē rovers, 188--Delgarno,
188--Chevalier Acton, 191--Murād Reïs, 192--'Ali Pichinin,
194--Defeated by Venetians, 194--His slaves, 195--His theology, 199.
XVI.
GALLEYS AND GALLEY SLAVES. _16th Century_ 200-225
The Renegade Corsairs, 200--Their cruises, 201--Description of
different classes of galleys, 205--Furttenbach's account, 206--Rig
and armament, 213--Galley-oars, 214--Sufferings of the slaves, 215--The
boatswains, 216--Christian galleys, 217--Ship's company, 218--Barbary
galleot, 218--Building, 219--Strength of Algerine fleet, 219--Captains,
220--Launching a galley, 220--The rowers and owners, 221--Soldiers,
221--Food, 222--Auguration, 222--Time of cruising, speed, and
manoeuvre, 222-223--Ports of refuge, 223-4--Mode of attack,
224--Division of spoils, 224--Return to port with a prize, 225.
XVII.
THE TRIUMPH OF SAILS. _17th Century_ 226-234
European ship-builders in Barbary, 226--The galley superseded by the
galleon or ship, 229--Depredations of the Algerine sailing-ships,
229--Fighting a Turkish caramuzel, 231--Raids on Madeira, Denmark,
Iceland, and Ireland, 232--Losses of the French, 234.
XVIII.
THE REDEMPTION OF CAPTIVES. _17th and 18th Centuries_ 235-255
Slaves on shore, 235--Dan's account, 236--Cruelty the exception,
241--Government slaves, 242--Sale of captives, 243--Pitiful history
of four Knights of Malta, 244--Cervantes in captivity, 246--Attempts
to escape, 247--The Order of the Redemption, 251--Father Dan and the
mission of Sanson le Page, 252--Arrival of the new Pasha at Algiers,
253--The Bastion de France, 254--Father Comelin, 255.
XIX.
THE ABASEMENT OF EUROPE. _16th to 18th Centuries_ 256-273
Arrogance of the Barbary States, 256--Humiliations imposed upon foreign
envoys, 257--Extortion of blackmail from European Powers, 259--Treatment
of consuls, 260--Piracy on the high sea, 265--Mr. Spratt's captivity,
266--Ransoms by English government, 267--Adventures of captives,
267--Admiral Blake at Porto Farina, 269--False passes, 270--Failure
of all remonstrances, 271-3.
XX.
THE UNITED STATES AND TRIPOLI. 1803-5 274-291
Piracy on American ships, 274--Threats of the Pirates, 275--Squadrons
sent to refuse tribute, 276--Commodore Preble, 276--Tangiers brought
to reason, 277--The loss of the _Philadelphia_, 279--Decatur succeeds
in burning her, 287--Attack on Tripoli, 289--Treaty signed, 290.
XXI.
THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS. 1816 292-300
Proceedings of the Mediterranean fleet, 292--American treaty with
Algiers, 293--Lord Exmouth's expedition, 293--His success at Tunis,
294--Princess Caroline, 295--Bombardment of Algiers, 297--Treaty
ineffectual, 299.
XXII.
THE FRENCH IN AFRICA. 1830-1881 301-310
French quarrel with Algiers, 301--Duperré's expedition, 302--Surrender
of Algiers and departure of the last Dey, 302--Cruelties in French
occupation of Algiers, 303--'Abd-el-Kādir leads the Arabs, 305--His
victories and reverses, 306--His submission and exile, 306--Subsequent
French policy in Algiers, 307--The invasion of Tunis, 307--Perfidy of
the French Government, 308--A reign of terror, 309.
INDEX. 311
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE
ALGIERS, 1700 _Frontispiece_
GALLEON OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 5
CARAVEL OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY 11
THE BARBARY PENINSULA 15
A MAP OF THE KINGDOMS OF BARBARY 17
TUNIS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 33
GALLEY OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 37
JĪJIL, 1664 41
ALGIERS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 47
OBSERVATION WITH THE CROSSBOW 55
AN ADMIRAL'S GALLEY 63
GALLEASSE 69
ANDREA DORIA 79
TUNIS, 1566 87
COMPASS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY 99
OBSERVATION WITH THE ASTROLABE 104
GALLEY AT ANCHOR 107
SIEGE OF ALGIERS, 1541 115
CASTLE OF JERBA 125
SIEGE OF "AFRICA," 1390 129
GREEK FIRE 131
MEDIEVAL FIREARMS 132
MEDIEVAL PROJECTILES 132
SKETCH OF THE PORT OF MALTA IN 1565 152, 153
ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN A SPANISH GALLEON AND A DUTCH SHIP 165
ARABIC ASTROLABE (TWO POSITIONS) 170, 171
TUNIS IN 1573 183
SALĒ IN 1637 189
FIGHT OF THE "MARY ROSE" WITH ALGERINE PIRATES, 1669 197
GALLEY RUNNING BEFORE THE WIND 203
STAGES IN BUILDING A GALLEY 207
PLAN AND SECTIONS OF A GALLEY 209
HOLD OF A GALLEY 211
GALLEASSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY 227
ANCHOR 232
TORMENTS OF THE SLAVES 237
TORMENTS OF THE SLAVES 239
FATHERS OF THE REDEMPTION 249
TRIPOLI 281
[*.*] These illustrations are chiefly reproduced from _La Sphère des
deux Mondes_, composée en François, par Darinel pasteur des Amadis,
Anvers, 1555; Furttenbach's _Architectura Navalis_, 1629; Dan's
_Histoire de Barbarie_, 1637; Ogilby's _Africa_, 1670; Adm. Jurien de
la Gravière's _Derniers Jours de la Marine à Rames_; and the maps
[63842. (3.)--S. 9. 9. (39).--S. 10. 2.--64162. (2.)--64043. (1.)] in
the British Museum.
LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL AUTHORITIES CONSULTED.
Batūta, Ibn-: _Voyages._ Ed. Defrémery. 4 vols. Paris. 1874-9.
Braithwaite, J.: _History of the Revolutions in the Empire of Morocco
upon the death of the late Emperor Muley Ishmael._ 1729.
Brantôme, P. de Bourdeille, Seign. De.: _Hommes illustres, Œuvres._
Vols. 1 and 2. Paris. 1822.
Broadley, A. M.: _Tunis, Past and Present._ 2 vols. 1882.
Celesia, E.: _Conspiracy of Fieschi._ E. T. 1866.
Cervantes: _Don Quixote._ Trans. H. E. Watts. 5 vols. 1888-9.
Chenier, L. S.: _Present State of the Empire of Morocco._ E. T. 1788.
_Cruelties of the Algerine Pirates._ 1816.
Dan, Père F.: _Histoire de Barbarie et de ses Corsaires._ 2nd ed.
Paris. 1649.
Eurīsī, El-: _Description de l'Afrique et de l'Espagne._ Ed.
Dozy and De Goeje. Leyden. 1866.
Froissart, J.: _Chronicles._ Trans. T. Johnes. 2 vols. 1844.
Furttenbach, J.: _Architectura Navalis: das ist, Von dem Schiff-Gebaw,
auf dem Meer und Seekusten zu Gebrauchen._ Ulm. 1629.
Gravière, Adm. Jurien de la: _Les Derniers Jours de la Marine à
Rames._ Paris. 1885.
" : _Doria et Barberousse._ 1886.
" : _Les Corsaires Barbaresques._ 1887.
" : _Les Chevaliers de Malte._ 2 vols. 1887.
" : _La Guerre de Chypre._ 2 vols. 1888.
Grammont, H.: _Histoire d'Alger._ 1887.
Haedo, Diego de: _Topographia e Historia General de Argel._
Valladolid. 1612.
Hājji Khalīfa: _History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks._
Hammer, J. von.: _Geschichte des Osmanischen Reiches._ 2nd ed. 4 vols.
Pesth. 1834-6.
_Journal Asiatique_: Ser. II., iv., xii.; III., xi., xii., xiii.; IV.,
iii., v., vii., x., xviii.; V., ii., v., vi., xii., xiii.; VI.,
xviii.; VII., vii.
Marmol, Luys del Caravajal: _Descripcion de Africa._ Granada. 1573.
Mas-Latrie, Comte de: _Relations et commerce de l'Afrique
Septentrionale (ou Magreb) avec les nations chrétiennes au moyen
âge._ Paris. 1886.
Morgan, J.: _A complete History of Algiers._ 1731.
Playfair, Sir R. L.: _The Scourge of Christendom._ 1884.
Reclus, Elisée: _Nouvelle Géographie Universelle._ XI. Paris.
_Registre des Prises._ Algiers. 1872.
Rousseau, Baron A.: _Annales Tunisiennes._ Algiers. 1864.
" : _History of the Conquest of Tunis by the
Ottomans._ 1883.
Shaw, T.: _Travels in Barbary and the Levant._ 3rd ed. Edinb. 1808.
Windus, J.: _Journey to Mequinez._ 1725.
INTRODUCTION.
THE BARBARY CORSAIRS.
I.
THE REVENGE OF THE MOORS.
For more than three centuries the trading nations of Europe were
suffered to pursue their commerce or forced to abandon their gains at
the bidding of pirates. From the days when Barbarossa defied the whole
strength of the Emperor Charles V., to the early part of the present
century, when prizes were taken by Algerine rovers under the guns, so
to say, of all the fleets of Europe, the Corsairs were masters of the
narrow seas, and dictated their own terms to all comers. Nothing but
the creation of the large standing navies of the present age crippled
them; nothing less than the conquest of their too convenient coasts
could have thoroughly suppressed them. During those three centuries
they levied blackmail upon all who had any trading interest in the
Mediterranean. The Venetians, Genoese, Pisans in older days; the
English, French, Dutch, Danish, Swedish, and American Governments in
modern times, purchased security by the payment of a regular tribute,
or by the periodical presentation of costly gifts. The penalty of
resistance was too well known to need exemplification; thousands of
Christian slaves in the bagnios at Algiers bore witness to the
consequences of an independent policy. So long as the nations of
Europe continued to quarrel among themselves, instead of presenting a
united line of battle to the enemy, such humiliations had to be
endured; so long as a Corsair raid upon Spain suited the policy of
France; so long as the Dutch, in their jealousy of other states, could
declare that Algiers was necessary to them; there was no chance of the
plague subsiding; and it was not till the close of the great
Napoleonic wars that the Powers agreed, at the Congress of
Aix-la-Chapelle in 1818, to act together, and do away with the scourge
of Christendom. And even then little was accomplished till France
combined territorial aggrandizement with the _rôle_ of a civilizing
influence.
[Illustration: GALLEON OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
(_Jurien de la Gravière._)]
There had been pirates in the Mediterranean long before the Turks took
up the trade; indeed, ever since boats were built their capabilities
for plunder must have been realized. The filibustering expedition of
Jason and the loot of the Golden Fleece is an early instance, and the
Greeks at all times have distinguished themselves by acting up to
Jason's example by sea and land. The Moslems, however, were some time
in accustoming themselves to the perils of the deep. At first they
marvelled greatly at "those that go down to the sea in ships, and have
their business in great waters," but they did not hasten to follow
them. In the early days of the conquest of Egypt the Khalif 'Omar
wrote to his general and asked him what the sea was like, to which
'Amr made answer: "The Sea is a huge beast which silly folk ride like
worms on logs;" whereupon, much distressed, the prudent Khalif gave
orders that no Moslem should voyage on so unruly an element without
his leave. But it soon became clear that if the Moslems were to hold
their own with their neighbours (still more if they meant to hold
their neighbours' own) they must learn how to navigate; and
accordingly, in the first century of the Hijra, we find the Khalif
'Abd-el-Melik instructing his lieutenant in Africa to use Tunis as an
arsenal and dockyard, and there to collect a fleet. From that time
forward the Mohammedan rulers of the Barbary coast were never long
without ships of some sort. The Aghlabī princes sailed forth from
Tunis, and took Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. The Fātimī
Khalifs waged war with the navies of 'Abd-er-Rahmān, the Great
Khalif of Cordova, at a strength of two hundred vessels a side. The
Almohades possessed a large and capacious fleet, in which they
transported their armies to Spain, and their successors in North
Africa, though less powerful, were generally able to keep up a number
of vessels for offensive as well as commercial purposes.
During the later Middle Ages the relations between the rulers of the
Barbary coast--the kings of Tunis, Tilimsān, Fez, &c.--and the
trading nations of Christendom were amicable and just. Treaties show
that both parties agreed in denouncing and (so far as they could)
suppressing piracy and encouraging mutual commerce. It was not till
the beginning of the sixteenth century that a change came over these
peaceful conditions, and the way it happened was this.
When the united wisdom of Ferdinand and Isabella resolved on the
expatriation of the Spanish Moors, they forgot the risk of an exile's
vengeance.[1] No sooner was Granada fallen than thousands of desperate
Moors left the land which for seven hundred years had been their home,
and, disdaining to live under a Spanish yoke, crossed the strait to
Africa, where they established themselves at various strong points,
such as Shershēl, Oran, and notably at Algiers, which till then had
hardly been heard of. No sooner were the banished Moors fairly settled
in their new seats than they did what anybody in their place would
have done: they carried the war into their oppressors' country. To
meet the Spaniards in the open field was impossible in their reduced
numbers, but at sea their fleetness and knowledge of the coasts gave
them the opportunity of reprisal for which they longed.
Science, tradition, and observation inform us that primitive man had
certain affinities to the beast of prey. By superior strength or
ingenuity he slew or snared the means of subsistence. Civilized man
leaves the coarsest forms of slaughter to a professional class, and,
if he kills at all, elevates his pastime to the rank of sport by the
refining element of skill and the excitement of uncertainty and
personal risk. But civilized man is still only too prone to prey upon
his fellows, though hardly in the brutal manner of his ancestors. He
preys upon inferior intelligence, upon weakness of character, upon the
greed and upon the gambling instinct of mankind. In the grandest scale
he is called a financier; in the meanest, a pickpocket. This predatory
spirit is at once so ancient and so general, that the reader, who is,
of course, wholly innocent of such reprehensible tendencies, must
nevertheless make an effort to understand the delights of robbery
considered as a fine art. Some cynics there are who will tell us that
the only reason we are not all thieves is because we have not pluck
enough; and there must certainly be some fascination, apart from
natural depravity or original sin, to make a man prefer to run
countless risks in an unlawful pursuit sooner than do an honest day's
work. And in this sentence we have the answer: It is precisely the
risk, the uncertainty, the danger, the sense of superior skill and
ingenuity, that attract the adventurous spirit, the passion for sport,
which is implanted in the vast majority of mankind.
Our Moorish robbers had all this, and more, to attract them. Brave and
daring men they had shown themselves often before in their tussles
with the Spaniards, or in their wild sea courses and harryings of
Christian shores, in Sardinia, perhaps, or Provence; but now they
pursued a quest alluring beyond any that had gone before, a righteous
vengeance upon those who had banished them from house and home, and
cast them adrift to find what new anchorage they might in the world--a
Holy War against the slaughterers of their kith and kin, and the
blasphemers of their sacred Faith. What joy more fierce and jubilant
than to run the light brigantine down the beach of Algiers and man her
for a cruise in Spanish waters? The little ship will hold but ten oars
a side, each pulled by a man who knows how to fight as well as to
row--as indeed he must, for there is no room for mere landsmen on
board a _firkata_. But if there be a fair wind off the land, there
will be little rowing; the big lateen sail on her one mast will span
the narrow waters between the African coast and the Balearic Isles,
where a convenient look-out may be kept for Spanish galleons or
perhaps an Italian polacca. Drawing little water, a small squadron of
brigantines could be pushed up almost any creek, or lie hidden behind
a rock, till the enemy hove in sight. Then oars out, and a quick
stroke for a few minutes, and they are alongside their unsuspecting
prey, and pouring in their first volley. Then a scramble on board, a
hand-to-hand scuffle, a last desperate resistance on the poop, under
the captain's canopy, and the prize is taken, the prisoners ironed, a
jury crew sent on board, and all return in triumph to Algiers, where
they are received with acclamations.
Or it might be a descent on the shores of their own beloved Andalusia.
Then the little vessels are run into the crevices between the rocks,
or even buried in the sand, and the pirates steal inland to one of the
villages they know so well, and the loss of which they will never
cease to mourn. They have still friends a-many in Spain, who are
willing enough to help them against the oppressor and to hide them
when surprised. The sleeping Spaniards are roused and then grimly
silenced by the points of swords; their wives and daughters are borne
away on the shoulders of the invaders; everything valuable is cleared;
and the rovers are soon sailing merrily into the roads at Algiers,
laden with spoil and captives, and often with some of the persecuted
remnant of their race, who thankfully rejoin their kinsmen in the new
country. To wreak such vengeance on the Spaniard added a real zest to
life.
[Illustration: CARAVEL OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY.
(_Jurien de la Gravière._)]
With all their skill and speed, their knowledge of the coasts, and the
help of their compatriots ashore, there was still the risk of capture.
Sometimes their brigantines "caught a Tartar" when they expected an
easy victim, and then the Moors found the tables turned, and had to
grace their captors' triumph, and for years, perhaps for ever, to sit
on the banks of a Venetian or Genoese galley, heavily chained, pulling
the infidel's oar even in the chase of the true believers, and gazing
to satiety upon the weals which the lash kept raw on the bare back of
the man in front. But the risk added a zest to the Corsair's life, and
the captive could often look forward to the hope of recapture, or
sometimes of ransom by his friends. The career of the pirate, with all
its chances, was a prosperous one. The adventurers grew rich, and
their strong places on the Barbary coast became populous and well
garrisoned; and, by the time the Spaniards began to awake to the
danger of letting such troublesome neighbours alone, the evil was past
a cure. For twenty years the exiled Moors had enjoyed immunity, while
the big Spanish galleys were obstinately held in port, contemptuous of
so small a foe. At last Don Pedro Navarro was despatched by Cardinal
Ximenes to bring the pirates to book. He had little difficulty in
taking possession of Oran and Bujēya; and Algiers was so
imperfectly fortified, that he imposed his own terms. He made the
Algerines vow to renounce piracy; and, to see that they kept their
word, he built and garrisoned a strong fort, the "Peñon de Alger,"[2]
to stop their boats from sallying forth. But the Moors had still more
than one strong post on the rocky promontories of Barbary, and having
tasted the delights of chasing Spaniards, they were not likely to
reform, especially as the choice lay between piracy and starvation.
Dig they would not, and they preferred to beg by force, like the
"gentlemen of the road." So they bided their time, till Ferdinand the
Catholic passed away to his account, and then, in defiance of the
Peñon, and reckless of all the pains and penalties of Spanish
retribution, they threw up their allegiance, and looked about for
allies.
Help was not far off, though in this case it meant mastery. The day of
the Moorish pirates was over; henceforth they might, and did,
triumphantly assault and batter Spanish and Venetian ships, but they
would do this under the captaincy of the allies they had called in,
under the leadership of the Turkish Corsairs. The Moors had shown the
way, and the Corsairs needed little bidding to follow it.
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See S. Lane-Poole, _The Story of the Moors in Spain_, 232-280.
[2] Algiers is in Arabic, Al-Gezaïr ("the Islands"), said to be so
called from that in its bay; or, more probably, Al-Gezaïr is a
grammarian's explanation of the name Tzeyr or Tzier, by which the
Algerians commonly called their city, and which is, I suspect, a
corruption of the Roman city _Caesarea_ (Augusta), which occupied
almost the same site. It should be remarked that the Algerians
pronounce the _gīm_ hard: not Al-Jezaīr. Europeans spelt the name in
all sorts of ways: Arger, Argel, Argeir, Algel, &c., down to the French
Alger and our Algiers.
II.
THE LAND OF THE CORSAIRS.
It is time to ask how it was that a spacious land seemed to lie vacant
for the Corsairs to occupy, and a land too that offered almost every
feature that a pirate could desire for the safe and successful
prosecution of his trade. Geographers tell us that in climate and
formation the island of Barbary, for such it is geologically, is
really part of Europe, towards which, in history, it has played so
unfriendly a part. Once the countries, which we now know as Tunis,
Algiers, and Morocco, stood up abruptly as an island, with a
comparatively small lake washing its northern shore, and a huge ocean
on the south (see the map). That ocean is now the _Sahra_ or Sáhara,
which engineers dream of again flooding with salt water, and so
forming an inland African sea. The lake is now the Mediterranean, or
rather its western basin, for we know that the Barbary island was once
nearly a peninsula, joined at its two ends to Spain and Sicily, and
that its Atlas ranges formed the connection between the Sierra Nevada
and Mt. Aetna. By degrees the Isthmus between Cape Bona and Sicily
sank out of sight, and the ocean flowed between Spain and Africa,
while the great sea to the south dried up into the immense stony waste
which is known preëminently as _the_ Sahra, the Desert, "a tract of
land, bare as the back of a beast, without trees or mountains."
[Illustration: _After Bourguignat_ _Walker & Boutallsc._
THE BARBARY PENINSULA.
(_Elisée Reclus._)]
Through one or both of these narrow straits, Gibraltar and Malta, all
vessels from the outer ocean bound for the ports of France and Italy
and the Levant, were obliged to pass; and it must be remembered that
just about the time when the Corsairs made their appearance in
Barbary, the riches of the new-found Western world were beginning to
pour through the straits to meet those of the East, which were brought
to France and Spain, England and Holland, from Alexandria and Smyrna.
An immense proportion of the trade of Europe had to cross the western
basin of the Mediterranean, of which Barbary formed the southern
boundary. Any bold man who could hold Tunis at the eastern corner, or
Algiers in the middle, or Ceuta or Tangiers at the western point,
might reckon upon numerous opportunities of stopping argosies of
untold wealth as they passed by his lair. The situation seemed
purposely contrived for Corsairs.
[Illustration: A MAP OF THE KINGDOMS OF BARBARY.
(_Voyages to Barbary for the Redemption of Captives, 1736._)]
More than this, the coast was just what a pirate wants. The map shows
a series of natural harbours, often backed by lagunes which offer
every facility for the escape of the rover from his pursuers; and
while in the sixteenth century there were no deep ports for vessels of
heavy draught, there were endless creeks, shallow harbours, and
lagunes where the Corsairs' galleys (which never drew more than six
feet of water) could take refuge. Behind Jerba, the fabled island of
the Lotus-Eaters, was an immense inland sea, commanded in the Middle
Ages by castles, and affording a refuge for which the rovers had often
had cause to be grateful. Merchant vessels were shy of sailing in the
dangerous Gulf of the Greater Syrtes with its heavy tides and
spreading sandbanks, and even the war-galleys of Venice and Spain were
at a disadvantage when manoeuvring in its treacherous eddies against
the Corsair who knew every inch of the coast. Passing westward, a
famous medieval fortress, with the remains of a harbour, is seen at
Mahdīya, the "Africa" of the chroniclers. Next, Tunis presents the
finest harbour on all the Barbary coast; within its Goletta (or
"Throat") a vessel is safe from all the winds that blow, and if a
canal were cut to join it with the inland lake of Bizerta, a deep
harbour would be formed big enough to hold all the shipping of the
Mediterranean. The ancient ports of Carthage and Porto Farina offered
more protection in the Corsairs' time than now when the sand has
choked the coast; and in the autumn months a vessel needed all the
shelter she could get when the Cyprian wind was blowing off Cape Bona.
Close to the present Algerine frontier is Tabarka, which the Lomellini
family of Genoa found a thriving situation for their trading
establishments. Lacalle, once a famous nest of pirates, had then a
fine harbour, as the merchants of Marseilles discovered when they
superintended the coral fisheries from the neighbouring Bastion de
France. Bona, just beyond, has its roads, and formerly possessed a
deep harbour. Jījil, an impregnable post, held successively by
Phoenicians, Normans, Romans, Pisans, and Genoese, till Barbarossa got
possession of it and made it a fortress of refuge for his Corsairs,
stands on a rocky peninsula joined by a sandy isthmus to the mainland,
with a port well sheltered by a natural breakwater. Further on were
Bujēya (Bougie), its harbour well protected from the worst winds;
Algiers, not then a port, but soon to become one; Shershēl, with a
harbour to be shunned in a heavy swell from the north, but otherwise a
valuable nook for sea rovers; Tinnis, not always accessible, but safe
when you were inside; and Oran, with the important harbour of Mars
El-Kebīr the "Portus Divinus" of the Romans; while beyond, the
Jamia-el-Ghazawāt or Pirates' Mosque, shows where a favourite
creek offered an asylum between the Brothers Rocks for distressed
Corsairs. Passing Tangiers and Ceuta (Septa), and turning beyond the
Straits, various shelters are found, and amongst others the celebrated
ports of Salē, which, in spite of its bar of sand, managed to send
out many mischievous craft to harass the argosies on their return from
the New World.
Not only were there ports in abundance for the shelter of galleys, but
the land behind was all that could be desired. River indeed there was
none capable of navigation, but the very shortness of the watershed
which precluded the possibility of great streams brought with it a
counterbalancing advantage; for the mountains rise so steep and high
near the coast that the Corsairs' look-out could sight the vessels to
be attacked a long way out to sea, and thus give notice of a prize or
warning of an enemy. Moreover the land produced all that was needed to
content the heart of man. Below the mountains where the Berbers dwelt
and the steppes where Arab shepherds roamed, fertile valleys spread to
the seashore. Jerba was a perfect garden of corn and fruit, vines,
olives, almonds, apricots, and figs; Tunis stood in the midst of green
fields, and deserved the title of "the White, the Odoriferous, the
Flowery Bride of the West,"--though, indeed, the second epithet,
according to its inhabitants, was derived from the odour of the lake
which received the drainage of the city, to which they ascribed its
peculiar salubrity.
What more could be required in a land which was, now to become a nest
of pirates? Yet, as though this were not sufficient, one more virtue
was added. The coast was visited by terrible gales, which, while
avoidable by those who had experience and knew where to run, were
fatal to the unwary, and foiled many an attack of the avenging enemy.
It remains to explain how it was that the Corsairs were able to
possess themselves of this convenient territory, which was neither
devoid of inhabitants nor without settled governments.
North Africa--the only Africa known to the ancients--had seen many
rulers come and go since the Arabs under Okba first overran its plains
and valleys. Dynasty had succeeded dynasty; the Arab governors under
the Khalifs of Damascus and Baghdād had made room for the Houses of
Idrīs (A.D. 788) and Aghlab (800); these in turn had given way to
the Fātimī Khalifs (909); and when these schismatics removed
their seat of power from their newly founded capital of Mahdīya to
their final metropolis of Cairo (968), their western empire speedily
split up into the several princedoms of the Zeyrīs of Tunis, the
Benī Hammād of Tilimsān, and other minor governments. At the
close of the eleventh century, the Murābits or Almoravides, a
Berber dynasty, imposed their authority over the greater part of North
Africa and Spain, but gave place in the middle of the twelfth to the
Muwahhids or Almohades, whose rule extended from the Atlantic to
Tunis, and endured for over a hundred years. On the ruins of their
vast empire three separate and long-lived dynasties sprang up: the
Benī Hafs in Tunis (1228-1534), the Benī Ziyān in Central
Maghrib (1235-1400), and the Benī Merin in Morocco (1200-1550). To
complete the chronology it may be added that these were succeeded in
the sixteenth century by the Corsair Pashas (afterwards Deys) of
Algiers, the Turkish Pashas or Beys of Tunis, and the Sherīfs or
Emperors of Morocco. The last still continue to reign; but the Deys of
Algiers have given place to the French, and the Bey of Tunis is under
French tutelage.
Except during the temporary excitement of a change of dynasty, the
rule of these African princes was generally mild and enlightened. They
came, for the most part, of the indigenous Berber population, and were
not naturally disposed to intolerance or unneighbourliness. The
Christians kept their churches, and were suffered to worship
unmolested. We read of a Bishop of Fez as late as the thirteenth
century, and the Kings of Morocco and Tunis were usually on friendly
terms with the Pope. Christians were largely enrolled in the African
armies, and were even appointed to civil employments. The relations of
the rulers of Barbary with the European States throughout the greater
part of this period--from the eleventh century, when the fighting
Fātimīs left Tunis and went eastward to Egypt, to the sixteenth,
when the fighting Turks came westward to molest the peace of the
Mediterranean--were eminently wise and statesmanlike. The Africans
wanted many of the industries of Europe; Europe required the skins and
raw products of Africa: and a series of treaties involving a principle
of reciprocity was the result. No doubt the naval inferiority of the
African States to the trading Republics of the Mediterranean was a
potent factor in bringing about this satisfactory arrangement; but it
is only right to admit the remarkable fairness, moderation, and
probity of the African princes in the settlement and maintenance of
these treaties. As a general rule, Sicily and the commercial Republics
were allied to the rulers of Tunis and Tilimsān and Fez by bonds of
amity and mutual advantage. One after the other, Pisa, Genoa,
Provence, Aragon, and Venice, concluded commercial treaties with the
African sovereigns, and renewed them from time to time. Some of these
States had special quarters reserved for them at Tunis, Ceuta, and
other towns; and all had their consuls in the thirteenth century, who
were protected in a manner that the English agent at Algiers would
have envied seventy years ago. The African trade was especially
valuable to the Pisans and Genoese, and there was a regular African
company trading at the Ports of Tripoli, Tunis, Bujēya, Ceuta, and
Salē. Indeed, the Genoese went so far as to defend Ceuta against
Christian crusaders, so much did commerce avail against religion; and,
on the other hand, the Christian residents at Tunis, the western
metropolis of Islam, had their own place of worship, where they were
free to pray undisturbed, as late as 1530. This tolerance was largely
due to the mild and judicious government of the Benī Hafs, whose
three centuries' sway at Tunis was an unmixed benefit to their
subjects, and to all who had relations with them.
Not that the years passed by without war and retaliation, or that
treaties made piracy impossible. In the early and more pugnacious days
of the Saracen domination conflicts were frequent. The Fātimī
Khalifs conquered and held all the larger islands of the Western
Mediterranean, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and the Balearic Isles. In
1002 the Saracens pillaged Pisa, and the Pisans retaliated by burning
an African fleet. Three years later El-Mujāhid ("Muget"), the lord
of Majorca, and conqueror of Sardinia, burnt part of Pisa; and another
incursion is recorded in 1011. From his stronghold at Luni in Etruria
this terrible scourge ravaged the country round, until the Pope drove
him out of Italy, and the Pisans and others turned him out of Sardinia
(1017). We read of African fleets cruising with hostile intent off the
Calabrian coast, and of the Pisans taking Bona, which was then a nest
of Corsairs (1034). Mahdīya was burnt in 1087, and Sicily conquered
by the Normans about the same time (1072). But these were in the early
days, and even then were the exceptions; in succeeding centuries,
under more settled governments, war became very rare, and mutual amity
was the prevailing policy.[3]
Piracy was always distinctly prohibited in the commercial treaties of
the African States; nevertheless piracy went on, and most
pertinaciously on the part of the Christians. The Greeks, Sardinians,
Maltese, and Genoese were by far the worse members of the fraternity
of rovers, as the treaties themselves prove: the increase of commerce
under the stimulus of the Crusades tempted the adventurous, and the
absence of any organized State navies gave them immunity; and there
was generally a war afoot between some nation or other, Christian or
Moslem, and piracy (in the then state of international law) at once
became legitimate privateering. Our buccaneers of the Spanish main had
the same apology to offer. But it is important to observe that all
this was private piracy: the African and the Italian governments
distinctly repudiated the practice, and bound themselves to execute
any Corsair of their own country whom they might arrest, and to
deliver all his goods over to the state which he had robbed.[4] These
early Corsairs were private freebooters, totally distinct from the
authorized pirates of later days. In 1200, in time of peace, two Pisan
vessels attacked three Mohammedan ships in Tunis roads, captured the
crews, outraged the women, and made off, vainly pursued by the
Tunisian fleet: but they received no countenance from Pisa, the
merchants of which might have suffered severely had the Tunisians
exacted reprisals. Sicily was full of Corsairs, and the King of Tunis
paid a sort of tribute to the Normans, partly to induce them to
restrain these excesses. Aragonese and Genoese preyed upon each other
and upon the Moslems; but their doings were entirely private and
unsupported by the state.
Up to the fourteenth century the Christians were the chief pirates of
the Mediterranean, and dealt largely in stolen goods and slaves. Then
the growth of large commercial fleets discouraged the profession, and
very soon we begin to hear much less of European brigandage, and much
more of Moorish Corsairs. The inhabitants of the coast about the Gulf
of Gabes had always shown a bent towards piracy, and the port of
Mahdīya, or "Africa," now became a regular resort of sea rovers.
El-Bekrī, in the twelfth century, had noticed the practice of
sending galleys on the cruise for prey (perhaps during war) from the
harbours of Bona; and Ibn-Khaldūn, in the fourteenth, describes an
organized company of pirates at Bujēya, who made a handsome profit
from goods and the ransom of captives. The evil grew with the increase
of the Turkish power in the Levant, and received a violent impetus
upon the fall of Constantinople; while on the west, the gradual
expulsion of the Moors from Spain which followed upon the Christian
advance filled Africa with disaffected, ruined, and vengeful Moriscos,
whose one dominant passion was to wipe out their old scores with the
Spaniards.
Against such influences the mild governors of North Africa were
powerless. They had so long enjoyed peace and friendship with the
Mediterranean States, that they were in no condition to enforce order
with the strong hand. Their armies and fleets were insignificant, and
their coasts were long to protect, and abounded with almost
impregnable strongholds which they could not afford to garrison.
Hence, when the Moors flocked over from Spain, the shores of Africa
offered them a sure and accessible refuge, and the hospitable
character of the Moslem's religion forbade all thought of repelling
the refugees. Still more, when the armed galleots of the Levant came
crowding to Barbary, fired with the hope of rich gain, the ports were
open, and the creeks afforded them shelter. A foothold once gained,
the rest was easy.
It was to this land, lying ready to his use, that Captain Urūj
Barbarossa came in the beginning of the sixteenth century.
FOOTNOTES:
[3] Le Comte de Mas-Latrie, _Relations et commerce de l'Afrique
Septentrionale avec les nations chrétiennes au moyen âge_, 1886.
[4] Le Comte de Mas-Latrie, _Relations et commerce de l'Afrique
Septentrionale avec les nations chrétiennes au moyen âge_, pp. 175-9.
PART I.
_THE CORSAIR ADMIRALS._
III.
URŪJ BARBAROSSA.
1504-1515.
The island of Lesbos has given many gifts to the world--Lesbian wine
and Lesbian verse, the seven-stringed lyre, and the poems of Sappho;
but of all its products the latest was assuredly the most
questionable, for the last great Lesbians were the brothers
Barbarossa.
When Sultan Mohammed II. conquered the island in 1462, he left there a
certain Sipāhi soldier, named Ya'kūb--so say the Turkish
annalists, but the Spanish writers claim him as a native
Christian--who became the father of Urūj Barbarossa and his brother
Kheyr-ed-dīn. Various stories are told of their early career, and
the causes which led to their taking to the sea; but as Lesbos had
long been famous for its buccaneers, whether indigenous or
importations from Catalonia and Aragon, there was nothing unusual in
the brothers adopting a profession which was alike congenial to bold
hearts and sanctioned by time-honoured precedent.[5] Urūj, the
elder, soon became the reïs, or captain, of a galleot, and finding his
operations hampered in the Archipelago by the predominance of the
Sultan's fleet, he determined to seek a wider and less interrupted
field for his depredations. Rumours had reached the Levant of the
successes of the Moorish pirates; prodigious tales were abroad as to
great argosies, laden with the treasures of the New World, passing and
repassing the narrow seas between Europe and Africa, and seeming to
invite capture; and it was not long (1504) before Captain Urūj
found himself cruising with two galleots off the Barbary coast, and
spying out the land in search of a good harbour and a safe refuge from
pursuit.
[Illustration: TUNIS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
(_Sphère des deux Mondes, 1555._)]
The port of Tunis offered all that a Corsair could wish. The Goletta
in those days was but slightly fortified, and the principal building,
besides the castle, was the custom-house, where the wealth of many
nations was taxed by the Sultan of the House of Hafs. The very sight
of such an institution was stimulating to a pirate. Urūj paid his
court to the King of Tunis, and speedily came to an understanding
with him on the subject of royalties on stolen goods. The ports of
Tunis were made free to the Corsair, and the king would protect him
from pursuit, for the consideration of a fixed share--a fifth--of the
booty. The policy of the enlightened rulers of Tunis evidently no
longer suited their latest representative.
The base of operations thus secured, Urūj did not keep his new ally
long waiting for a proof of his prowess. One day he lay off the island
of Elba, when two galleys-royal, belonging to his Holiness Pope Julius
II., richly laden with goods from Genoa, and bound for Cività Vecchia,
hove in sight. They were rowing in an easy, leisurely manner, little
dreaming of Turkish Corsairs, for none such had ever been seen in
those waters, nor anything bigger than a Moorish brigantine, of which
the Papal marines were prepared to give a good account. So the two
galleys paddled on, some ten leagues asunder, and Urūj Reïs marked
his prey down. It was no light adventure for a galleot of eighteen
banks of oars to board a royal galley of perhaps twice her size, and
with no one could tell how many armed men inside her. The Turkish crew
remonstrated at such foolhardiness, and begged their captain to look
for a foe of their own size: but for reply Urūj only cast most of
the oars overboard, and thus made escape impossible. Then he lay to
and awaited the foremost galley She came on, proudly, unconscious of
danger. Suddenly her look-out spied Turkish turbans--a strange sight
on the Italian coast--and in a panic of confusion her company beat to
arms. The vessels were now alongside, and a smart volley of shot and
bolts completed the consternation of the Christians. Urūj and his
men were quickly on the poop, and his Holiness's servants were soon
safe under hatches.
Never before had a galley-royal struck her colours to a mere galleot.
But worse was to follow. Urūj declared he must and would have her
consort. In vain his officers showed him how temerarious was the
venture, and how much more prudent it would be to make off with one
rich prize than to court capture by overgreediness. The Corsair's will
was of iron, and his crew, inflated with triumph, caught his audacious
spirit. They clothed themselves in the dresses of the Christian
prisoners, and manned the subdued galley as though they were her own
seamen. On came the consort, utterly ignorant of what had happened,
till a shower of arrows and small shot aroused her, just in time to be
carried by assault, before her men had collected their senses.
Urūj brought his prizes into the Goletta. Never was such a sight
seen there before. "The wonder and astonishment," says Haedo,[6] "that
this noble exploit caused in Tunis, and even in Christendom, is not to
be expressed, nor how celebrated the name of Urūj Reïs was become
from that very moment; he being held and accounted by all the world as
a most valiant and enterprizing commander. And by reason his beard was
extremely red, or carroty, from thenceforwards he was generally called
Barba-rossa, which in Italian signifies Red-Beard."[7]
[Illustration: GALLEY OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
(_Jurien de la Gravière._)]
The capture of the Papal galleys gave Urūj what he wanted--rowers.
He kept his Turks for fighting, and made the Christian prisoners work
the oars; such was the custom of every Corsair down to the present
century, and the Christian navies were similarly propelled by
Mohammedan slaves. The practice must have lent a strange excitement to
the battle; for then, assuredly, a man's foes were of his own
household. A Venetian admiral knew well that his two or three hundred
galley slaves were panting to break their irons and join the enemy;
and the Turkish Corsair had also his unwilling subjects, who would
take the first chance to mutiny in favour of the Christian adversary.
Thus it often happened that a victory was secured by the strong arms
of the enemy's chained partizans, who would have given half their
lives to promote a defeat. But the sharp lash of the boatswain, who
walked the bridge between the banks of rowers, was a present and acute
argument which few backs could withstand.
Urūj had made his first _coup_, and he did not hesitate to follow
it up. Next year he captured a Spanish ship with five hundred soldiers
on board, who were all so sea-sick, or spent with pumping out the
leaky vessel, that they fell an easy prey to his galleots. Before five
years were out, what with cruising, and building with the timber of
his many prizes, he had eight good vessels at his back, with two of
his brothers to help. The port of Tunis now hardly sufficed his wants,
so he established himself temporarily on the fertile island of Jerba,
and from its ample anchorage his ships issued forth to harry the
coasts of Italy.
To be king of Jerba was all too small a title for his ambition. He
aimed at sovereignty on a large scale, and, Corsair as he was by
nature, he wished for settled power almost as much as he delighted in
adventure. In 1512 the opportunity he sought arrived. Three years
before, the Mohammedan King of Bujēya had been driven out of his
city by the Spaniards, and the exiled potentate appealed to the
Corsair to come and restore him, coupling the petition with promises
of the free use of Bujēya port, whence the command of the Spanish
sea was easily to be held. Urūj was pleased with the prospect, and
as he had now twelve galleots with cannon, and one thousand Turkish
men-at-arms, to say nothing of renegades and Moors, he felt strong
enough for the attempt. The renown of his exploits had spread far and
wide, and there was no lack of a following from all parts of the
Levant when it was known that Urūj Reïs was on the war-path. His
extraordinary energy and impetuosity called forth a corresponding zeal
in his men, and, like other dashing commanders, he was very popular.
[Illustration: JĪJIL, 1664.
(_From a Map in the British Museum._)]
Well supported, and provided with such a siege-train as the times
permitted, he landed before Bujēya in August, 1512, and found the
dethroned king expecting him at the head of three thousand mountain
Berbers. The Spanish garrison was collected in the strong bastion,
which the Count Don Pedro Navarro had fortified when he took the city,
and for eight days the fortress withstood the battering of the
Corsair's ordnance. Just when a breach began to be opened, Urūj was
disabled; a shot took his left arm away above the elbow. In the
absence of their leader's heroic example, the Turks felt little
confidence in their superiority to Spanish steel; they preferred
carrying their wounded captain to the surgeons at Tunis. Bujēya for
the moment escaped, but the Corsairs enjoyed some little consolation
in the capture of a rich Genoese galleot which they met on its voyage
to the Lomellini's mart at Tabarka. With this spoil Urūj returned
to recover from his wound, while his brother, Kheyr-ed-dīn, kept
guard over the castle of the Goletta, and began to bring the galleots
and prizes through the canal into the Lake of Tunis, where they would
be safe from pursuit.
He was too late, however. The Senate of Genoa was highly incensed at
the loss of the galleot, and Andrea Doria, soon to be known as the
greatest Christian admiral of his time, was despatched with twelve
galleys to exact reparation. He landed before the Goletta, and drove
Kheyr-ed-dīn before him into Tunis. The fortress was sacked, and
half Barbarossa's ships were brought in triumph to Genoa. Thus ended
the first meeting between Doria and Kheyr-ed-dīn: the next was less
happy for the noble Genoese.
Kheyr-ed-dīn, well aware of his brother's fierce humour, did not
dare to face him after this humiliation, but left him to fume
impotently in his sickroom, while he stole away to Jerba, there to
work night and day at shipbuilding. Urūj joined him in the
following spring--the King of Tunis had probably had enough of
him--and they soon had the means of wiping out their disgrace. The
attempt was at first a failure; a second assault on the ominous forts
of Bujēya (1514) was on the point of success, when reinforcements
arrived from Spain. The Berber allies evinced more interest in getting
in their crops after the rain than in forcing the bastion; and
Barbarossa, compelled to raise the siege, in a frantic rage, tearing
his red beard like a madman, set fire to his ships that they might not
fall into the hands of the Spaniards.
He would not show himself now in Tunis or Jerba. Some new spot must
shelter him after this fresh reverse. On his way to and from Bujēya
he had noticed the very place for his purpose--a spot easy to defend,
perched on inaccessible rocks, yet furnished with a good harbour,
where the losses of recent years might be repaired. This was Jījil,
some sixty miles to the east of Bujēya; whose sturdy inhabitants
owed allegiance to no Sultan, but were proud to welcome so renowned,
although now so unfortunate, a warrior as Barbarossa. So at Jījil
Urūj dwelt, and cultivated the good-will of the people with spoils
of corn and goods from his cruisers, till those "indomitable African
mountaineers," who had never owned a superior, chose him by
acclamation their king.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] The differences between the Turkish authority, Hājji Khalīfa, who
wrote in the middle of the seventeenth century and used "Memoirs"
partly inspired by Kheyr-ed-dīn himself, and the two Spanish
chroniclers, Haedo and Marmol, in their narratives of the early feats
and experiences of Barbarossa and his brothers, are irreconcilable in
details, though the general purport is similar. Von Hammer naturally
follows Hājji Khalīfa, and modern writers, like Adm. Jurien de la
Gravière, take the same course. For the period of his life when
Kheyr-ed-dīn was at Constantinople the Turkish writer may be reasonably
preferred; but on all matters concerning the Barbary coast the Abbot
Diego de Haedo, who lived many years in Algiers in the sixteenth
century, was personally acquainted with many of the servants and
followers of Kheyr-ed-dīn (who died in 1546), and published his
_Topographia e historia de Argel_ in 1612, is undoubtedly the best
informed and most trustworthy authority.
[6] Quoted by Morgan, _Hist. of Algiers_, 225.
[7] It is possible that Barba-rossa is but a European corruption of
Baba Urūj, "Father Urūj," as his men called him. At all events Urūj is
the real Barbarossa, though modern writers generally give the name to
his younger brother Kheyr-ed-dīn, who was only called Barbarossa on
account of his kinship to the original.
IV.
THE TAKING OF ALGIERS.
1516-1518.
The new Sultan of Jījil was now called to a much more serious
enterprize than heading his truculent highlanders against a
neighbouring tribe--though it must be admitted that he was always in
his element when fisticuffs were in request. An appeal had come from
Algiers. The Moors there had endured for seven years the embargo of
the Spaniards; they had seen their _fregatas_ rotting before their
eyes, and never dared to mend them; they had viewed many a rich prize
sail by, and never so much as ventured a mile out to sea to look her
over: for there were keen eyes and straight shots in the Peñon which
commanded the bay, and King Ferdinand the Catholic held a firm hand
over the tribute which his banished subjects had to pay him for his
condescension in ruining them. Their occupation was gone; they had not
dragged a prize ashore for years; they must rebel or starve. At this
juncture Ferdinand opportunely died (1516), and the Algerine Moors
seized their chance. They stopped the tribute, and called in the aid
of Salim, the neighbouring Arab sheykh, whose clansmen would make the
city safe on the land side. "But what are they to do with the two
hundred petulant and vexatious Spaniards in the fort, who incessantly
pepper the town with their cannon, and make the houses too hot to hold
them; especially when they are hungry? Little would the gallant Arab
cavalry, with their fine Libyan mares and horses, rich coats-of-mail,
tough targets, well-tempered sabres, and long supple lances, avail
them against the Spanish volleys. And who so proper to redress this
grievance as the invincible Barbarossa, who was master of a naval
force, and wanted not artillery? Had he not been twice to reinstate
the unfortunate King of Bujēya, and lost a limb in his service?
"Without the least deliberation Prince Salim despatched a solemn
embassy to Jījil, intreating Barbarossa, in whom he and his people
reposed their entire confidence, to hasten to their assistance. No
message whatever could have been more welcome to the ambitious
Barbarossa than one of this nature. His new-acquired realm brought him
in but a very scanty revenue; nor was he absolute.... He had been
wretchedly baffled at Bujēya, but hoped for better success at
Algiers, which, likewise, is a place of much greater consequence, and
much more convenient for his purpose, which, as has been said, was to
erect a great monarchy of his own in Barbary."[8]
[Illustration: ALGIERS IN THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
(_Sphère des deux Mondes, 1555._)]
With some six thousand men and sixteen galleots Urūj set forth by
sea and land to the rescue of Algiers. First he surprised Shershēl,
a strong position fifteen leagues to the west of Algiers, which had
been occupied by Moors from Granada, and was now commanded by a bold
Turkish Corsair, Kara Hasan, who, emulating his old comrade's success
with the people of Jījil, had induced the Shershēl rovers to
accept him as their leader. Urūj had no liking for two Kings of
Brentford, and took off Black Hasan's head as a friendly precaution,
before exposing himself to the perils of another contest with the
Spaniards.
Soon he was at Algiers, hospitably lodged and entertained, he and all
his men, Turks and Jījilis alike, by Sheykh Salim and the people of
the town. There, at the distance of a crossbow-shot, stood the
fortress he had come to reduce, and thither he sent a message offering
a safe conduct to the garrison if they would surrender. The Spanish
captain made reply that "neither threats nor proffered curtesies
availed aught with men of his kidney," and told him to remember
Bujēya. Upon which Urūj, more to please his unsuspicious hosts
than with much prospect of success, battered the Peñon for twenty days
with his light field-pieces, without making any sensible breach in the
defences.
Meanwhile, the Arabs and Moors who had called him to their aid were
becoming aware of their mistake. Instead of getting rid of their old
enemy the Spaniard, they had imported a second, worse than the first,
and Urūj soon showed them who was to be master. He and his Turks
treated the ancient Moorish families, who had welcomed them within
their gates, with an insolence that was hard to be borne by
descendants of the Abencerrages and other noble houses of Granada.
Salim, the Arab Sheykh, was the first to feel the despot's power: he
was murdered in his bath--it was said by the Corsair himself. In their
alarm, the Algerines secretly made common cause with the soldiers of
the Peñon, and a general rising was planned; but one day at Friday
prayers Barbarossa let the crowded congregation know that their
designs were not unsuspected. Shutting the gates, the Turks bound
their entertainers with the turbans off their heads, and the immediate
decapitation of the ringleaders at the mosque door quelled the spirit
of revolt. Nor was a great Armada, sent by Cardinal Ximenes, and
commanded by Don Diego de Vera, more successful than the Algerine
rebellion. Seven thousand Spaniards were utterly routed by the Turks
and Arabs; and to complete the discomfiture of the Christians a
violent tempest drove their ships ashore, insomuch that this mighty
expedition was all but annihilate.
An adventurer who, with a motley following of untrained bandits and
nomads, could overthrow a Spanish army was a phenomenon which the
Christian States now began to eye with considerable anxiety. From the
possessor of a strong place or two on the coast, he had become nothing
less than the Sultan of Middle Barbary (_Maghrib el-Awsat_). When the
Prince of Tinnis raised the whole country side against him, and a
mighty host was rolling down upon Algiers, Urūj marched out with
one thousand Turks and five hundred Moors, and never a cannon amongst
them, and smote the enemy hip and thigh, and pursued them into their
own city. The prince of Tinnis took to the mountains, and Urūj
Barbarossa reigned in his stead (1517). Then Tilimsān fell into his
possession, and save that the Spaniards held Oran and two or three
fortresses, such as the Peñon de Alger and Bujēya, his dominions
coincided with modern Algeria, and marched with the kingdoms of Tunis
and Fez. He was in a position to form alliances with Fez and Morocco.
His galleots were punctilious, moreover, in returning the call of Don
Diego de Vera, and many an expectant merchant in Genoa, or Naples, or
Venice, strained his eyes in vain for the argosy that, thanks to the
Corsair's vigilance, would never again sail proudly into the harbour.
When all this came to the ears of the new King of Spain, afterwards
the Emperor Charles V, he yielded to the prayer of the Marquis de
Comares, Governor of Oran, and despatched ten thousand veterans to
make an end of the Corsairs once and for ever. Urūj Barbarossa was
then stationed at Tilimsān with only 1,500 men, and when the hosts
of the enemy drew near he made a bolt by night for Algiers, taking his
Turks and his treasure with him. The news soon reached the enemy's
scouts, and the Marquis gave hot pursuit. A river with steep banks lay
in the fugitives' path: could they pass it, they would have the
chances in their favour. Urūj scattered his jewels and gold behind
him, vainly hoping to delay the greedy Spaniards; but Comares trampled
over everything, and came up with the Turkish rear when but half their
force had crossed the river. Their leader was already safe on the
other side, but the cries of his rear-guard brought him back. The
Corsair was not the man to desert his followers, and without an
instant's hesitation he recrossed the fatal stream and threw himself
into the fray. Hardly a Turk or a Moor escaped from that bloody field.
Facing round, they fought till they dropped; and among them the
vigorous figure of Barbarossa was ever to be seen, laying about him
with his one arm like a lion to the last.
"Urūj Barbarossa, according to the testimony of those who remember
him, was, when he died, about forty-four years of age. He was not very
tall of stature, but extremely well set and robust. His hair and beard
perfectly red; his eyes quick, sparkling and lively; his nose aquiline
or Roman; and his complexion between brown and fair. He was a man
excessively bold, resolute, daring, magnanimous, enterprizing,
profusely liberal, and in nowise bloodthirsty, except in the heat of
battle, nor rigorously cruel but when disobeyed He was highly beloved,
feared, and respected, by his soldiers and domestics, and when dead
was by them all in general most bitterly regretted and lamented. He
left neither son nor daughter. He resided in Barbary fourteen years,
during which the harms he did to the Christians are inexpressible."[9]
FOOTNOTES:
[8] Morgan, _Hist. of Algiers_, 233. (1731.)
[9] Morgan, 257.
V.
KHEYR-ED-DĪN BARBAROSSA.
1518-1530.
Urūj Barbarossa, the gallant, impulsive, reckless, lovable soldier
of fortune was dead, and it seemed as if all the power he had built up
by his indomitable energy must inevitably vanish with its founder. The
Marquis de Comares and the Spanish army held the fate of Algiers in
their hands; one steady march, and surely the Corsairs must be swept
out of Africa. But, with what would seem incredible folly, if it had
not been often repeated, the troops were shipped back to Spain, the
Marquis returned to his post at Oran, and the opportunity was lost for
three hundred years. The Algerines drew breath again, and their leader
began to prepare fresh schemes of conquest.
The mantle of Urūj had fallen upon worthy shoulders. The elder
brother possessed, indeed, matchless qualities for deeds of
derring-do; to lead a storming party, board a galleon,--cut and thrust
and "have at you,"--he had no equal: but Kheyr-ed-dīn, with like
courage and determination, was gifted with prudent and statesmanlike
intelligence, which led him to greater enterprizes, though not to
more daring exploits. He measured the risk by the end, and never
exposed himself needlessly to the hazard of defeat; but when he saw
his way clear, none struck harder or more effectual blows.[10]
His first proceeding was typical of his sagacious mind. He sent an
ambassador to Constantinople, to lay his homage at the feet of the
Grand Signior, and to beg his Majesty's favour and protection for the
new province of Algiers, which was now by his humble servant added to
the Ottoman Empire. The reply was gracious. Selīm had just
conquered Egypt, and Algiers formed an important western extension of
his African dominion. The sage Corsair was immediately appointed
Beglerbeg, or Governor-General, of Algiers (1519), and invested with
the insignia of office, the horse and scimitar and horsetail-banner.
Not only this, but the Sultan sent a guard of two thousand Janissaries
to his viceroy's aid, and offered special inducements to such of his
subjects as would pass westward to Algiers and help to strengthen the
Corsair's authority.
[Illustration: OBSERVATION WITH THE CROSSBOW.
(_Jurien de la Gravière._)]
The Beglerbeg lost no time in repairing the damage of the Spaniards.
He reinforced his garrisons along the coast, at Meliana, Shershēl,
Tinnis, and Mustaghānim, and struck up alliances with the great
Arab tribes of the interior. An armada of some fifty men-of-war and
transports, including eight galleys-royal, under the command of
Admiral Don Hugo de Moncada, in vain landed an army of veterans on the
Algerine strand--they were driven back in confusion, and one of those
storms, for which the coast bears so evil a name, finished the work of
Turkish steel (1519). One after the other, the ports and strongholds
of Middle Barbary fell into the Corsair's hands: Col, Bona,
Constantine, owned the sway of Kheyr-ed-dīn Barbarossa, who was now
free to resume his favourite occupation of scouring the seas in search
of Christian quarry. Once or twice in every year he would lead out
his own eighteen stout galleots, and call to his side other daring
spirits whom the renown of his name had drawn from the Levant, each
with his own swift cruiser manned by stout arms and the pick of
Turkish desperadoes. There you might see him surrounded by captains
who were soon to be famous wherever ships were to be seized or coasts
harried;--by Dragut, Sālih Reïs, Sinān the "Jew of Smyrna," who
was suspected of black arts because he could take a declination with
the crossbow, and that redoubtable rover Aydīn Reïs, whom the
Spaniards dubbed _Cachadiablo_, or "Drub-devil," though he had better
been named Drub-Spaniard. The season for cruising began in May, and
lasted till the autumn storms warned vessels to keep the harbours, or
at least to attempt no distant expeditions. During the summer months
the Algerine galleots infested every part of the Western
Mediterranean, levied contributions of slaves and treasure upon the
Balearic Isles and the coasts of Spain, and even passed beyond the
straits to waylay the argosies which were returning to Cadiz laden
with the gold and jewels of the Indies. Nothing was safe from their
attacks; not a vessel ran the gauntlet of the Barbary coast in her
passage from Spain to Italy without many a heart quaking within her.
The "Scourge of Christendom" had begun, which was to keep all the
nations of Europe in perpetual alarm for three centuries. The Algerine
Corsairs were masters of the sea, and they made their mastery felt by
all who dared to cross their path; and not merchantmen only, but
galleys-royal of his Catholic Majesty learnt to dread the creak of the
Turkish rowlock.
One day in 1529 Kheyr-ed-dīn despatched his trusty lieutenant
"Drub-Devil" with fourteen galleots to make a descent upon Majorca and
the neighbouring islands. No job could be more suited to the Corsair's
taste, and Sālih Reïs, who was with him, fully shared his enjoyment
of the task. The pair began in the usual way by taking several prizes
on the high seas, dropping down upon the islands and the Spanish
coasts, and carrying off abundance of Christians to serve at the oar,
or to purchase their liberty with those pieces-of-eight which never
came amiss to the rover's pockets. Tidings reaching them of a party of
Moriscos who were eager to make their escape from their Spanish
masters, and were ready to pay handsomely for a passage to Barbary.
"Drub-Devil" and his comrades landed by night near Oliva, embarked two
hundred families and much treasure, and lay-to under the island of
Formentara. Unfortunately General Portundo, with eight Spanish
galleys, was just then on his way back from Genoa, whither he had
conveyed Charles V. to be crowned Emperor by the Pope at Bologna; and,
being straightway informed of the piratical exploit which had taken
place, bore away for the Balearic Isles in hot pursuit. "Drub-Devil"
hastily landed his Morisco friends, to be the better prepared to fight
or run, for the sight of eight big galleys was more than he had
bargained for; but to his surprise the enemy came on, well within
gun-shot, without firing a single round. Portundo was anxious not to
sink the Turks, for fear of drowning the fugitive Moriscos, whom he
supposed to be on board, and for whose recapture he was to have ten
thousand ducats; but the Corsairs imputed his conduct to cowardice,
and, suddenly changing their part from attacked to attackers, they
swooped like eagles upon the galleys, and after a brisk hand-to-hand
combat, in which Portundo was slain, they carried seven of them by
assault, and sent the other flying at topmost speed to Iviça. This
bold stroke brought to Algiers, besides the Moriscos, who had watched
the battle anxiously from the island, many valuable captives of rank,
and released hundreds of Moslem galley-slaves from irons and the
lash.[11] "Drub-Devil" had a splendid reception, we may be sure, when
the people of Algiers saw seven royal galleys, including the
_capitana_, or flagship, of Spain, moored in their roads; and it is no
wonder that with such triumphs the new Barbary State flourished
exceedingly.
Fortified by a series of unbroken successes, Kheyr-ed-dīn at last
ventured to attack the Spanish garrison, which had all this time
affronted him at the Peñon de Alger. It was provoking to be obliged to
beach his galleots a mile to the west, and to drag them painfully up
the strand; and the merchantmen, moored east of the city, were exposed
to the weather to such a degree as to imperil their commerce.
Kheyr-ed-dīn resolved to have a port of his own at Algiers, with no
Spanish bridle to curb him. He summoned Don Martin de Vargas to
surrender, and, on his refusal, bombarded the Peñon day and night for
fifteen days with heavy cannon, partly founded in Algiers, partly
seized from a French galleon, till an assault was practicable, when
the feeble remnant of the garrison was quickly overpowered and sent to
the bagnios. The stones of the fortress were used to build the great
mole which protects Algiers harbour on the west, and for two whole
years the Christian slaves were laboriously employed upon the work.
To aggravate this disaster, a curious sight was seen a fortnight after
the fall of the Peñon. Nine transports, full of men and ammunition for
the reinforcement of the garrison, hove in sight, and long they
searched to and fro for the well-known fortress they had come to
succour. And whilst they marvelled that they could not discover it,
out dashed the Corsairs in their galleots and light shebēks, and
seized the whole convoy, together with two thousand seven hundred
captives and a fine store of arms and provisions.[12]
Everything that Kheyr-ed-dīn took in hand seemed to prosper. His
fleet increased month by month, till he had thirty-six of his own
galleots perpetually on the cruise in the summer season; his prizes
were innumerable, and his forces were increased by the fighting men of
the seventy thousand Moriscos whom he rescued, in a series of voyages,
from servitude in Spain. The waste places of Africa were peopled with
the industrious agriculturists and artisans whom the Spanish
Government knew not how to employ. The foundries and dockyards of
Algiers teemed with busy workmen. Seven thousand Christian slaves
laboured at the defensive works and the harbour; and every attempt of
the Emperor to rescue them and destroy the pirates was repelled with
disastrous loss.
FOOTNOTES:
[10] Kheyr-ed-dīn (pronounced by the Turks _Hare-udeen_), as has been
said, is the Barbarossa of modern writers, and it is probable that the
name was given to him originally under some impression that it was of
the nature of a family name. Haedo, Marmol, and Hājji Khalīfa all give
him this title, though his beard was auburn, while Urūj was the true
"Red-Beard." Neither of the brothers was ever called Barbarossa by
Turks or Moors, and Hājji Khalīfa records the title merely as used by
Europeans. The popular usage is here adopted.
[11] Morgan, 264-6.
[12] Jurien de la Gravière, _Doria et Barberousse_, Pt. I., ch. xxi.
VI.
THE OTTOMAN NAVY.
1470-1522.
No one appreciated better the triumphs of the Beglerbeg of Algiers
than Sultan Suleymān. The Ottomans, as yet inexperienced in naval
affairs, were eager to take lessons. The Turkish navy had been of slow
growth, chiefly because in early days there were always people ready
to act as sailors for pay. When Murād I. wished to cross from Asia
to Europe to meet the invading army of Vladislaus and Hunyady, the
Genoese skippers were happy to carry over his men for a ducat a head,
just to spite their immemorial foes the Venetians, who were enlisted
on the other side. It was not till the fall of Constantinople gave the
Turks the command of the Bosphorus that Mohammed II. resolved to
create for himself a naval power.
That fatal jealousy between the Christian States which so often aided
the progress of the Turks helped them now. The great commercial
republics, Genoa and Venice, had long been struggling for supremacy on
the sea. Venice held many important posts among the islands of the
Archipelago and on the Syrian coast, where the Crusaders had rewarded
her naval assistance with the gift of the fortress of Acre. Genoa was
stronger in the Black Sea and Marmora, where, until the coming of the
Turks, her colony at Galata was little less than an Oriental Genoa.
The Genoese tower is still seen on the steep slope of Pera, and
Genoese forts are common objects in the Bosphorus, and in the Crimea,
where they dominate the little harbour of Balaklava. The Sea of
Marmora was the scene of many a deadly contest between the rival
fleets. In 1352, under the walls of Constantinople, the Genoese
defeated the combined squadrons of the Venetians, the Catalonians, and
the Greeks. But next year the Bride of the Sea humbled the pride of
Genoa in a disastrous engagement off Alghero; and in 1380, when the
Genoese had gained possession of Chioggia and all but occupied Venice
itself, the citizens rose like one man to meet the desperate
emergency, and not only repulsed, but surrounded the invaders, and
forced them to capitulate. From this time Genoa declined in power,
while Venice waxed stronger and more haughty. The conquest of
Constantinople by the Turks, followed rapidly by the expulsion of the
Genoese from Trebizond, Sinope, Kaffa, and Azov, was the end of the
commercial prosperity of the Ligurian Republic in the East. The Black
Sea and Marmora were now Turkish lakes. The Castles of the
Dardanelles, mounted with heavy guns, protected any Ottoman fleet from
pursuit; and though Giacomo Veniero defiantly carried his own ship
under fire through the strait and back again with the loss of only
eleven men, no one cared to follow his example.
[Illustration: AN ADMIRAL'S GALLEY
(_Furttenbach, Architectura Navalis, 1629._)]
When Mohammed II. issued forth with a fleet of one hundred galleys and
two hundred transports, carrying seventy thousand troops, and ravished
the Negropont away from Venice in 1470, he had only to repass the
Hellespont to be absolutely safe. All that the Venetian admirals, the
famous Loredani, could do was to retaliate upon such islands of the
Archipelago as were under Turkish sway and ravage the coasts of Asia
Minor. Superior as they were to the Turks in the building and
management of galleys, they had not the military resources of their
foe. Their troops were mercenaries, not to be compared with the
Janissaries and Sipāhis, though the hardy Stradiotes from Epirus,
dressed like Turks, but without the turban, of whom Othello is a
familiar specimen, came near to rivalling them. On land, the Republic
could not meet the troops of the Grand Signior, and after her very
existence had been menaced by the near approach of a Turkish army on
the banks of the Piave[13] (1477), Venice made peace, and even, it is
said, incited the Turks to the capture of Otranto. The Ottoman galleys
were now free of the Adriatic, and carried fire and sword along the
Italian coast, insomuch that whenever the crescent was seen at a
vessel's peak the terrified villagers fled inland, and left their
homes at the mercy of the pirates. The period of the Turkish Corsairs
had already begun.
There was another naval power to be reckoned with besides discredited
Genoa and tributary Venice. The Knights Hospitallers of Jerusalem,
driven from Smyrna (in 1403) by Timur, had settled at Rhodes, which
they hastened to render impregnable. Apparently they succeeded, for
attack after attack from the Mamlūk Sultans of Egypt failed to
shake them from their stronghold, whence they commanded the line of
commerce between Alexandria and Constantinople, and did a brisk trade
in piracy upon passing vessels. The Knights of Rhodes were the
Christian Corsairs of the Levant; the forests of Caramania furnished
them with ships, and the populations of Asia Minor supplied them with
slaves. So long as they roved the seas the Sultan's galleys were ill
at ease. Even Christian ships suffered from their high-handed
proceedings, and Venice looked on with open satisfaction when, in
1480, Mohammed II. despatched one hundred and sixty ships and a large
army to humble the pride of the Knights. The siege failed, however;
D'Aubusson, the Grand Master, repulsed the general assault with
furious heroism, and the Turks retired with heavy loss.[14]
Finding that the Ottomans were not quite invincible, Venice plucked up
heart, and began to prepare for hostilities with her temporary ally.
The interval of friendliness had been turned to good account by the
Turks. Yāni, the Christian shipbuilder of the Sultan, had studied
the improvements of the Venetians, and he now constructed two immense
_kokas_, seventy cubits long and thirty in the beam, with masts of
several trees spliced together, measuring four cubits round. Forty men
in armour might stand in the maintop and fire down upon the enemy.
There were two decks, one like a galleon's deck, and the other like a
galley, each with a big gun on either side. Four-and-twenty oars a
side, on the upper deck, were propelled each by nine men. Boats hung
from the stern; and the ship's complement consisted (so says Hājji
Khalīfa)[15] of two thousand soldiers and sailors. Kemāl Reïs
and Borāk Reïs commanded these two prodigies, and the whole fleet,
numbering some three hundred other vessels, was despatched to the
Adriatic under the command of Daūd Pasha. The object of attack was
Lepanto.
Towards the end of July, 1499, they sighted the Venetian fleet, which
was on the look-out for them, off Modon. They counted forty-four
galleys, sixteen galleasses, and twenty-eight ordinary sail. Neither
courted an action, which each knew to be fraught with momentous
consequences. Grimani, the Venetian admiral, retired to Navarino; the
Turks anchored off Sapienza. On August 12th Daūd Pasha, who knew
the Sultan was awaiting him with the land forces at Lepanto, resolved
to push on at all costs. In those days Turkish navigators had little
confidence in the open sea; they preferred to hug the shore, where
they might run into a port in case of bad weather. Daūd accordingly
endeavoured to pass between the island of Prodano and the Morea, just
north of Navarino. Perfectly aware of his course, the Venetians had
drawn out their fleet at the upper end of the narrow passage, where
they had the best possible chance of catching the enemy in confused
order. The Proveditore of Corfu, Andrea Loredano, had reinforced the
Christian fleet that very day with ten ships; the position was well
chosen; the wind was fair, and drove full down upon the Turks as they
emerged from the strait. But the Venetian admiral placed his chief
reliance in his galleasses, and as yet the art of manoeuvring sailing
vessels in battle array was in its youth. Bad steering here, a wrong
tack there, and then ship ran against ship, the great galleasses
became entangled and helpless, carried by the wind into the midst of
the enemy, or borne away where they were useless, and the Turkish
galleys had it all their own way. Loredano's flagship burnt down to
the water, and other vessels were destroyed by fire. Yāni's big
ships played an important part in the action. Two galleasses, each
containing a thousand men, and two other vessels, surrounded Borāk
Reïs, but the smaller ships could not fire over the _koka's_ lofty
sides, and were speedily sunk. Borāk Reïs threw burning pitch into
the galleasses, and burnt up crews and ships, till, his own vessel
catching fire, he and other notable captains, after performing
prodigies of valour, perished in the flames. Wherefore the island of
Prodano is by the Turks called Borāk Isle to this day.[16] To the
Christians the action was known as "the deplorable battle of Zonchio,"
from the name of the old castle of Navarino, beneath which it was
fought.
[Illustration: GALLEASSE.
(_Furttenbach, Architectura Navalis, 1620._)]
In spite of his success at Zonchio, Daūd Pasha had still to fight
his way up to Lepanto. The Venetians had collected their scattered
fleet, and had been reinforced by their allies of France and Rhodes;
it was clear they were bent on revenge. The Turks hugged the land,
dropped anchor at night, and kept a sharp look-out. It was a perpetual
skirmish all the way. The Venetians tried to surprise the enemy at
their moorings, but they were already at sea, and squally weather
upset Grimani's strategy and he had the mortification of seeing his
six fire-ships burning innocuously with never a Turk the worse. Again
and again it seemed impossible that Daūd could escape, but
Grimani's Fabian policy delivered the enemy out of his hands, and when
finally the Turkish fleet sailed triumphantly into the Gulf of Patras,
where it was protected by the Sultan's artillery at Lepanto, the Grand
Prior of Auvergne, who commanded the French squadron, sailed away in
disgust at the pusillanimity of his colleague. Lepanto fell, August
28th; and Grimani was imprisoned, nominally for life, for his
blundering: nevertheless, after twenty-one years he was made Doge.[17]
Venice never recovered from her defeat. The loss of Lepanto and the
consequent closing of the gulfs of Patras and Corinth were followed by
the capture of Modon, commanding the strait of Sapienza: the east
coast of the Adriatic and Ionian seas was no longer open to Christian
vessels. The Oriental trade of the republic was further seriously
impaired by the Turkish conquest of Egypt (1517),[18] which deprived
her of her most important mart; and the discovery of the New World
brought Spanish traders into successful competition with her own.
Venice indeed was practically an Oriental city; her skilled workmen
learned their arts in Egypt and Mesopotamia; her bazaars were filled
with the products of the East, with the dimity and other cloths and
silks and brocades of Damietta, Alexandria, Tinnis, and Cairo, cotton
from Ba'lbekk, silk from Baghdād, atlas satin from Ma'din in
Armenia; and she introduced to Europe not only the products of the
East, but their very names. Sarcenet is Saracen stuff; tabby is named
after a street in Baghdād where watered silk was made; Baldacchini
are simply "Baldac," _i.e._, Baghdād, canopies; samite is
Shāmī, "Syrian," fabric; the very coat of the Egyptian, the
_jubba_, is preserved in giuppa, jupe.[19] With the loss of her
Oriental commerce, which the hostility of the Turks involved, Venice
could no longer hold her own. She bowed to her fate and acknowledged
the Turkish supremacy by sea as well as by land. She even paid the
Sultan tribute for the island of Cyprus. When Suleymān the
Magnificent succeeded Selīm and took Belgrade (1521), Venice
hastily increased her payment and did homage for Zante as well. So
meek had now become the Bride of the Sea.
Turkey still suffered the annoyance of the Rhodian Corsairs, and till
they were removed her naval supremacy was not complete. Genoa and
Venice had been humbled: the turn of the Knights of St. John was
come. Selīm had left his son, the great Suleymān, the legacy of
a splendid fleet, prepared for this very enterprize. One hundred and
three swift galleys, thirty-five galleasses, besides smaller craft,
and 107 transports, "naves, fustes, mahones, tafforées, galions, et
esquirasses,"[20] formed a noble navy, and Rhodes fell, after an
heroic defence, at the close of 1522. For six months the Knights held
out, against a fleet which had swollen to four hundred sail and an
army of over a hundred thousand men commanded by the Sultan in person.
It was a crisis in the history of Europe: the outpost of Christendom
was at bay. The Knights realized their duty nobly, but they had the
best engineers in the world against them, and all the resources of a
now mighty empire, wielded by a master-mind. Suleymān surrounded
the city with his works, and made regular approaches for his advancing
batteries and mines; yet at the end of a month not a wall was down,
and the eight bastions of the eight Tongues of the Order--the English,
French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German, Provençal, and
Auvergnat--were so far unmoved. Gabriel Martinego of Candia
superintended the countermines with marked success.[21] At last the
English bastion was blown up; the Turks swarmed to the breach, and
were beaten back with a loss of two thousand men. A second assault
failed, but on September 24th they succeeded in getting a foothold,
and the destruction of the Spanish, Italian, and Provençal bastions by
the Turkish mines and the consequent exposure of the exhausted
garrison rendered the defence more and more perilous. The Ottoman army
too was suffering severely, from disease, as well as from the deadly
weapons of the Knights, and in the hope of sparing his men Suleymān
offered the garrison life and liberty if they would surrender the
city. At first they proudly rejected the offer, but within a
fortnight, finding their ammunition exhausted and their numbers sadly
thinned, on December 21st they begged the Sultan to repeat his
conditions, and, with an honourable clemency, Suleymān let them all
depart unmolested in his own ships to such ports in Europe as seemed
best to them.[22]
The fall of Rhodes removed the last obstacle to the complete
domination of the Ottoman fleet in the eastern basin of the
Mediterranean. Henceforward no Christian ship was safe in those waters
unless by the pleasure of the Sultan. The old maritime Republics were
for the time reduced to impotence, and no power existed to challenge
the Ottoman supremacy in the Aegean, Ionian, and Adriatic Seas.
Almost at the same time the brothers Barbarossa had effected a similar
triumph in the west. The capture of Algiers and the firm establishment
of various strong garrisons on the Barbary coast had given the Turkish
Corsairs the command of the western basin of the Mediterranean.
Suleymān the Magnificent saw the necessity of combination; he knew
that Kheyr-ed-dīn could teach the Stambol navigators and
ship-builders much that they ought to learn; his Grand Vezīr
Ibrahīm strenuously urged a closer relation between the Turkish
powers of the east and west; and Kheyr-ed-dīn received the Imperial
command to present himself at Constantinople.
FOOTNOTES:
[13] See S. Lane-Poole, _The Story of Turkey_, 135.
[14] See _The Story of Turkey_, 136.
[15] _History of the Maritime Wars of the Turks_, 20.
[16] Hājji Khalīfa, 21.
[17] Jurien de la Gravière, _Doria et Barberousse_, Pt. I., ch. xv.
[18] See the _Story of Turkey_, 158-163.
[19] See S. Lane-Poole, _The Art of the Saracens_, 239, &c.
[20] _Doria et Barberousse_, Pt. II., ch. vii.
[21] _Ibid._, Pt. II., ch. vii., p. 106 ff.
[22] See the _Story of Turkey_, 170; and the illustrations, pp. 137,
147, 171, 175, 177.
VII.
DORIA AND BARBAROSSA.
1533.
Kheyr-ed-dīn was in no hurry to visit the Sublime Porte. He had to
provide for the safety and government of Algiers during his absence,
when exposed to the dangers both of foreign attack and internal
intrigue. He had to reckon with the galleys of the Knights of St.
John, who, after wandering homeless for a longer time than was at all
creditable to that Christendom which they had so heroically defended
at Rhodes, had finally settled in no less convenient a spot than
Malta, whence they had every opportunity of harassing the operations
of the Corsairs (1530). Moreover Andrea Doria was cruising about, and
he was not the sort of opponent Barbarossa cared to meet by hazard.
The great Genoese admiral considered it a personal duel with
Kheyr-ed-dīn. Each held the supreme position on his own side of the
water. Both were old men and had grown old in arms. Born in 1468, of a
noble Genoese family, Doria was sixty-five years of age, of which
nearly fifty had been spent in warfare. He had been in the Pope's
guard, and had seen service under the Duke of Urbino and Alfonso of
Naples, and when he was over forty he had taken to the sea and found
himself suddenly High Admiral of Genoa (1513). His appointment to the
command of his country's galleys was due to his zealous services on
shore, and not to any special experience of naval affairs; indeed the
commander of the galleys was as much a military as a naval officer.
Doria, however, late as he adopted his profession, possessed undoubted
gifts as a seaman, and his leadership decided which of the rival
Christian Powers should rule the Mediterranean waves. He devoted his
sword to France in 1522, when a revolution overthrew his party in his
own republic; and so long as he was on the French side the command of
the sea, so far as it did not belong to the Barbary Corsairs, belonged
to France. When in 1528 he judged himself and his country ill-used by
Francis I., he carried over his own twelve galleys to the side of
Charles V.; and then the Imperial navies once more triumphed. Doria
was the arbiter of fortune between the contending states. Doria was
the liberator of Genoa, and, refusing to be her king, remained her
idol and her despot. No name struck such terror into the hearts of the
Turks; many a ship had fallen a prey to his devouring galleys, and
many a Moslem slave pulled at his oars or languished in Genoese
prisons. Officially an admiral, he was at the same time personally a
Corsair, and used his private galleys to increase his wealth.
Kheyr-ed-dīn's fame among Christians and Turks alike was at least
as great and glorious as his rival's. He had driven the Spaniards out
of Algiers and had inflicted incalculable injuries upon the ships and
shores of the Empire. Though the two had roved the same sea for twenty
years, they had never met in naval combat: perhaps each had respected
the other too much to risk an encounter. Long ago, when
Kheyr-ed-dīn was unknown to fame, Doria had driven him from the
Goletta (1513); and in 1531 the Genoese admiral made a descent upon
Shershēl, which Kheyr-ed-dīn had been strengthening, to the
great detriment and anxiety of the opposite coast of Spain. The
Imperialists landed in force, surprised the fort, and liberated seven
hundred Christian slaves. Then, contrary to orders and heedless of the
signal gun which summoned them on board, the soldiery dispersed about
the town in search of pillage, and, being taken at a disadvantage by
the Turks and Moriscos of the place, were driven in confusion down to
the beach, only to perceive Doria's galleys rapidly pulling away. Nine
hundred were slaughtered on the seashore and six hundred made
prisoners. Some say that the admiral intended to punish his men for
their disobedience; others that he sighted Kheyr-ed-dīn's fleet
coming to the rescue. At all events he drew off, and the two great
rivals did not meet. The Genoese picked up some Barbary vessels on his
way home to console him for his failure.
[Illustration: ANDREA DORIA.]
In the following year he retrieved his fame by a brilliant expedition
to the coasts of Greece. With thirty-five sail and forty-eight galleys
he attacked Coron, by way of making a diversion while Sultan
Suleymān was invading Hungary,[23] and after a heavy bombardment
succeeded in landing his men on the curtain of the fort. The Turkish
garrison was spared and marched out, and Mendoza was left in command,
while Doria bore up to Patras and took it, occupied the castles which
guard the Gulf of Corinth, and returned in triumph to Genoa before the
Turkish fleet could come up with him. This was in September, 1532. In
the following spring a yet more daring feat was accomplished. Coron
was running short of supplies, and a Turkish fleet blockaded the port.
Nevertheless Cristofero Pallavicini carried his ship in, under cover
of the castle guns, and encouraged the garrison to hold out; and
Doria, following in splendid style, fought his way in, notwithstanding
that half his fleet, being sailing galleons, became becalmed in the
midst of the Turkish galleys, and had to be rescued in the teeth of
the enemy. Lutfi Pasha was outmanoeuvred and defeated. This
revictualling of Coron, says Admiral Jurien de la Gravière, was one of
the skilfullest naval operations of the sixteenth century.[24]
It was clear that, while Doria had effected almost nothing against the
Barbary Corsairs, he always mastered the Turks. The Sultan was eager
to discover Kheyr-ed-dīn's secret of success, and counted the days
till he should arrive in the Golden Horn. The Corsair, for his part,
had heard enough of Doria's recent exploits to use more than his
habitual caution, and he was not disposed to cheapen his value in the
Sultan's eyes by a too precipitate compliance with his Majesty's
command. At last, in August, 1533, having appointed Hasan Aga, a
Sardinian eunuch, in whom he greatly confided, to be viceroy during
his absence, Kheyr-ed-dīn set sail from Algiers with a few galleys;
and after doing a little business on his own account--looting Elba and
picking up some Genoese corn-ships--pursued his way, passing Malta at
a respectful distance, and coasting the Morea, till he dropped anchor
in the Bay of Salonica.[25] By his route, which touched Santa Maura
and Navarino, he appears to have been looking for Doria, in spite of
the smallness of his own force (which had, however, been increased by
prizes); but, fortunately, perhaps, for the Corsair, the Genoese
admiral had returned to Sicily, and the two had missed each other on
the way.
Soon the eyes of the Sultan were rejoiced with the sight of a Barbary
fleet, gaily dressed with flags and pennons, rounding Seraglio Point,
and, in perfect order, entering the deep water of the Golden Horn; and
presently Kheyr-ed-dīn and his eighteen captains were bowing before
the Grand Signior, and reaping the rewards due to their fame and
services. It was a strange sight that day at Eski Serai,[26] and the
divan was crowded. The tried generals and statesmen of the greatest of
Ottoman emperors assembled to gaze upon the rough sea-dogs whose
exploits were on the lips of all Europe; and most of all they
scrutinized the vigorous well-knit yet burly figure of the old man
with the bushy eyebrows and thick beard, once a bright auburn, but
now hoary with years and exposure to the freaks of fortune and rough
weather. In his full and searching eye, that could blaze with ready
and unappeasable fury, they traced the resolute mind which was to show
them the way to triumphs at sea, comparable even to those which their
victorious Sultan had won before strong walls and on the battle plain.
The Grand Vezīr Ibrahīm recognized in Kheyr-ed-dīn the man he
needed, and the Algerine Corsair was preferred before all the admirals
of Turkey, and appointed to reconstruct the Ottoman navy. He spent the
winter in the dockyards, where his quick eye instantly detected the
faults of the builders. The Turks of Constantinople, he found, knew
neither how to build nor how to work their galleys.[27] Theirs were
not so swift as the Christians'; and instead of turning sailors
themselves, and navigating them properly, they used to kidnap
shepherds from Arcadia and Anatolia, who had never handled a sail or a
tiller in their lives, and entrust the navigation of their galleys to
these inexperienced hands.[28] Kheyr-ed-dīn soon changed all this.
Fortunately there were workmen and timber in abundance, and, inspiring
his men with his own marvellous energy, he laid out sixty-one galleys
during the winter, and was able to take the sea with a fleet of
eighty-four vessels in the spring. The period of Turkish supremacy on
the sea dates from Kheyr-ed-dīn's winter in the dockyards.
FOOTNOTES:
[23] See the _Story of Turkey_, 191.
[24] _Doria et Barberousse_, Pt. II. ch. xxv.
[25] The Spanish historians are silent on the subject of this
expedition: or, rather, Haedo positively denies it, and says that
Kheyr-ed-dīn sent an embassy to the Sultan, but did not go in person.
Hājji Khalīfa, however, is clear and detailed in his account of the
visit.
[26] For an account of Stambol and the old Seraglio see the _Story of
Turkey_, 260 ff.
[27] See Chapter XVI., below.
[28] So says Jean Chesneau, French secretary at Constantinople in 1543.
See Jurien de la Gravière, _Les Corsaires Barbaresques_, 13.
VIII.
TUNIS TAKEN AND LOST.
1534-1535.
The dwellers on the coasts of Italy soon discovered the new spirit in
the Turkish fleet; they had now to dread Corsairs on both hands, east
as well as west. In the summer of 1534 Kheyr-ed-dīn led his new
fleet of eighty-four galleys forth from the Golden Horn, to flesh
their appetite on a grand quest of prey. Entering the Straits of
Messina, he surprised Reggio, and carried off ships and slaves;
stormed and burnt the castle of S. Lucida next day, and took eight
hundred prisoners; seized eighteen galleys at Cetraro; put Sperlonga
to the sword and brand, and loaded his ships with wives and maidens. A
stealthy inland march brought the Corsairs to Fondi, where lay Giulia
Gonzaga, the young and beautiful widow of Vespasio Colonna, Duchess of
Trajetto and Countess of Fondi. She was sister to the "heavenly Joanna
of Aragon," on whose loveliness two hundred and eighty Italian poets
and rimesters in vain exhausted the resources of several languages;--a
loveliness shared by the sister whose device was the "Flower of Love"
amaranth blazoned on her shield. This beauty Kheyr-ed-dīn destined
for the Sultan's harem, and so secret were the Corsairs' movements
that he almost surprised the fair Giulia in her bed. She had barely
time to mount a horse in her shift and fly with a single
attendant,--whom she afterwards condemned to death, perhaps because
the beauty revealed that night had made him overbold.[29] Enraged at
her escape the pirates made short work of Fondi; the church was
wrecked, and the plundering went on for four terrible hours, never to
be forgotten by the inhabitants.
Refreshed and excited by their successful raid, the Turks needed
little encouragement to enter with heartiness upon the real object of
the expedition, which was nothing less than the annexation of the
kingdom of Tunis. Three centuries had passed since the Sultans of the
race of Hafs had established their authority on the old Carthaginian
site, upon the breaking up of the African empire of the Almohades.
Their rule had been mild and just; they had maintained on the whole
friendly relations with the European powers, and many treaties record
the fair terms upon which the merchants of Pisa, Venice, and Genoa
were admitted to the port of Tunis. Saint Louis had been so struck
with the piety and justice of the king that he had even come to
convert him, and had died in the attempt. Twenty-one rulers of their
line had succeeded one another, till the vigour of the Benī Hafs
was sapped, and fraternal jealousies added bloodshed to weakness.
Hasan, the twenty-second, stepped to the throne over the bodies of
forty-four slaughtered brothers, and when he had thus secured his
place he set a pattern of vicious feebleness for all sovereigns to
avoid. A rival claimant served as the Corsair's pretext for invasion,
and Kheyr-ed-dīn had hardly landed when this miserable wretch fled
the city, and though supported by some of the Arab tribes he could
make no head against the Turkish guns. Tunis, like Algiers, had been
added to the Ottoman Empire, against its will, and by the same
masterful hands. It may be doubted whether the Sultan's writ would
have run in either of his new provinces had their conqueror gainsaid
it.
[Illustration: TUNIS, 1566.
(_From a Map in the British Museum._)]
Tunis did not long remain in the possession of Barbarossa. The
banished king appealed to Charles V., and, whatever the emperor may
have thought of Hasan's wrongs, he plainly perceived that Barbarossa's
presence in Tunis harbour was a standing menace to his own kingdom of
Sicily. It was bad enough to see nests of pirates perched upon the
rocks of the Algerine coast; but Tunis was the key of the passage from
the west to the eastern basin of the Mediterranean, and to leave it in
the Corsairs' hands was to the last degree hazardous. Accordingly he
espoused the cause of Hasan, and at the end of May, 1535, he set sail
from Barcelona with six hundred ships commanded by Doria (who had his
own grudge to settle), and carrying the flower of the Imperial troops,
Spaniards, Italians, and Germans. In June he laid siege to the
Goletta--or _halk-el-wēd_, "throat of the torrent," as the Arabs
called it--those twin towers a mile asunder which guarded the channel
of Tunis. The great carack _St. Ann_, sent, with four galleys, by "the
Religion" (so the Knights of Malta styled their Order), was moored
close in, and her heavy cannon soon made a breach, through which the
Chevalier Cossier led the Knights of St. John, who always claimed the
post of danger, into the fortress, and planted the banner of "the
Religion" on the battlements[30] (14 July). Three desperate sallies
had the besieged made under the leadership of Sinān the Jew; three
Italian generals of rank had fallen in the melley; before they were
driven in confusion back upon the city of Tunis, leaving the Goletta
with all its stores of weapons and ammunition, and its forty guns,
some of them famous for their practice at the siege of Rhodes, and
more than a hundred vessels, in the hands of the enemy. Barbarossa
came out to meet the emperor at the head of nearly ten thousand
troops; but his Berbers refused to fight, the thousands of Christian
slaves in the Kasaba (or citadel), aided by treachery, broke their
chains and shut the gates behind him; and, after defending his rampart
as long as he could, the Corsair chief, with Sinān and Aydīn
"Drub-Devil," made his way to Bona, where he had fortunately left
fifteen of his ships. The lines of Kheyr-ed-dīn's triple wall may
still be traced across the neck of land which separates the lake of
Tunis from the Mediterranean. Fifteen years ago this rampart was cut
through, when nearly two hundred skeletons, some Spanish money, cannon
balls, and broken weapons were found outside it.[31]
For three days Charles gave up the city of Tunis to the brutality of
his soldiers. They were days of horrible license and bloodshed. Men,
women, and children were massacred, and worse than massacred, in
thousands. The infuriated troops fought one with the other for the
possession of the spoil, and the luckless Christians of the Kasaba were
cut down by their deliverers in the struggle for Kheyr-ed-dīn's
treasures. The streets became shambles, the houses dens of murder and
shame: the very Catholic chroniclers admit the abominable outrages
committed by the licentious and furious soldiery of the great Emperor.
It is hard to remember that almost at the very time when German and
Spanish and Italian men-at-arms were outraging and slaughtering
helpless, innocent people in Tunis, who had taken little or no hand in
Kheyr-ed-dīn's wars and had accepted his authority with reluctance,
the Grand Vezīr Ibrahīm was entering Baghdād and Tebrīz as
a conqueror at the head of wild Asiatic troops, and not a house nor a
human being was molested. _Fas est et ab hoste doceri._
So far as Tunis was concerned the expedition of Charles V. was
fruitless. Before he sailed in August he made a treaty with Hasan,
which stipulated for tribute to Spain, the possession of the Goletta
by the crown of Castile, the freeing of Christian slaves, the
cessation of piracy, and the payment of homage by an annual tribute
of six Moorish barbs and twelve falcons; and he and the Moor duly
swore it on Cross and sword. But the treaty was so much parchment
wasted. No Moslem prince who had procured his restoration by such
means as Hasan had used, who had spilt Moslem blood with Christian
weapons and ruined Moslem homes by the sacrilegious atrocities of
"infidel" soldiers, and had bound himself the vassal of "idolatrous"
Spain, could hope to keep his throne long. He was an object of horror
and repulsion to the people upon whom he had brought this awful
calamity, and so fierce was their scorn of the traitor to Islam that
the story is told of a Moorish girl in the clutch of the soldiers,
who, when the restored King of Tunis sought to save her, spat in his
face; anything was better than the dishonour of his protection. Hasan
pretended to reign for five years, but the country was in arms, holy
Kayrawān would have nothing to say to a governor who owed his
throne to infidel ravishers; Imperial troops in vain sought to keep
him there; Doria himself succeeded only for a brief while in reducing
the coast towns to the wretched prince's authority; and in 1540 Hasan
was imprisoned and blinded by his son Hamīd, and none can pity him.
The coast was in the possession of the Corsairs, and, as we shall see,
even the Spaniards were forced ere long to abandon the Goletta.
Nevertheless, the expedition to Tunis was a feat of which Europe was
proud. Charles V. seldom suffered from depreciation of his exploits,
and, as Morgan quaintly says, "I have never met with that Spaniard in
my whole life, who, I am persuaded, would not have bestowed on me at
least forty _Boto a Christo's_, had I pretended to assert Charles V.
not to have held this whole universal globe in a string for
four-and-twenty hours; and _then it broke_: though none had ever the
good nature or manners to inform or correct my ignorance in genuine
history, by letting me into the secret when that critical and slippery
period of time was."[32] Naturally admirers so thoroughgoing made the
most of the conquest of Tunis, the reduction of the formidable
Goletta, the release of thousands of Christian captives, and, above
all, the discomfiture of that scourge of Christendom, Barbarossa
himself. Poets sang of it, a painter-in-ordinary depicted the siege, a
potter at Urbino burnt the scene into his vase; all Europe was agog
with enthusiasm at the feat. Charles posed as a crusader and a
knight-errant, and commemorated his gallant deeds and those of his
gentlemen by creating a new order of chivalry, the Cross of Tunis,
with the motto "Barbaria," of which however we hear no more.
Altogether "it was a famous victory."
The joy of triumph was sadly marred by the doings of Kheyr-ed-dīn.
That incorrigible pirate, aware that no one would suspect that he
could be roving while Charles was besieging his new kingdom, took
occasion to slip over to Minorca with his twenty-seven remaining
galleots; and there, flying Spanish and other false colours, deceived
the islanders into the belief that his vessels were part of the
Armada; upon which he rowed boldly into Port Mahon, seized a rich
Portuguese galleon, sacked the town, and, laden with six thousand
captives and much booty and ammunition, led his prize back in triumph
to Algiers. In the meanwhile Doria was assiduously hunting for him
with thirty galleys, under the emperor's express orders to catch him
dead or alive. The great Genoese had to wait yet three years for his
long-sought duel.
Having accomplished its object, the Armada, as usual, broke up without
making a decisive end of the Corsairs. Kheyr-ed-dīn, waiting at
Algiers in expectation of attack, heard the news gladly, and, when the
coast was clear, sailed back to Constantinople for reinforcements. He
never saw Algiers again.
FOOTNOTES:
[29] Von Hammer, _Gesch. d. Osm. Reiches_, ii. 129.
[30] Broadley, _Tunis, Past and Present_, i. 42, quoting a narrative by
Boyssat, one of the Knights of Malta, written in 1612.
[31] On Charles's expedition to Tunis, consult Marmol, Hājji Khalīfa,
Robertson, Morgan, Von Hammer, and Broadley. In the last will be found
some interesting photographs of Jan Cornelis Vermeyen's pictures,
painted on the spot during the progress of the siege, by command of the
Emperor, and now preserved at Windsor. All the accounts of the siege
and capture show discrepancies which it seems hopeless to reconcile.
[32] _Hist. of Algiers_, 286.
IX.
THE SEA-FIGHT OFF PREVESA.
1537.
When Barbarossa returned to Constantinople Tunis was forgotten and
Minorca alone called to mind: instead of the title of Beglerbeg of
Algiers, the Sultan saluted him as Capudan Pasha or High Admiral of
the Ottoman fleets. There was work to be done in the Adriatic, and
none was fitter to do it than the great Corsair. Kheyr-ed-dīn had
acquired an added influence at Stambol since the execution of the
Grand Vezīr Ibrahīm,[33] and he used it in exactly the opposite
direction. Ibrahīm, a Dalmatian by birth, had always striven to
maintain friendly relations with Venice, his native state, and for
more than thirty years there had been peace between the Republic and
the Porte. Barbarossa, on the contrary, longed to pit his galleys
against the most famous of the maritime nations of the Middle Ages,
and to make the Crescent as supreme in the waters of the Adriatic as
it was in the Aegean. Francis I. was careful to support this policy
out of his jealousy of the Empire. The Venetians, anxious to keep on
good terms with the Sultan, and to hold a neutral position between
Francis and Charles V., found themselves gradually committed to a war,
and by their own fault. Their commanders in the Adriatic and at Candia
were unable to resist the temptation of chasing Ottoman merchantmen.
Canale, the Proveditore of Candia, caught a noted Corsair, the "Young
Moor of Alexander," as his victims called him, sunk or captured his
galleys, killed his Janissaries, and severely wounded the young Moor
himself;--and all this in Turkish waters, on Turkish subjects, and in
time of peace. Of course when the too gallant Proveditore came to his
senses and perceived his folly, he patched the young Moor's wounds and
sent him tenderly back to Algiers: but the Sultan's ire was already
roused, and when Venetian galleys actually gave chase to a ship that
carried a Turkish ambassador, no apologies that the Signoria offered
could wipe out the affront. War was inevitable, and Venice hastily
made common cause with the Pope and the Emperor against the formidable
host which now advanced upon the Adriatic.
Before this, some stirring actions had been fought off the coasts of
Greece. Doria, sallying forth from Messina, had met the governor of
Gallipoli off Paxos, and had fought him before daybreak. Standing
erect on the poop, conspicuous in his cramoisy doublet, the tall
figure of the old admiral was seen for an hour and a half directing
the conflict, sword in hand, an easy mark for sharpshooters, as a
wound in the knee reminded him. After a severe struggle the twelve
galleys of the enemy were captured and carried in triumph to Messina.
Barbarossa was sorely wanted now, and in May, 1537, he sailed with one
hundred and thirty-five galleys to avenge the insult. For a whole
month he laid waste the Apulian coast like a pestilence, and carried
off ten thousand slaves, while Doria lay helpless with a far inferior
force in Messina roads. The Turks were boasting that they might soon
set up a Pope of their own, when the war with Venice broke out, and
they were called off from their devastation of Italy by the Sultan's
command to besiege Corfu. The Ionian islands were always a bone of
contention between the Turks and their neighbours, and a war with
Venice naturally began with an attack upon Corfu. The Senate had shut
its eyes as long as possible to the destination of the huge armaments
which had left Constantinople in the spring: Tunis, or perhaps Naples,
was said to be their object. But now they were undeceived, and on the
25th of August, Captain Pasha Barbarossa landed twenty-five thousand
men and thirty cannon under Lutfi Pasha, three miles from the castle
of Corfu. Four days later the Grand Vezīr Ayās, with twenty-five
thousand more and a brilliant staff, joined the first-comers, and the
Akinji or light troops spread fire and sword around. A fifty-pounder
fired nineteen shots in three days, but only five struck the fortress:
the Turks fired too high, and many of their missiles fell harmlessly
into the sea beyond. In spite of storm and rain the Grand Vezīr
would not desist from making the round of the trenches by night.
Suleymān offered liberal terms of capitulation, but the besieged
sent back his messenger with never an answer. Alexandro Tron worked
the big guns of the castle with terrible precision. Two galleys were
quickly sunk, four men were killed in the trenches by a single shot--a
new and alarming experience in those early days of gunnery--four times
the Fort of St. Angelo was attacked in vain; winter was approaching,
and the Sultan determined to raise the siege. In vain Barbarossa
remonstrated: "A thousand such castles were not worth the life of one
of his brave men," said the Sultan, and on the 17th of September the
troops began to re-embark.[34]
Then began a scene of devastation such as the isles of Greece have too
often witnessed,--not from Turks only, but from Genoese and Venetians,
who also came to the Archipelago for their oarsmen,--but never perhaps
on so vast a scale. Butrinto was burnt, Paxos conquered, and then
Barbarossa carried fire and sword throughout the Adriatic and the
Archipelago. With seventy galleys and thirty galleots, he raged among
the islands, most of which belonged to noble families of Venice--the
Venieri, Grispi, Pisani, Quirini. Syra, Skyros, Aegina, Paros, Naxos,
Tenos, and other Venetian possessions were overwhelmed, and thousands
of their people carried off to pull a Turkish oar. Naxos contributed
five thousand dollars as her first year's tribute; Aegina furnished
six thousand slaves. Many trophies did Barbarossa bring home to
Stambol, whose riches certainly did his own and the Sultan's, if not
"the general coffer, fill." Four hundred thousand pieces of gold, a
thousand girls, and fifteen hundred boys, were useful resources when
he returned to "rub his countenance against the royal stirrup."[35]
Two hundred boys in scarlet, bearing gold and silver bowls; thirty
more laden with purses; two hundred with rolls of fine cloth: such was
the present with which the High Admiral approached the Sultan's
presence.
Suleymān's genius was at that time bent upon three distinct
efforts: he was carrying on a campaign in Moldavia; his Suez fleet--a
novelty in Ottoman history--was invading the Indian Ocean, with no
very tangible result, it is true (unless a trophy of Indian ears and
noses may count), save the conquest of Aden on the return voyage, but
still a notable exploit, and disturbing to the Portuguese in Gujerat;
and his High Admiral was planning the destruction of the maritime
power of Venice.
In the summer of 1538, Barbarossa put off to sea, and soon had one
hundred and fifty sail under his command. He began by collecting
rowers and tribute from the islands, twenty-five of which had now been
transferred from the Venetian to the Turkish allegiance, and then laid
waste eighty villages in Candia. Here news was brought that the united
fleet of the Emperor, Venice, and the Pope was cruising in the
Adriatic, and the Captain Pasha hastened to meet it. The pick of the
Corsairs was with him. Round his flagship were ranged the galleys of
Dragut, Murād Reïs, Sinān, Sālih Reïs with twenty Egyptian
vessels, and others, to the number of one hundred and twenty-two
ships of war. The advance guard sighted part of the enemy off
Prevesa--a Turkish fortress opposite the promontory of Arta or Actium,
where Antony suffered his memorable defeat.
[Illustration: COMPASS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.
(_Jurien de la Gravière._)]
The Christian strength was really overwhelming. Eighty Venetian,
thirty-six Papal, and thirty Spanish galleys, together with fifty
sailing galleons, made up a formidable total of nearly two hundred
ships of war, and they carried scarcely less than sixty thousand men,
and two thousand five hundred guns. Doria was in chief command, and
Capello and Grimani led the Venetian and Roman contingents. Barbarossa
had fortunately received but an imperfect report of the enemy's
strength and so boldly pursued his northerly course up the Adriatic.
When he reached Prevesa, the combined fleets had gone on to Corfu, and
he was able to enter unopposed the spacious gulf of Arta, where all
the navies of the world might safely anchor and defy pursuit.
On September 25th, the allied fleets appeared off the entrance to the
gulf, and then for the first time Barbarossa realized his immense good
fortune in being the first in the bay. Outnumbered as he was, a fight
in the open sea might have ended in the total destruction of his navy;
but secure in an ample harbour, on a friendly coast, behind a bar
which the heavier vessels of the enemy could not cross, he could wait
his opportunity and take the foe at a disadvantage. The danger was
that Doria might disembark his guns and attack from the shores of the
gulf, and to meet this risk some of the Turkish captains insisted on
landing their men and trying to erect earthworks for their
protection; but the fire from the Christian ships soon stopped this
manoeuvre. Barbarossa had never expected Doria to hazard a landing,
and he was right. The old admiral of Charles V. was not likely to
expose his ships to the risk of a sally from the Turks just when he
had deprived them of the men and guns that could alone defend them.
The two fleets watched each other warily. Doria and Barbarossa had at
last come face to face for a great battle, but, strange as it may
seem, neither cared to begin: Barbarossa was conscious of serious
numerical inferiority; Doria was anxious for the safety of his fifty
big sailing vessels, on the heavy artillery of which he most relied,
but which a contrary wind might drive to destruction on the hostile
coast. As it was, his guideship on the extreme left had but a fathom
of water under her keel. Each felt keenly the weighty responsibility
of his position, and even the sense that now at last the decisive day
of their long rivalry had come could not stir them from their policy
of prudence. Moreover, it was no longer a question of the prowess of
hot-blooded youth: Doria and Barbarossa and Capello were all men of
nearly seventy years, and Doria was certainly not the man he once was;
politics had spoilt him.
So the two great admirals waited and eyed each other's strength. Will
Barbarossa come out? Or must Doria risk the passage of the bar and
force his way in to the encounter? Neither event happened: but on the
morning of the 27th the Corsairs rubbed their eyes to feel if they
were asleep, as they saw the whole magnificent navy of Christendom,
anchor a-peak, sailing slowly and majestically--_away!_ Were the
Christians afraid? Anyhow no one, not even Barbarossa, could hold the
Turks back now. Out they rushed in hot pursuit, not thinking or
caring--save their shrewd captain--whether this were not a feint of
Doria's to catch them in the open. "Get into line," said Barbarossa to
his captains, "and do as you see me do." Dragut took the right wing,
Sālih Reïs the left. Early on the 28th the Christian fleet was
discovered at anchor, in a foul wind, off Santa Maura, thirty miles to
the south. Doria was not at all prepared for such prompt pursuit, and
eyed with anxiety the long battle line of one hundred and forty
galleys, galleots, and brigantines, bearing down upon him before the
wind. His ships were scattered, for the sails could not keep up with
the oars, and Condulmiero's huge Venetian carack was becalmed off
Zuara, a long way behind, and others were in no better plight. Three
hours Doria hesitated, and then gave the order to sail north and meet
the enemy. Condulmiero was already fiercely engaged, and soon his
carack was a mere unrigged helmless waterlog, only saved from instant
destruction by her immense size and terrific guns, which, well aimed,
low on the water, to gain the _ricochet_, did fearful mischief among
the attacking galleys. Two galleons were burnt to the water's edge,
and their crews took to the boats; a third, Boccanegra's, lost her
mainmast, and staggered away crippled. What was Doria about? The wind
was now in his favour; the enemy was in front: but Doria continued to
tack and manoeuvre at a distance. What he aimed at is uncertain: his
colleagues Grimani and Capello went on board his flagship, and
vehemently remonstrated with him, and even implored him to depart and
let them fight the battle with their own ships, but in vain. He was
bent on tactics, when what was needed was pluck; and tactics lost the
day. The Corsairs took, it is true, only seven galleys and sailing
vessels, but they held the sea. Doria sailed away in the evening for
Corfu, and the whole allied fleet followed in a gale of wind.[36]
[Illustration: OBSERVATION WITH THE ASTROLABE.
(_Jurien de la Gravière._)]
So, after all, the great duel was never fairly fought between the
sea-rivals. Barbarossa was willing, but Doria held back: he preferred
to show his seamanship instead of his courage. The result was in
effect a victory, a signal victory, for the Turks. Two hundred
splendid vessels of three great Christian states had fled before an
inferior force of Ottomans; and it is no wonder that Sultan
Suleymān, when he learnt the news at Yamboli, illuminated the town,
and added one hundred thousand aspres a year to the revenues of the
conqueror. Barbarossa had once more proved to the world that the
Turkish fleet was invincible. The flag of Suleymān floated supreme
in all the waters of the Mediterranean Sea.
FOOTNOTES:
[33] See the _Story of Turkey_, 195.
[34] Von Hammer, _Gesch. d. Osm. Reiches_, ii. 142.
[35] Hājji Khalīfa, 58.
[36] Jurien de la Gravière, _Doria et Barberousse_, Pt. II., ch.
xlii.-xlv.; Hājji Khalīfa, 62; Von Hammer, ii. 155; Morgan, 290.
X.
BARBAROSSA IN FRANCE.
1539-1546.
Barbarossa's life was drawing to a close, but in the eight years that
remained he enhanced his already unrivalled renown. His first exploit
after Prevesa was the recapture of Castelnuovo, which the allied
fleets had seized in October, as some compensation on land for their
humiliation at sea. The Turkish armies had failed to recover the
fortress in January, 1539; but in July Barbarossa went to the front as
usual, with a fleet of two hundred galleys, large and small, and all
his best captains; and, after some very pretty fighting in the Gulf of
Cattaro, landed eighty-four of his heaviest guns and bombarded
Castelnuovo, from three well-placed batteries. On August 7th, a
sanguinary assault secured the first line of the defences; three days
later the governor, Don Francisco Sarmiento, and his handful of
Spaniards, surrendered to a final assault, and were surprised to find
themselves chivalrously respected as honourable foes. Three thousand
Spaniards had fallen, and eight thousand Turks, in the course of the
siege.
One more campaign and Barbarossa's feats are over. Great events were
happening on the Algerine coasts, where we must return after too long
an absence in the Levant and Adriatic: but first the order of years
must be neglected that we may see the last of the most famous of all
the Corsairs. To make amends for the coldness of Henry VIII., Francis
I. was allied with the other great maritime power, Turkey, against the
Emperor, in 1543; and the old sea rover actually brought his fleet of
one hundred and fifty ships to Marseilles. The French captains saluted
the Corsair's _capitana_, and the banner of Our Lady was lowered to be
replaced by the Crescent. Well may a French admiral call this "the
impious alliance." On his way Barbarossa enjoyed a raid in quite his
old style; burnt Reggio and carried off the governor's daughter;
appeared off the Tiber, and terrified the people of Cività Vecchia;
and in July entered the Gulf of Lyons in triumph. Here he found the
young Duke of Enghien, François de Bourbon, commander of the French
galleys, who received him with all honour and ceremony.
[Illustration: GALLEY AT ANCHOR.
(_Jurien de la Gravière._)]
Barbarossa had hardly arrived when he discovered that his great
expedition was but a fool's errand. The King of France was afraid of
attempting a serious campaign against the Emperor, and he was already
ashamed of his alliance with the Musulmans: his own subjects--nay, all
Europe--were crying shame. Barbarossa grew crimson with fury, and tore
his white beard: he had not come with a vast fleet all the way from
Stambol to be made a laughing-stock. Something must evidentially be
done to satisfy his honour, and Francis I. unwillingly gave orders for
the bombardment of Nice. Accompanied by a feeble and ill-prepared
French contingent, which soon ran short of ammunition--"Fine
soldiers," cried the Corsair, "to fill their ships with wine casks,
and leave the powder barrels behind!"--Barbarossa descended upon the
Gate of Italy. The city soon surrendered, but the fort held out,
defended by one of those invincible foes of the Turk, a Knight of
Malta, Paolo Simeoni, who had himself experienced captivity at the
hands of Barbarossa; and as the French protested against sacking the
town after capitulation on terms, and as Charles's relieving army was
advancing, the camps were broken up in confusion, and the fleets
retired from Nice.
The people of Toulon beheld a strange spectacle that winter. The
beautiful harbour of Provence was allotted to the Turkish admiral for
his winter quarters. There, at anchor, lay the immense fleet of the
Grand Signior; and who knew how long it might dominate the fairest
province of France? There, turbaned Musulmans paced the decks and
bridge, below and beside which hundreds of Christian slaves sat
chained to the bench and victims to the lash of the boatswain.
Frenchmen were forced to look on, helplessly, while Frenchmen groaned
in the infidels' galleys, within the security of a French port. The
captives died by hundreds of fever during that winter, but no
Christian burial was allowed them--even the bells that summon the
pious to the Mass were silenced, for are they not "the devil's
musical instrument"?[37]--and the gaps in the benches were filled by
nightly raids among the neighbouring villages. It was ill sleeping
around Toulon when the Corsair press-gangs were abroad. And to feed
and pay these rapacious allies was a task that went near to ruining
the finances of France.
The French were not satisfied of the Corsair's fidelity, and it must
be added that the Emperor might have had some reason to doubt the
honesty of Doria. The two greatest admirals of the age were both in
the Western Mediterranean, but nothing could tempt them to come to
blows. The truth was that each had a great reputation to lose, and
each preferred to go to his grave with all his fame undimmed. Francis
I. had a suspicion that Barbarossa was meditating the surrender of
Toulon to the Emperor, and, improbable as it was, some colour was
given to the King's anxiety by the amicable relations which seemed to
subsist between the Genoese Corsair and his Barbary rival. Doria gave
up the captive Dragut to his old captain for a ransom of three
thousand gold crowns--a transaction on which he afterwards looked back
with unqualified regret. The situation was growing daily more
unpleasant for France. From his easy position in Toulon, Barbarossa
sent forth squadrons under Sālih Reïs and other commanders to lay
waste the coasts of Spain, while he remained "lazily engaged in
emptying the coffers of the French king."
At last they got rid of him. Francis was compelled to furnish the pay
and rations of the whole crews and troops of the Ottoman fleet up to
their re-entry into the Bosphorus; he had to free four hundred
Mohammedan galley slaves and deliver them to Barbarossa; he loaded him
with jewellery, silks, and other presents; the Corsair departed in a
Corsair's style, weighed down with spoil. His homeward voyage was one
long harrying of the Italian coasts; his galley sailed low with human
freight; and his arrival at Constantinople was the signal for the
filling of all the harems of the great pashas with beautiful captives.
Barbarossa, laden with such gifts, was sure of his welcome.
Two years later he died, in July, 1546, an old man of perhaps near
ninety, yet without surviving his great fame. "Valorous yet prudent,
furious in attack, foreseeing in preparation," he ranks as the first
sea captain of his time. "The chief of the sea is dead," expressed in
three Arabic words, gives the numerical value 953, the year of the
Hijra in which Kheyr-ed-dīn Barbarossa died.
Long afterwards no Turkish fleet left the Golden Horn without her crew
repeating a prayer and firing a salute over the tomb at Beshiktash,
where lie the bones of the first great Turkish admiral.
FOOTNOTE:
[37] See S. Lane-Poole, _The Speeches and Tabletalk of the Prophet
Mohammad_, 168.
XI.
CHARLES AT ALGIERS.
1541.
When Barbarossa left Algiers for ever in 1535 to become the High
Admiral of the Ottoman Empire, the Corsairs lost indeed their chief;
but so many of his captains remained behind that the game of sea
roving went on as merrily as ever. Indeed so fierce and ruthless were
their depredations that the people of Italy and Spain and the islands
began to regret the attentions of so gentlemanly a robber as
Barbarossa. His successor or viceroy at Algiers was a Sardinian
renegade, Hasan the Eunuch; but the chief commanders at sea were
Dragut, Sālih Reïs, Sinān, and the rest, who, when not called to
join the Captain Pasha's fleet, pursued the art of piracy from the
Barbary coast. Dragut (properly Torghūd) worked measureless
mischief in the Archipelago and Adriatic, seized Venetian galleys and
laid waste the shores of Italy, till he was caught by Giannettino
Doria, nephew of the great admiral, while unsuspectingly engaged in
dividing his spoils on the Sardinian coast (1540). Incensed to find
his vast empire perpetually harassed by foes so lawless and in
numbers so puny, Charles the Emperor resolved to put down the
Corsairs' trade once and for ever. He had subdued Tunis in 1535, but
piracy still went on. Now he would grapple the head and front of the
offence, and conquer Algiers.
He had no fears of the result; the Corsair city would fall at the mere
sight of his immense flotilla; and in this vainglorious assurance he
set out in October, 1541. He even took Spanish ladies on board to view
his triumph. The season for a descent on the African coast was over,
and every one knew that the chance of effecting anything before the
winter storms should guard the coast from any floating enemy was more
than doubtful; but "the Spaniards commonly move with gravity"; and
besides, Charles had been delayed during a busy summer by his troubles
in Germany and Flanders, and could not get away before.
Now at last he was free; and, in spite of the earnest remonstrances of
Doria and the entreaties of the Pope, to Algiers he would go.
Everything had long been prepared--a month, he believed, at the
outside would finish the matter--in short, go he would. At Spezzia he
embarked on Doria's flagship; the Duke of Alva, of sanguinary memory,
commanded the troops, many of whom had been brought by the Emperor
himself from the German highlands. Ill-luck attended them from the
outset: a storm, no unusual phenomenon with November coming on, drove
the ships back into shelter at Corsica. At length the seas subsided,
and the fleet, picking up allies as it went along, cautiously hugged
the land as far as Minorca, where the mistral, the terror of seamen,
rushed down upon the huge armada--masts strained, yards cracked, sails
were torn to rags, and there was nothing for it but to row--row for
their lives and for Charles. They were but seven miles from Port
Mahon, yet it took half the night to win there--an endless night which
the panting crews never forgot.
In the bay of Palma, at Majorca, the fleet was assembled. There were
the Emperor's hundred sailing vessels carrying the German and Italian
troops, commanded by such historic names as Colonna and Spinosa; there
were Fernando Gonzago's Sicilian galleys, and a hundred and fifty
transports from Naples and Palermo; there were the fifty galleys of
Bernadino de Mendoza, conveying two hundred transports with the arms
and artillery, and carrying the corps of gentlemen adventurers,
mustered from the chivalry of Spain, and including one only who had
climbed up from the ranks--but that one was Cortes, the conqueror of
Mexico. Over five hundred sail, manned by twelve thousand men, and
carrying a land force of twenty-four thousand soldiers, entered the
roads of Algiers on October 19, 1541.
[Illustration: SIEGE OF ALGIERS, 1541.
(_From a map in the British Museum._)]
At last the great Emperor set eyes upon the metropolis of piracy. On
the rocky promontory which forms the western crest of the crescent
bay, high up the amphitheatre of hills, tier upon tier, in their
narrow overshadowed lanes, the houses of the Corsairs basked in the
autumn sun, crowned by the fortress which had known the imperious
rule of two Barbarossas. On the right was the mole which Spanish
slaves had built out of the ruins of the Spanish fort. Two gates
fronted the south and north, the Bab Azūn and Bab-el-Wēd.
Avoiding the promontory of Cashina, the galleys, with furled sails,
drew up before the low strand, backed by stretches of luxuriant
verdure, south of the city, and out of range, at the spot which is
still called the "Jardin d'essai." A heavy swell prevented their
landing for three days, but on the 23rd, in beautiful weather, the
troops disembarked. The Berbers and Arabs, who had lined the shore and
defied the invaders, hastily retired before the guns of the galleys,
and the Spaniards landed unopposed. The next day they began the march
to the city some few miles off. The Spaniards formed the left wing on
the hill side; the Emperor and the Duke of Alva with the German troops
composed the centre; the Italians and one hundred and fifty knights of
Malta marched on the right by the seashore. Driving back the
straggling bands of mounted Arabs, who ambushed among the rocks and
ravines, and picked off many of the Christians, the invaders pushed
steadily on, till Algiers was invested on all sides save the north.
Its fate appeared sealed. A brief bombardment from Charles's heavy
cannon, and the Spaniards would rush the breach and storm the citadel.
Hasan Aga, within, with only eight hundred Turks, and perhaps five
thousand Arabs and Moors, must almost have regretted the proud reply
he had just made to the Emperor's summons to surrender.
Then, when the end seemed close at hand, the forces of Nature came to
the rescue. The stars in their courses fought for Algiers: the rains
descended and the winds blew and beat upon that army, till the
wretched soldiers, with neither tents nor cloaks, with barely
food--for the landing of the stores had hardly begun--standing all
night knee-deep in slush in that pinguid soil, soaked to the skin,
frozen by the driving rain and bitter wind, were ready to drop with
exhaustion and misery. When morning dawned they could scarcely bear up
against the blustering gale; their powder was wet; and a sudden sally
of the Turks spread a panic in the sodden ranks which needed all the
courage and coolness of the Knights of Malta to compose. At last the
enemy was driven out of the trenches and pursued, skirmishing all the
way, to the Bab Azūn. It looked as though pursuers and pursued
would enter together; but the gate was instantly shut, and a daring
Knight of Malta had barely struck his dagger in the gate to defy the
garrison, when the Christians found themselves under so heavy a fire
from the battlements, that they were forced to beat a retreat: the
Knights of Malta, last of all, their scarlet doublets shining like a
fresh wound, and their faces to the foe, covered the retreat.
Hasan then led out his best horsemen from the gate, and driving their
heels into their horses' flanks, the cloud of Moslems poured down the
hill. The Knights of Malta bore the shock with their iron firmness,
though they lost heavily. The Italians ran for their lives. The
Germans whom Charles hurriedly despatched to the rescue came back at
the double without drawing a sword. The Emperor himself put on his
armour, spurred his charger into the midst of the fugitives, sword in
hand, and with vehement reproaches succeeded in shaming them into
fight. "Come, gentlemen," then said he to the nobles around,
"forwards!" And thus he led his dispirited troops once more to the
field; this time the panic alarm of the rank and file was controlled
and banished by the cool courage of the cavaliers, and the Turks were
driven back into the town. The skirmish had cost him three hundred men
and a dozen Knights of Malta. All that day the Emperor and his
officers, great signiors all, stood at arms in the pouring rain, with
the water oozing from their boots, vigilantly alert.
Had Charles now run his ships ashore at all hazard, and dragged up his
heavy siege train and stores and tents and ammunition, all might yet
have been won. But several precious days were wasted, and on the
morning of the 25th such a storm sprang up as mortal mariner rarely
encountered even off such a coast--a violent north-easterly
hurricane--still known in Algiers as "Charles's gale"--such as few
vessels cared to ride off a lee shore. The immense flotilla in the bay
was within an ace of total destruction. Anchors and cables were
powerless to hold the crowded, jostling ships. One after the other
they broke loose, and keeled over to the tempest till their decks were
drowned in the seas. Planks gaped; broadside to broadside the helpless
hulks crashed together. Many of the crews threw themselves madly on
shore. In six hours one hundred and fifty ships sank. The rowers of
the galleys, worn out with toiling at the oar, at last succumbed, and
fifteen of the vessels ran on shore, only to be received by the
Berbers of the hills, who ran their spears through the miserable
shipwrecked sailors as soon as they gained the land.
The worst day must come to an end: on the morrow the storm was over,
and Doria, who had succeeded in taking the greater part of the fleet
out to sea, came back to see what new folly was in hand. He was
indignant with the Emperor for having rejected his advice and so led
the fleet and army into such peril; he was disgusted with his
captains, who had completely lost their coolness in the hurricane, and
wanted to run their vessels ashore, with the certainty of wreck,
sooner than ride out the storm--and yet called themselves sailors!
He found Charles fully aware of the necessity for a temporary retreat,
till the army should be revictualled and reclothed. The camp was
struck: the Emperor himself watched the operation, standing at the
door of his tent in a long white cassock, murmuring quietly the
Christian's consolation: "Thy will be done"--_Fiat voluntas Tua!_
Baggage and ordnance were abandoned; the horses of the field artillery
were devoured by the hungry troops; and then the march began.
To retreat at all is humiliation, but to retreat as this luckless army
did was agony. Deep mud clogged their weary feet; when a halt was
called they could but rest on their halberts, to lie down was to be
suffocated in filth; mountain torrents swollen breast-high had to be
crossed, the wading men were washed away till they built a rude
bridge--O crowning humiliation!--out of the wreckage of their own
ships. Hasan and a multitude of Turks and Arabs hung forever on their
flanks. The dejected Italians, who had no stomach for this sort of
work, fell often into the hands of the pursuers; the Germans, who
could do nothing without their customary internal stuffing, were mere
_impedimenta_; and only the lean Spaniard covered the retreat with
something of his natural courage.
At last the dejected army reached the Bay of Temendefust (Matifoux),
where the remains of the fleet were lying at anchor. It was resolved,
in view of the approach of winter and the impossibility of sending
supplies to an army in stormy weather, to reëmbark. Cortes in vain
protested: the council of war agreed that it was too late in the year
to attempt retaliation. Then a new difficulty arose: how was room to
be found in a flotilla, which had lost nearly a third of its ships,
for an army which was but a couple of thousand less than when it
landed? Regretfully Charles gave orders for the horses to be cast into
the sea, and, despite their masters' entreaties, favourite chargers of
priceless value were slaughtered and thrown overboard. The famous
breed of Spanish horses was well-nigh ruined. It was but one tragedy
more. On the 2nd of November most of the troops were on board. Charles
resolved to be the last to leave the strand; but the wind was getting
up, the sea rising, and at last he gave the order to weigh anchor.
Often is the story told in Algiers how the great Emperor, who would
fain hold Europe in the palm of his hand, sadly took the crown from
off his head and casting it into the sea said, "Go, bauble: let some
more fortunate prince redeem and wear thee."
He did not sail a moment too soon. A new and terrific storm burst
forth. The ships were driven hither and thither. Where the tempest
drove them, there they helplessly wandered, and many men died from
famine and exposure. Some of the Spanish vessels were wrecked at
Algiers, and their crews and troops were sent to the bagnios. Charles
himself and Doria arrived safely at Bujēya--then a Spanish
outpost--with part of the flotilla. Here the unexpected visitors soon
caused a famine--and still the tempest raged. The half-starved rovers
in vain tried to make head against the waves, and carry the Emperor
back to Spain: eighty miles out they gave in, and the ships returned
disconsolately to the harbour. Twelve days and nights the storm
bellowed along the treacherous coast, and not till November 23rd could
the Imperial fleet set sail for the coast of Spain.
There was mourning in Castile that Yuletide. Besides eight thousand
rank and file, three hundred officers of birth had fallen victims to
the storm or the Moorish lance. Algiers teemed with Christian
captives, and it became a common saying that a Christian slave was
scarce a fair barter for an onion.
So ended this famous expedition. It was begun in glory, and ended in
shame. The whole of Christendom, one might say--for there were English
knights there, like Sir Thomas Challoner, as well as Germans,
Frenchmen, Spaniards, and Italians in the army--had gone forth to
destroy a nest of pirates, and behold, by the fury of the elements and
the foolishness of their own counsels, they were almost destroyed
themselves. They had left behind them ships and men and stores and
cannon: worse, they had left Algiers stronger and more defiant than
ever.
The Algerines, for their part, never forgot the valour of the Knights
of Malta, and the spot where they made their stand is still called
"The Grave of the Knights." High up on the hillside may be seen "the
Emperor's Castle," which marks the traditional place where Charles'
great pavilion was pitched on the morning of the fatal 23rd of
October.
"The climate of Africa"--it is the caustic comment of Admiral Jurien
de la Gravière--"was evidently unsuited to deeds of chivalry."
XII.
DRAGUT REÏS.
1543-1560.
The name of Dragut has already occurred more than once in this
history: it was destined to become as notorious as Barbarossa's as the
century advanced. Dragut--or Torghūd--was born on the Caramanian
coast opposite the island of Rhodes. Unlike many of his colleagues he
seems to have been the son of Mohammedan parents, tillers of the
earth. Being adventurous by nature, he took service as a boy in the
Turkish fleet and became "a good pilot and a most excellent gunner."
At last he contrived to purchase and man a galleot, with which he
cruised the waters of the Levant, where his intimate acquaintance with
all the coasts and islands enabled him to seize and dispose of many
prizes. Kheyr-ed-dīn Barbarossa soon came to hear of his exploits,
and welcomed him heartily when he came to pay his respects at Algiers,
in so far that he gave him the conduct of various expeditions and
eventually appointed him his lieutenant with the command of twelve
galleys. "From thenceforward this redoubtable Corsair passed not one
summer without ravaging the coasts of Naples and Sicily: nor durst
any Christian vessels attempt to pass between Spain and Italy; for if
they offered it, he infallibly snapped them up: and when he missed any
of his prey at sea, he made himself amends by making descents along
the coasts, plundering villages and towns, and dragging away
multitudes of inhabitants into captivity."[38]
[Illustration: CASTLE OF JERBA.
(_Elisée Reclus._)]
In 1540, as we have seen, Dragut was caught by Giannettino Doria, who
made him a present to his great kinsman Andrea, on whose galleys he
was forced to toil in chains. La Valette, afterwards Grand Master of
Malta, who had once pulled the captive's oar on Barbarossa's ships and
knew Dragut well, one day saw the ex-Corsair straining on the galley
bank: "Señor Dragut," said he, "_usanza de guerra!_--'tis the custom
of war!" And the prisoner, remembering his visitor's former
apprenticeship, replied cheerfully, "_Y mudanza de fortuna_--a change
of luck!" He did not lose heart, and in 1543 Barbarossa ransomed him
for 3000 crowns,[39] and made him chief of the galleys of the western
Corsairs. Imprisonment had sharpened his appetite for Christians, and
he harried the Italian coasts with more than his ancient zeal.
Surrounded by bold spirits and commanding a fleet of his own, Dragut
had the Mediterranean in his grasp, and even ventured to seize the
most dreaded of all foes, a Maltese galley, wherein he found 70,000
ducats intended for the repair of the fortifications of Tripoli, which
then belonged to "the Religion." As the Turkish annalist says,
"Torghūd had become the drawn sword of Islam."
Dragut's lair was at the island of Jerba, which tradition links with
the lotus-eaters, perhaps because of the luxuriant fertility of the
soil. The people of Jerba, despite their simple agricultural pursuits,
were impatient of control, and, as often as not, were independent of
the neighbouring kingdom of Tunis or any other state. Here, with or
without their leave, Dragut took up his position, probably in the very
castle which Roger Doria, when lord of the island, began to build in
1289; and from out the wide lake at the back the Corsair's galleots
issued to ravage the lands which were under the protection of Roger
Doria's descendants. Not content with the rich spoils of Europe,
Dragut took the Spanish outposts in Africa, one by one--Susa, Sfax,
Monastir; and finally set forth to conquer "Africa."
[Illustration: SIEGE OF "AFRICA," 1390.
(_From a MS._)]
It is not uncommon in Arabic to call a country and its capital by the
same name. Thus Misr meant and still means both Egypt and Cairo;
El-Andalus, both Spain and Cordova. Similarly "Africa" meant to the
Arabs the province of Carthage or Tunis and its capital, which was not
at first Tunis but successively Kayrawān and Mahdīya. Throughout
the later middle ages the name "Africa" is applied by Christian
writers to the latter city. Here it was that in 1390 a "grand and
noble enterprize" came to an untimely end. "The Genoese," says
Froissart, "bore great enmity to this town; for its Corsairs
frequently watched them at sea, and when strongest fell on and
plundered their ships, carrying their spoils to this town of
Africa, which was and is now their place of deposit and may be called
their warren." It was "beyond measure strong, surrounded by high
walls, gates, and deep ditches." The chivalry of Christendom hearkened
to the prayer of the Genoese and the people of Majorca and Sardinia
and Ischia, and the many islands that groaned beneath the Corsairs'
devastations; the Duke of Bourbon took command of an expedition (at
the cost of the Genoese) which included names as famous as the Count
d'Auvergne, the Lord de Courcy, Sir John de Vienne, the Count of Eu,
and our own Henry of Beaufort; and on St. John Baptist's Day, with
much pomp, with flying banners and the blowing of trumpets, they
sailed on three hundred galleys for Barbary. Arrived before Africa,
not without the hindrance of a storm, they beheld the city in the form
of a bow, reaching out its arms to the sea; high were its ramparts;
and a colossal tower, armed with stone-projectiles, guarded the
harbour. Nevertheless the Knights landed in good heart, after a cup of
Grecian or Malmsey wine, on the Vigil of Magdalen Day (July 22nd),
unopposed, and each great lord set up his pennon before his tent over
against the fortress, with the Genoese crossbows on the right. Here
they remained nine weeks. The Saracens never offered battle, but
harassed the enemy with their skirmishers, who fired their arrows,
then dropped down behind their targets of Cappadocian leather to avoid
the enemy's return volley; then, rising again, cast their javelins
with deadly aim. What was to be done? The Duke of Bourbon spent his
time in sitting crosslegged before his tent; the nobles and knights
had plenty of excellent wine and food; but it was very hot and
uncomfortable--the assault had failed--many had died--the Genoese
wanted to get their galleys back safe in port before the autumn gales
came on; so they packed up their baggage, and re-embarked, blowing
their horns and beating their drums for very joy.[40]
[Illustration: GREEK FIRE.
(_From a MS._)]
[Illustration: MEDIEVAL FIREARMS.
(_From a MS._)]
[Illustration: MEDIEVAL PROJECTILES.
(_From a MS._)]
This was the city which Dragut took without a blow in the spring of
1550. Mahdīya was then in an anarchic state, ruled by a council of
chiefs, each ready to betray the other, and none owing the smallest
allegiance to any king, least of all the despised king of Tunis,
Hamīd, who had deposed and blinded his father Hasan, Charles V.'s
_protégé_. One of these chiefs let Dragut and his merry men into the
city by night, and the inhabitants woke up to find "Africa" in the
possession of the bold Corsair whose red and white ensign, displaying
a blue crescent, floated from the battlements.
So easy a triumph roused the emulation of Christendom. Where the Duke
of Bourbon had failed, Dragut had conspicuously succeeded. Don Garcia
de Toledo dreamed of outshining the Corsair's glory. His father, the
Viceroy of Naples, the Pope, and others, promised their aid, and old
Andrea Doria took the command. After much delay and consultation a
large body of troops was conveyed to Mahdīya, and disembarked on
June 28, 1550. Dragut, though aware of the project, was at sea,
devastating the Gulf of Genoa, and paying himself in advance for any
loss the Christians might inflict in Africa: his nephew, Hisār Reïs
commanded in the city. When Dragut returned, the siege had gone on for
a month, without result; a tremendous assault had been repulsed with
heavy loss to the besiegers, who were growing disheartened. The
Corsair assembled a body of Moors and Turks and attempted to relieve
the fortress; but his ambuscade failed, Hisār's simultaneous sally
was driven back, and Dragut, seeing that he could do nothing, fled to
Jerba. His retreat gave fresh energy to the siege, and a change of
attack discovered the weak places of the defence. A vigorous assault
on the 8th of September carried the walls, a brisk street fight
ensued, and the strong city of "Africa" was in the hands of the
Christians.
The Sultan, Suleymān the Great, was little pleased to see a Moslem
fortress summarily stormed by the troops of his ally, the Emperor.
Charles replied that he had fought against pirates, not against the
Sultan's vassals; but Suleymān could not perceive the distinction,
and emphasized his disapproval by giving Dragut twenty galleys, which
soon found their way to Christian shores. The lamentations of his
victims roused Doria, who had the good fortune to surprise the Corsair
as he was greasing his keels in the strait behind Jerba. This strait
was virtually a _cul-de-sac_. Between the island and the great lake
that lay behind it, the sea had worn a narrow channel on the northern
side, through which light vessels could pass, with care; but to go out
of the lake by the southern side involved a voyage over what was
little better than a bog, and no one ever thought of the attempt.
Doria saw he had his enemy in a trap, and was in no hurry to venture
in among the shoals and narrows of the strait. He sent joyous messages
to Europe, announcing his triumph, and cautiously, as was his habit,
awaited events.
Dragut, for his part, dared not push out against a vastly superior
force; his only chance was a ruse. Accordingly, putting a bold face on
the matter, he manned a small earthwork with cannon, and played upon
the enemy, with little or no actual injury, beyond the all-important
effect of making Doria hesitate still more. Meanwhile, in the night,
while his little battery is perplexing the foe, all is prepared at the
southern extremity of the strait. Summoning a couple of thousand field
labourers, he sets them to work; here a small canal is dug--there
rollers come into play; and in a few hours his small fleet is safely
transported to the open water on the south side of the island. Calling
off his men from the illusive battery, the Corsair is off for the
Archipelago: by good luck he picks up a fine galley on the way, which
was conveying news of the reinforcements coming to Doria. The old
Genoese admiral never gets the message: he is rubbing his eyes in sore
amazement, wondering what had happened to the imprisoned fleet. Never
was admiral more cruelly cheated: never did Doria curse the nimble
Corsair with greater vehemence or better cause.
Next year, 1551, Dragut's place was with the Ottoman navy, then
commanded by Sinān Pasha. He had had enough of solitary roving,
and found it almost too exciting: he now preferred to hunt in couples.
With nearly a hundred and fifty galleys or galleots, ten thousand
soldiers, and numerous siege guns, Sinān and Dragut sailed out of
the Dardanelles--whither bound no Christian could tell. They ravaged,
as usual, the Straits of Messina, and then revealed the point of
attack by making direct for Malta. The Knights of St. John were a
perpetual thorn in the side of the Turks, and even more vexatious to
the Corsairs, whose vessels they, and they alone, dared to tackle
single-handed, and too often with success. Sultan and Corsair were
alike eager to dislodge the Knights from the rock which they had been
fortifying for twenty years, just as Suleymān had dislodged them
from Rhodes, which they had been fortifying for two hundred. In July
the Turkish fleet appeared before the Marsa, wholly unexpected by the
Knights. The Turks landed on the tongue of promontory which separates
the two great harbours, and where there was as yet no Fort St. Elmo to
molest them. Sinān was taken aback by the strong aspect of the
fortress of St. Angelo on the further side of the harbour, and almost
repented of his venture. To complete his dejection, he seems to have
courted failure. Instead of boldly throwing his whole force upon the
small garrison and overwhelming them by sheer weight, he tried a
reconnaissance, and fell into an ambuscade; upon which he
incontinently abandoned all thought of a siege, and contented himself
with laying waste the interior of Malta, and taking the adjacent
island of Goza.
The quantity of booty he would bring back to Constantinople might
perhaps avail, he thought, to keep his head on his shoulders, after so
conspicuous a failure; but Sinān preferred not to trust to the
chance. To wipe out his defeat, he sailed straight for Tripoli, some
sixty-four leagues away. Tripoli was the natural antidote to Malta:
for Tripoli, too, belonged to the Knights of St. John--much against
their will--inasmuch as the Emperor had made their defence of this
easternmost Barbary state a condition of their tenure of Malta. So far
they had been unable to put it into a proper state of defence, and
with crumbling battlements and a weak garrison, they had yearly
expected invasion. The hour had now come. Summoned to surrender, the
Commandant, Gaspard de Villiers, of the Auvergne Tongue, replied that
the city had been entrusted to his charge, and he would defend it to
the death. He had but four hundred men to hold the fort withal.
Six thousand Turks disembarked, forty cannons were landed, Sinān
himself directed every movement, and arranged his batteries and
earthworks. A heavy cannonade produced no effect on the walls, and the
Turkish admiral thought of the recent repulse at Malta, and of the
stern face of his master; and his head sat uneasily upon his neck. The
siege appeared to make no progress. Perhaps this venture, too, would
have failed, but for the treachery of a French renegade, who escaped
into the trenches and pointed out the weak places in the walls. His
counsel was taken; the walls fell down; the garrison, in weariness and
despair, had lain down to sleep off their troubles, and no reproaches
and blows could rouse them. On August 15th Gaspard de Villiers was
forced to surrender, on terms, as he believed, identical with those
which Suleymān granted to the Knights of Rhodes.[41] But Sinān
was no Suleymān; moreover, he was in a furious rage with the whole
Order. He put the garrison--all save a few--in chains, and carried
them off to grace his triumph at Stambol.
Thus did Tripoli fall once more into the hands of the Moslems,
forty-one years after its conquest by the Count Don Pedro Navarro.[42]
The misfortunes of the Christians did not end here. Year after year
the Ottoman fleet appeared in Italian waters, marshalled now by
Sinān, and when he died by Piāli Pasha the Croat, but always
with Dragut in the van; year by year the coasts of Apulia and Calabria
yielded up more and more of their treasure, their youth, and their
beauty, to the Moslem ravishers; yet worse was in store. Unable as
they felt themselves to cope with the Turks at sea, the Powers of
Southern Europe resolved to strike one more blow on land, and recover
Tripoli. A fleet of nearly a hundred galleys and ships, gathered from
Spain, Genoa, "the Religion," the Pope, from all quarters, with the
Duke de Medina-Celi at the head, assembled at Messina. Doria was too
old to command, but his kinsman, Giovanni Andrea, son of his loved and
lost Giannettino, led the Genoese galleys. The Fates seemed adverse
from the outset. Five times the expedition put to sea; five times was
it driven back by contrary winds.[43] At last, on February 10, 1560,
it was fairly away for the African coast. Here fresh troubles awaited
it. Long delays in crowded vessels had produced their disastrous
effects: fevers and scurvy and dysentery were working their terrible
ravages among the crews, and two thousand corpses were flung into the
sea. It was impossible to lay siege to Tripoli with a diseased army,
and when actually in sight of their object the admirals gave orders to
return to Jerba.
A sudden descent quickly gave them the command of the beautiful
island. The Arab sheykh whose people cultivated it was as ready to pay
tribute to the Spaniard as to the Corsair. Medina-Celi and his troops
accordingly set to work undisturbed at the erection of a fortress
strong enough to baffle the besieging genius even of the Turks. In two
months a strong castle was built, with all scientific earthworks, and
the admiral prepared to carry home such troops as were not needed for
its defence.
Unhappily for him, he had lingered too long. He had wished to see the
defences complete, and had trusted to the usual practice of the Turks,
not to put to sea before May was advanced. He was about to prepare for
departure when news came that the Turkish fleet had been seen at Goza.
Instantly all was panic. Valiant gentlemen forgot their valour, forgot
their coolness, forgot how strong a force by sea or land they
mustered: one thought alone was uppermost--the Turks were upon them!
Giovanni Doria hurried on board and embarked his Genoese; Medina-Celi
more methodically and with something like _sang froid_ personally
supervised the embarcation of his men; but before they could make out
of the strait, where Dragut had so narrowly escaped capture, the dread
Corsair himself, and Ochiali, and Piāli Pasha were upon them. Then
ensued a scene of confusion that baffles description. Despairing of
weathering the north side of Jerba the panic-stricken Christians ran
their ships ashore, and deserted them, never stopping even to set them
on fire. The deep-draught galleons stuck fast in the shallow water. On
rowed the Turks; galleys and galleons to the number of fifty-six fell
into their hands; eighteen thousand Christians bowed down before their
scimitars; the beach, on that memorable 11th of May, 1560, was a
confused medley of stranded ships, helpless prisoners, Turks busy in
looting men and galleys--and a hideous heap of mangled bodies. The
fleet and the army which had sailed from Messina but three months ago
in such gallant array were absolutely lost. It was a _dies nefas_ for
Christendom.
Medina-Celi and young Doria made good their escape by night. But when
the old Genoese admiral learnt the terrible news, the loss of the
fleet he loved, the defeat of the nephew he loved yet more, his dim
eyes were wet. "Take me to the church," he said; and he soon received
the last consolations of religion. Long as he had lived, and many as
had been the vicissitudes of his great career, he had willingly been
spared this last most miserable experience. On November 25, 1560, he
gave up the ghost: he was a great seaman, but still more a passionate
lover of his country;--despotic in his love, but not the less a noble
Genoese patriot.
FOOTNOTES:
[38] Morgan, _Hist. of Algiers_, 439.
[39] Brantôme, _Hommes illustres étrangers_. Œuvres, i. 279.
[40] Froissart's _Chron._, transl. T. Johnes (1844) ii. 446, 465, ff.
[41] See the _Story of Turkey_, 170.
[42] See Jurien de la Gravière, _Les Corsaires Barbaresques_, 193-215.
[43] _Les Corsaires Barbaresques_, 266.
XIII.
THE KNIGHTS OF MALTA.
1565.
When Sultan Suleymān reflected on the magnanimity which he had
displayed towards the Knights of Rhodes in allowing them to depart in
peace in 1522, his feelings must have resembled those of Doria when he
thought of that inconsiderate release of Dragut in 1543. Assuredly the
royal clemency had been ill-rewarded; the Knights had displayed a
singular form of gratitude to the sparer of their lives; they had
devoted themselves to him, indeed, but devoted themselves to his
destruction. The cavaliers whom Charles V. suffered to perch on the
glaring white rock of Malta, in 1530, proved in no long time to be a
pest as virulent and all-pervading as even Rhodes had harboured. Seven
galleys they owned, and never more, but the seven were royal vessels,
splendidly armed and equipped, and each a match for two or three
Turkish ships.[44] Every year they cruised from Sicily to the Levant,
and many a prize laden with precious store they carried off to Malta.
The commerce of Egypt and Syria was in danger of annihilation; the
Barbary Corsairs, even Dragut himself, shunned a meeting with the red
galleys of "the Religion," or their black _capitana_; and the Turkish
fleet, while holding undisputed sway over the Mediterranean, was not
nimble enough to surprise the Maltese squadron in its rapid and
incalculable expeditions. Jean de la Valette Parisot, General of the
Galleys and afterwards Grand Master, Francis of Lorraine, Grand Prior
of France, Romegas, prince of knights-errant, scoured the seas in
search of prey:--they were as true pirates as ever weathered the
"white squall." The Knights lived by plunder as much as any Corsair;
but they tempered their freebooting with chivalry and devotions; they
were the protectors of the helpless and afflicted, and they preyed
chiefly upon the enemies of the Faith.
Meanwhile they built and built; Fort St. Elmo rose on the central
promontory, Forts St. Michael and St. Angelo were strengthened;
bastions were skilfully planned, flanking angles devised, ravelins and
cavaliers erected, ditches deepened, parapets raised, embrasures
opened, and every device of sixteenth-century fortification as
practised by Master Evangelista, chief engineer of the Order, was
brought into use. For the Knights knew that Suleymān lived and was
mightier than ever. Their cruisers had wrought sad havoc among his
subjects, and the Sultan would not long suffer the hornets of Rhodes
to swarm at Malta. They lived in constant expectation of attack, and
they spent all their strength and all their money in preparing for
the day of the Sultan's revenge. At last the time came: Suleymān
swore in his wrath that the miscreants should no longer defy him; he
had suffered them to leave Rhodes as gentlemen of honour--he would
consume them in Malta as one burns a nest of wasps.
At the time of the siege of 1565 the city or fortress of Malta was
situated, not as Valetta now stands on the west, but on the east side
of the Marsa or great harbour. To understand even the briefest
narrative of one of the most heroic deeds of war that the world has
seen, the position of the forts must be understood. (See the Plan.) On
the northern coast of the rocky island a bold promontory or rugged
tongue of land, Mount Sceberras, separates two deep bights or inlets.
The eastern of these was called Marsa Muset, or "Middle Port," but was
unoccupied and without defences at the time of the siege, except that
the guns of St. Elmo, the fortress at the point of the Sceberras
promontory, commanded its mouth. The Marsa Kebir, or simply La Marsa,
the "Great Port," was the chief stronghold of the Knights. Here four
projecting spits of rock formed smaller harbours on the western side.
The outermost promontory, the Pointe des Fourches, separated the Port
de la Renelle or La Arenela, from the open sea; Cape Salvador divided
the Arenela from the English Harbour; the Burg, the main fortress and
capital of the place, with Fort St. Angelo at its point, shot out
between the English Harbour and the Harbour of the Galleys; and the
Isle of La Sangle, joined by a sandy isthmus to the mainland, and
crowned by Fort St. Michael, severed the Galley Harbour from that of
La Sangle. All round these inlets high hills dominated the ports.
Behind Fort St. Elmo, the Sceberras climbed steeply to a considerable
height. Behind the Arenela and English Harbour rose Mount Salvador,
Calcara, and further back the Heights of St. Catherine. The Burg and
Fort St. Michael were overtopped by the Heights of St. Margaret,
whilst the Conradin plateau looked down upon the head of the Marsa and
the Harbour of La Sangle. To modern artillery and engineering the
siege would have been easy, despite the rocky hardness of the ground,
since the Knights had not had time to construct those field-works upon
the surrounding heights which were essential to the safety of the
forts. Even to the skilled but undeveloped artillery of the Turks, the
destruction of Malta ought not to have been either a difficult or
lengthy operation, had they begun at the right place.
To those who were acquainted with the ground, who had heard of the
siege of Rhodes, and knew that the Turks were not less but more
formidable in 1565 than in 1522, the issue of the struggle must have
appeared inevitable, when the huge Ottoman fleet hove in view on the
18th of May, 1565. One hundred and eighty vessels, of which two-thirds
were galleys-royal, carried more than thirty thousand fighting
men--the pick of the Ottoman army, tried Janissaries and Sipāhis,
horsemen from Thrace, rough warriors from the mountains of Anatolia,
eager volunteers from all parts of the Sultan's dominions. Mustafa
Pasha who had grown old in the wars of his master, commanded on land,
and Piāli was admiral of the fleet. Dragut was to join them
immediately, and the Sultan's order was that nothing should be done
till he arrived.
The Knights had not remained ignorant of the preparations that were
making against them. They sent to all Europe for help, and the Pope
gave money, and Spain promises: the Viceroy of Sicily would send
Spanish reinforcements by the 15th of June. They worked unceasingly at
their defences and did all that men could do to meet the advancing
storm. All told, they mustered but seven hundred Knights, and between
eight and nine thousand mercenaries of various nations, but chiefly
Maltese, who could only be trusted behind walls.
The Order was fortunate in its Grand Master. Jean de la Valette, born
in 1494, a Knight of St. John before he was of age, and a defender of
Rhodes forty-three years ago, though now an old man retained to the
full the courage and generalship which had made his career as
commander of the galleys memorable in the annals of Mediterranean
wars. He had been a captive among the Turks, and knew their languages
and their modes of warfare; and his sufferings had increased his
hatred of the Infidel. A tall, handsome man, with an air of calm
resolution, he communicated his iron nerve to all his followers. Cold
and even cruel in his severity, he was yet devoutly religious, and
passionately devoted to his Order and his Faith. A true hero, but of
the reasoning, merciless, bigoted sort: not the generous, reckless
enthusiast who inspires by sympathy and glowing example.
When he knew that the day of trial was at hand, Jean de la Valette
assembled the Order together, and bade them first be reconciled with
God and one another, and then prepare to lay down their lives for the
Faith they had sworn to defend. Before the altar each Knight foreswore
all enmities, renounced all pleasures, buried all ambitions; and
joining together in the sacred fellowship of the Supper of the Lord,
once more dedicated their blood to the service of the Cross.
At the very outset a grave mischance befell the Turks; Dragut was a
fortnight late at the rendezvous. His voice would have enforced
Piāli's advice, to land the entire force and attack the Burg and
St. Michael from the heights behind. Mustafa, the Seraskier, was
determined to reduce the outlying Fort of St. Elmo on the promontory
of Sceberras before attacking the main position, and accordingly
landed his men at his convenience from the Marsa Muset, and laid out
his earthworks on the land side of St. Elmo. He had not long begun
when Ochiali arrived with six galleys from Alexandria, and on June 2nd
came Dragut himself with a score or more galleys of Tripoli and Bona.
Dragut saw at once the mistake that had been made, but saw also that
to abandon the siege of St. Elmo would too greatly elate the Knights:
the work must go on; and on it went with unexampled zeal.
The little fort could hold but a small garrison, but the force was a
_corps d'élite_: De Broglio of Piedmont commanded it with sixty
soldiers, and was supported by Juan de Guaras, bailiff of the
Negropont, a splendid old Knight, followed by sixty more of the
Order, and some Spaniards under Juan de la Cerda:--a few hundred of
men to meet thirty thousand Turks, but men of no common mettle. They
had not long to wait. The fire opened from twenty-one guns on the last
day of May and continued with little intermission till June 23rd. The
besiegers were confident of battering down the little fort in a week
at most, but they did not know their foes. As soon as one wall
crumbled before the cannonade, a new work appeared behind it. The
first assault lasted three hours, and the Turks gained possession of
the ravelin in front of the gate; so furious was the onset that the
defenders sent to the Grand Master to tell him the position was
untenable; they could not stand a second storming party. La Valette
replied that, if so, he would come and withstand it himself: St. Elmo
must be held to keep the Turks back till reinforcements arrived. So of
course they went on. Dragut brought up some of his largest yards and
laid them like a bridge across the fosse, and a tremendous struggle
raged for five terrible hours on Dragut's bridge. Again and again
Mustafa marshalled his Janissaries for the attack, and every time they
were hurled back with deadly slaughter. As many as four thousand Turks
fell in a single assault. St. Elmo was little more than a heap of
ruins, but the garrison still stood undaunted among the heaps of
stones, each man ready to sell his life dearly for the honour of Our
Lady and St. John.
The Turks at last remedied the mistake they had made at the beginning.
They had left the communication between St. Elmo and the harbour
unimpeded, and reinforcements had frequently been introduced into the
besieged fortress from the Burg. On June 17th the line of
circumvallation was pushed to the harbour's edge, and St. Elmo was
completely isolated. Yet this prudent precaution was more than
outweighed by the heavy loss that accompanied its execution: for
Dragut was struck down while directing the engineers, and the surgeons
pronounced the wound mortal. With the cool courage of his nation,
Mustafa cast a cloak over the prostrate form, and stood in Dragut's
place.
Five days later came the final assault. On the eve of June 23rd, after
the cannonade had raged all the forenoon, and a hand-to-hand fight had
lasted till the evening, when two thousand of the enemy and five
hundred of the scanty garrison had fallen, the Knights and their
soldiers prepared for the end. They knew the Grand Master could not
save them, that nothing could avert the inevitable dawn. They took the
Sacrament from each other's hands, and "committing their souls to God
made ready to devote their bodies in the cause of His Blessed Son." It
was a forlorn and sickly remnant of the proudest chivalry the world
has ever known, that met the conquering Turks that June morning: worn
and haggard faces, pale with long vigils and open wounds; tottering
frames that scarce could stand; some even for very weakness seated in
chairs, with drawn swords, within the breach. But weary and sick,
upright or seated, all bore themselves with unflinching courage; in
every set face was read the resolve to die hard.
The ghastly struggle was soon over: the weight of the Turkish column
bore down everything in its furious rush. Knights and soldiers alike
rolled upon the ground, every inch of which they had disputed to the
last drop of their blood. Not a man escaped.
Dragut heard of the fall of St. Elmo as he lay in his tent dying, and
said his Moslem _Nunc Dimittis_ with a thankful heart. He had been
struck at the soldier's post of duty; he died with the shout of
victory ringing in his ears, as every general would wish to die. His
figure stands apart from all the men of his age:--an admiral, the
equal of Barbarossa, the superior of Doria; a general fit to marshal
troops against any of the great leaders of the armies of Charles V.;
he was content with the eager rush of his life, and asked not for
sovereignty or honours. Humane to his prisoners, a gay comrade, an
inspiriting commander, a seaman every inch, Dragut is the most vivid
and original personage among the Corsairs.
St. Elmo had fallen: but St. Angelo and St. Michael stood untouched.
Three hundred Knights of St. John and thirteen hundred soldiers had
indeed fallen in the first, but its capture had closed the lives of
eight thousand Turks. "If the child has cost us so dear," said
Mustafa, "what will the parent cost?" The Turkish general sent a flag
of truce to La Valette, to propose terms of capitulation, but in vain.
Mutual animosity had been worked to a height of indignant passion by a
barbarous massacre of prisoners on both sides, each in view of the
other. The Grand Master's first impulse was to hang the messenger of
such foes: he thought better of it, and showed him the depth of the
ditch that encircled the twin forts: "Let your Janissaries come and
take that," he said, and contemptuously dismissed him.
A new siege now began. The forts on the east of La Marsa had been
sorely drained to fill up the gaps in the garrison at St. Elmo, and it
was fortunate that Don Juan de Cardona had been able to send a
reinforcement, though only of six hundred men, under Melchior de
Robles, to the Old Town, whence they contrived to reach Fort St.
Michael in safety.[45] Even six hundred men added materially to the
difficulties of the siege: for, be it remembered, six hundred men
behind skilfully constructed fortifications may be worth six thousand
in the open. It was very hard for the besiegers to find cover. The
ground was hard rock, and cutting trenches was extremely arduous work,
and the noise of the picks directed the fire of the forts by night
upon the sappers. Nevertheless by July 5th four batteries were playing
upon St. Michael from the heights of St. Margaret and Conradin, while
the guns of Fort St. Elmo opened from the other side; and soon a line
of cannon on Mount Salvador dominated the English Port. An attempt to
bring a flotilla of gun-boats into the Harbour of the Galleys failed,
after a vigorous conflict between a party of Turkish swimmers, who
strove with axes to cut the chain that barred the port, and some
Maltese who swam to oppose them, sword in teeth. The battle in the
water ended in the flight of the Turks.
[Illustration: SKETCH OF THE PORT OF MALTA IN 1565.]
Ten distinct general assaults were delivered with all the fury of
Janissaries against the stronghold. First, a grand assault by sea was
ordered on July 15th. Three columns simultaneously advanced by night
on Fort St. Michael: one landed in the Arenela and marched to attack
the eastern suburb La Bormula; the second came down from the heights
of St. Margaret and made straight for the bastion defended by De
Robles; the third advanced from Conradin on the south-west, and
assaulted the salient angle at the extreme point of the spit of land
on which the fort was built. In vain the Turks swarmed up the
scaling-ladders; company after company was hurled down, a huddled mass
of mangled flesh, and the ladders were cast off. Again the escalade
began:--the Knights rolled huge blocks of masonry on the crowded
throng below; when they got within arms' reach the scimitar was no
match for the long two-handed swords of the Christians. At all three
points after a splendid attack, which called forth all the finest
qualities of the magnificent soldiery of Suleymān the Great, the
Turks were repulsed with terrible loss. The Knights lost some of their
bravest swords, and each one of them fought like a lion: but their
dead were few compared with the unfortunate troops of Barbary, who had
cut off their retreat by dismissing their ships, and were slaughtered
or drowned in the harbour by hundreds. The water was red with their
blood, and mottled with standards and drums and floating robes. Of
prisoners, the Christians spared but two, and these they delivered
over to the mob to be torn in pieces.
After the assault by water came the attack by mines; but the result
was no better, for the Knights were no novices in the art of
countermining, and the attempt to push on after the explosion ended in
rushing into a trap. Mustafa, however, continued to work underground
and ply his heavy artillery, with hardly a pause, upon the two
extremities of the line of landward defences--the Bastion of De
Robles, and the Bastion of Castile: both were in ruins by the 27th of
July, as Sālih Reïs, son of Barbarossa's old comrade, satisfied
himself by a reconnaissance pushed into the very breach. An assault
was ordered for midday of August 2nd, when the Christians were resting
after the toils of the sultry morning. Six thousand Turks advanced in
absolute silence to Melchior de Robles' bastion; they had almost
reached their goal when the shout of the sentry brought that gallant
Knight, readily awakened, to the breach, followed by Muñatones and
three Spanish arquebusiers. These five warriors held twenty-six
Janissaries and Sipāhis in check till reinforcements came; and they
killed fifteen of them. Their valour saved the fort. Four hours longer
the struggle lasted, till neither party could deal another blow in the
raging August sun; and the Turks at last retired with a loss of six
hundred dead.
Nothing daunted, the 7th of August saw them once more scaling the
walls and rushing the breaches of the two bastions, this time with
nearly twenty thousand men. They poured over the ravelin, swarmed up
the breach, and were on the point of carrying the fort. All was nearly
lost, and at that supreme moment even the aged Grand Master, whose
place was to direct, not to imperil his life, came down to the front
of battle, and used his sword and pike like a common soldier. Eight
long hours they fought, six times came fresh reserves to the support
of the Turks; the Christians were exhausted, and had no reserves. One
rush more and the place would be carried.
Just then a body of cavalry was seen riding down from the direction of
the Old Town. The Turks took them to be the long-expected
reinforcements from Sicily. They are seen to fall upon stray parties
of Turks; they must be the advance guard of Philip's army. Piāli in
alarm runs to his galleys; the Turks who had all but carried the
long-contested bastion pause in affright lest they be taken in rear.
In vain Mustafa, in vain the King of Algiers shows them that the
horsemen are but two hundred of the Old Town garrison, with no army at
all behind them. Panic, unreasoning and fatal as ever, seizes upon the
troops: the foothold won after eight hours of furious fighting is
surrendered to a scare; not a Turk stays to finish the victory. The
lives of their two thousand dead need not have been sacrificed.
Still Mustafa did not despair. He knew that the main defences of the
bastions had been destroyed--a few days more, a heavy cannonade, the
explosion of a series of mines which thousands of his sappers were
preparing would, he was certain, ensure the success of a final
assault. The day came, August 20th, and Mustafa himself, in his coat
of inlaid mail and robe of cramoisy, led his army forward; but a
well-directed fire drove him into a trench, whence he emerged not
till night covered his path. When at last he got back, he found his
army in camp; another assault had been repulsed. The next day they
went up again to the fatal embrasures, and this time the failure was
even more signal; repeated repulses were telling on the spirits of the
men, and the veteran Janissaries went to their work with unaccustomed
reluctance. Nevertheless, the trenches, cut in the hard rock,
continued to advance slowly, and the cavalier behind the ravelin was
taken after a severe struggle:--just taken, when La Valette's mines
blew the victorious assailants into the air. On the 30th another
well-planned assault was repelled. One more effort--a last and
desperate attempt--was to be made on the 7th of September; but on the
5th the news arrived that the Spanish army of relief had at length,
after inconceivable delays and hesitations, actually landed on the
island. The worn-out Turks did not wait to reconnoitre, they had borne
enough: a retreat was ordered, the siege was abandoned, the works that
had cost so much labour and blood were deserted, and there was a
general stampede to the galleys. It is true they landed again when
they learnt that the relieving army numbered but six thousand men; but
their strength was departed from them. They tried to fight the
relieving army, and then again they ran for the ships. The Spaniards
cut them down like sheep, and of all that gallant armament scarce five
thousand lived to tell the tale of those terrible three months in
Malta.
No more moving sight can be imagined than the meeting of the new-come
Brethren of the Order and their comrades of St. Michael's Fort. The
worn remnant of the garrison, all told, was scarcely six hundred
strong, and hardly a man was without a wound. The Grand Master and his
few surviving Knights looked like phantoms from another world, so pale
and grisly were they, faint from their wounds, their hair and beard
unkempt, their armour stained, and neglected, as men must look who had
hardly slept without their weapons for more than three memorable
months. As they saw these gaunt heroes the rescuers burst into tears;
strangers clasped hands and wept together with the same overpowering
emotion that mastered relievers and relieved when Havelock and Colin
Campbell led the Highlanders into Lucknow. Never surely had men
deserved more nobly the homage of mankind. In all history there is no
record of such a siege, of such a disproportion in the forces, of such
a glorious outcome. The Knights of Malta live for ever among the
heroes of all time.
FOOTNOTES:
[44] See an excellent account of the galleys and discipline of the
Knights of St. John in Jurien de la Gravière, _les Derniers Jours de la
Marine à Rames_, ch. ix.; and _Les Chevaliers de Malte_, tome i.
[45] Jurien de la Gravière, _Les Chevaliers de Malte et la Marine de
Philippe II._, ii. 71.
XIV.
LEPANTO.
1571.
The failure of the siege of Malta was a sensible rebuff, yet it cannot
be said that it seriously injured the renown of the Turks in the
Mediterranean. They had been resisted on land; they had not yet been
beaten at sea. Nor could they look back on the terrible months of the
siege without some compensating feeling of consolation. They had taken
St. Elmo, and its fall had aroused general jubilation in every Moslem
breast; the Moors of Granada went near to rising against the Spaniards
on the mere report of this triumph of the Turkish arms. Though they
had failed to reduce St. Michael, the cause was to be found, at least
in part, in a false alarm and an unreasoning panic. To be defeated by
such warriors as the Knights of St. John was not a disgrace; like the
Highlanders in the Crimean War, these men were not so much soldiers,
in their opponents' eyes, as veritable devils; and who shall contend
against the legions of the Jinn? Moreover, forced as they were to
abandon the siege, had they not left the island a desert, its people
reduced by half, its fortifications heaps of rubbish, its brave
defenders a handful of invalids?
So reasoned the Turks, and prepared for another campaign. They had
lost many men, but more were ready to take their place; their immense
fleet was uninjured; and though Dragut was no more, Ochiali--as the
Christians called 'Ali _El-Ulūji_ "the Renegade"--the Turks dubbed
him _Fartās_, "Scurvied," from his complaint--was following
successfully in his old master's steps. Born at Castelli (Licastoli)
in Calabria about 1508,[46] Ochiali was to have been a priest, but his
capture by the Turks turned him to the more exciting career of a
Corsair. Soon after the siege of Malta he succeeded Barbarossa's son
Hasan as pasha or Beglerbeg of Algiers (1568), and one of his first
acts was to retake Tunis (all but the Goletta) in the name of Sultan
Selīm II., who, to the unspeakable loss of the Mohammedan world,
had in 1566 succeeded his great father Suleymān. In July, 1570, off
Alicata, on the southern coast of Sicily, Ochiali surrounded four
galleys of "the Religion"--they then possessed but five--and took
three of them, including the flagship, which Saint-Clément, the
general of the galleys, abandoned in order to throw himself and his
treasure on shore at Montichiaro. One galley alone, the _St. Ann_,
made a desperate resistance; the others surrendered. Sixty Knights or
Serving Brothers of the Order were killed or made prisoners on this
disastrous day, and so intense was the indignation in Malta, that the
Grand Master had much ado to save Saint-Clément from being lynched by
the mob, and was obliged to deliver him up to the secular court, which
at once condemned him to death. He was strangled in his cell, and his
body thrown in a sack into the sea. Such a success went far to atone
for Mustafa Pasha's unfortunate siege.
A far more important triumph awaited the Turks in 1570-1:--a siege,
and a conquest. The new Sultan, like his father, saw in the island of
Cyprus a standing affront to his authority in the Levant. Then, as
now, Cyprus was a vital centre in all maritime wars in the Eastern
Mediterranean; a convenient depôt for troops and stores; a watch-tower
whence the movements of the Turkish fleet could be observed; a refuge
for the numberless Christian Corsairs that infested the coast of
Syria. Cyprus belonged to Venice, and on the score of her protection
of piracy the Sultan found no difficulty in picking a quarrel with the
Senate. War was declared, and Piāli Pasha transported a large army
under Lala Mustafa (not the Seraskier who commanded at Malta) to lay
siege to Nicosia, the capital of the island. After forty-eight days,
the city fell, September 9th, and became a shambles. The catastrophe
might have been averted, had the Christian fleet owned a single
competent chief; but unhappily the relief of Cyprus was entrusted to
the least trustworthy of all instruments--a coalition.
Pope Pius V., a man of austere piety, full of the zeal of his high
office, and in energy and intellect a born leader, spared no effort to
support the Venetians as soon as war became inevitable. Few of the
states of Europe found it convenient to respond to his appeal, but
Philip of Spain sent a numerous fleet under Giovanni Andrea Doria, and
the Pope himself, aided in some degree by the Italian princes, added
an important contingent, which he confided to the care of the Grand
Constable of Naples, Mark Antony Colonna. Giovanni Zanne commanded the
Venetian fleet. The whole force, when united, amounted to no less than
two hundred and six vessels, of which eleven were galleasses, and
nearly all the rest galleys; while the soldiers and crews numbered
forty-eight thousand men. So dire was the dread then inspired by the
Turks that this vast armament dared not move till it was known that
Ochiali had left the neighbourhood of Italy, and even then the
rivalries of the different admirals tended rather to war between the
contingents than an attack upon the enemy's fleet. While the
Christians were wrangling, and Doria was displaying the same Fabian
caution that had led his grand-uncle to lose the battle of Prevesa,
Piāli Pasha, wholly regardless of danger, had bared his galleys
almost entirely of soldiers, in order to aid Lala Mustafa in the final
assault on Nicosia. Had the allied fleets attacked him on the 8th or
9th of September it is doubtful whether a single Turkish galley could
have shown fight. But Colonna and Doria wasted their time in wrangling
and discussing, while the foe lay powerless at their feet. Finally
they sailed back to Sicily, for fear of bad weather. Such were the
admirals who furnished the gibes of Ochiali and his brother Corsairs.
Famagusta surrendered August 4, 1571, and despite the promise of life
and liberty, the garrison was massacred and the Venetian commander,
Bragadino, cruelly burnt to death. Cyprus became a Turkish possession
thenceforward to this day.
Meanwhile, the Turkish and Barbary fleets, commanded by 'Ali Pasha,
the successor of Piāli, and Ochiali, ravaged Crete and other
islands, and coasting up the Adriatic, worked their will upon every
town or village it suited their pleasure to attack. Thousands of
prisoners, and stores and booty of every description rewarded their
industry. At length, in September, they anchored in the Gulf of
Lepanto. They had heard that the united Christian fleets were on the
move, and nothing would suit the victors of Cyprus better than a round
encounter with the enemy. Flushed with success, they had no fear for
the issue.
Many a Christian fleet had gathered its members together before then
in the waters of the Adriatic. The great battle off Prevesa was in the
memory of many an old sailor as the galleys came to the rendezvous in
the autumn of 1571. But there was an essential difference between then
and now. Prevesa was lost by divided counsels; at Lepanto there was
but one commander-in-chief. Pope Pius V. had laboured unceasingly at
the task of uniting the Allies and smoothing away jealousies, and he
had succeeded in drawing the navies of Southern Europe on to another
year's campaign; then, warned by what he had learned of the wranglings
off Cyprus, he exerted his prerogative as Vicar of God, and named as
the sole commander-in-chief of the whole fleet, Don John of Austria.
[Illustration: ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN A SPANISH GALLEON AND A DUTCH SHIP.
(_Jurien de la Gravière._)]
Son of the most illustrious monarch of the age, Don John was born to
greatness. His mother was the beautiful singer, Barba Blomberg; his
father was Charles V. The one gave him grace and beauty; the other,
the genius of command. He was but twenty-two when his half-brother,
Philip, confided to him the difficult task of suppressing the
rebellion of the Moors in the Alpuxarras.[47] Where the experienced
veterans of Spain had failed, the beardless general of twenty-two
succeeded to admiration. And now, two years later, he was called to
the command of the whole navy of Southern Europe. He accepted the post
with joy. He had all the hopeful confidence of youth, and he longed to
fight one of the world's great battles. His enthusiasm glowed in his
face: one sees it in his portraits and on the medals struck to
commemorate his victory. "Beau comme un Apollon, il avait tout le
prestige d'un archange envoyé par le Seigneur pour exterminer les
ennemis de la Foi."
Squadron after squadron begins to crowd the Straits of Messina.
Veniero, the Venetian admiral, is already there with forty-eight
galleys, and sixty more expected, when Colonna enters, in July, with
eighteen vessels and moors alongside. Don John has not yet arrived. He
has had much ado to get his squadron ready, for no nation understands
better than the Spanish the virtue of the adage _festina lente_. At
last he puts off from Barcelona, and laboriously crosses the Gulf of
Lyons. One may smile now at the transit, but in those days, what with
the mistral and the risk of Corsairs, to cross the Gulf of Lyons was
a thing to be thought about. At Genoa Don John is entertained by G.
Andrea Doria, and attends a fancy ball in a gay humour that becomes
his youth and buoyancy with all his perils still ahead. As he
proceeds, he hears how the Turks are laying waste Dalmatia, and how
the Allies are quarrelling at Messina, but he hastens not: he knows
that a galley on a long voyage has as much a fixed pace as a horse,
and that flogging is of no use except for a short course. At Naples he
reverently receives the standard blessed by his Holiness himself, and
on August 23rd he joins the fleet at Messina. Time is still needed for
the other ships to come up, and for the commander-in-chief to mature
his plans; before they start, each captain of a galley will have a
separate written order, showing him his place during the voyage and
his post in any engagement, whereby the risk of confusion and hasty
marshalling is almost done away. On the 16th of September the signal
is given to weigh anchor. Don John is off first, in his _Reale_, a
splendid _capitana_ galley of sixty oars, with a poop carved with
allegorical designs by Vasquez of Seville. After him come two hundred
and eighty-five vessels, comprising six galleasses and two hundred and
nine galleys, carrying twenty-nine thousand men, and commanded by the
most famous names of the great families of Spain, Genoa, Venice,
Naples, Rome, Vicenza, Padua, Savoy, and Sicily.[48] Don Juan de
Cardona leads the van with seven galleys; Don John himself,
between Marcantonio Colonna and Veniero, commands the centre of
sixty-two large galleys; G. A. Doria has fifty in the right wing;
Barbarigo of Venice fifty-three in the left; Don Alvaro de Bazan
commands the reserve of thirty galleys: the galleasses are ranged
before the lines, each with five hundred arquebusiers on board. After
ten days rowing and sailing they reach Corfu, and the castle greets
them with thunders of joy-guns, for the fear of the Turk is removed.
[Illustration: ARABIC ASTROLABE.]
[Illustration: ARABIC ASTROLABE.]
'Ali Pasha, hard by in the Gulf of Lepanto, sent out scouts to
ascertain the enemy's strength. A bold Barbary Corsair pushed his bark
unseen by night among the Christian galleys, but his report was
imperfect, and till the day of conflict neither side knew the exact
strength of his opponent. The Turkish fleet numbered about two hundred
and eight galleys and sixty-six galleots, and carried twenty-five
thousand men. Constantinople furnished ninety-five galleys; twenty-one
came from Alexandria, twenty-five from Anatolia, ten from Rhodes, ten
from Mitylene, nine from Syria, twelve from Napoli di Romania,
thirteen from the Negropont, and eleven from Algiers and Tripoli. The
galleots were chiefly Barbary vessels, more useful for piracy than a
set battle.
The two fleets unexpectedly came in sight of each other at seven
o'clock on the morning of October 7th, at a point just south of the
Echinades, and between Ithaca and the Gulf of Patras or Lepanto. A
white sail or two on the horizon was descried by Don John's look-out
on the maintop; then sail after sail rose above the sea-line, and the
enemy came into full view. Don John quickly ran up a white flag, the
signal of battle, and immediately the whole fleet was busily engaged
in clewing up the sails to the yards, and making all snug for the
conflict. The central banks were removed to make room for the
soldiers, and the slaves were served with meat and wine. Old seamen,
who had met the Turks again and again from their youth up, prepared
grimly for revenge; sanguine boys, who held arms in set fight for the
first time that day, looked forward eagerly to the moment of action.
Even to the last the incurable vacillation of the allied admirals was
felt: they suggested a council of war. Don John's reply was worthy of
him: "The time for councils is past," he said; "do not trouble
yourselves about aught but fighting." Then he entered his gig, and
went from galley to galley, passing under each stern, crucifix in
hand, encouraging the men. His calm and confident mien, and the charm
of his address, excited universal enthusiasm, and he was met on all
hands with the response: "Ready, Sir; and the sooner the better!" Then
Don John unfurled the Blessed Standard with the figure of the Saviour,
and falling on his knees commended his cause to God.
About eleven o'clock a dead calm set in. The Turks shortened sail and
took to their oars: in perfect order and with matchless speed and
precision they formed in line of battle, while drums and fifes
announced their high spirits. The Christian fleet was slower in
falling into line; some of the galleys and most of the galleasses were
behindhand. Don John let drop some pious oaths, and sent swift
vessels to hurry them up. At last they began to get into order.
Barbarigo, the "left guide," hugged the coast with the left wing; Don
John with the centre _corps de bataille_ kept touch with him; but
where was the "right guide"? Giovanni Doria, infected with the
tactical vanity of his family, resolved to show these landsmen how a
sailor can manoeuvre. Conceiving that Ochiali, on the Ottoman left,
was trying to outflank the Christian fleet, he bore out to sea in
order to turn him. In vain Don John sent to recall him; he had gone
out of reach, and the battle had to be fought without the right wing.
Doria's precious manoeuvring went near to losing the day.
The Ottoman fleet was marshalled in the same order as the Christian,
except that there were no galleasses. The line of battle, nearly a
mile long, was divided into centre, and right and left wing, and
behind the centre was the reserve. Mohammed Shaluk (called by
Europeans Scirocco) commanded the right wing, opposed to Barbarigo's
left; 'Ali Pasha opposed Don John in the centre; Ochiali was over
against the post where Doria should have been. Between the two lines
stood forth the heavy galleasses, like great breakwaters, turning
aside and dividing the flowing rush of the Ottoman galleys. The fire
of these huge floating castles nearly caused a panic among the Turks,
but they soon pulled past them, and a general melley ensued. In the
Christian left, after a deadly struggle, in which both Barbarigo and
Scirocco lost their lives, the Turks were repulsed, and, deprived of
their chief, took to the shore, but not before the Christians had lost
many galleys and a host of brave men. Soon after the left had been
engaged, the centre came into action. 'Ali Pasha made straight for Don
John's _Reale_, and his beak rammed it as far in as the fourth bank of
oars. Close by were Pertev Pasha and the _capitanas_ of Colonna and
Veniero. The ships became entangled, and formed one large platform of
war. Twice the Spaniards of the _Reale_ boarded the _Fanal_ of 'Ali
Pasha as far as the mainmast, and twice they were driven back with
terrible loss. 'Ali himself was preparing to leap upon Don John's
galley when Colonna rammed him on the poop, penetrating as far as the
third oar, and delivered a withering fire from his arquebuses. The
Christians had all the advantage of armour and firearms, and fired
behind bulwarks; the Turks were unprotected by cuirass or helmet or
bulwark, and most of them had bows instead of guns. Colonna's volleys
decided the fate of the _Fanal_, and 'Ali Pasha departed this life. An
hour and a half had sufficed to disperse the Ottoman right and to
overpower the flagship in chief. When the fleet saw the Christian
ensign at the peak of the Turkish _capitana_ they redoubled their
efforts: Veniero, severely wounded, still fought with the Seraskier
Pertev Pasha; the Turks fled, and Pertev took to the land. In half an
hour more Don John's centre was completely victorious. Then a new
danger arose: Ochiali, seeing that Doria was well away to sea, sharply
doubled back with all the right wing, and bore down upon the exhausted
centre. He rushed upon the _capitana_ of Malta, and massacred every
soul on board. Dragut is avenged! Juan de Cardona hastened to the
rescue, and of his five hundred soldiers but fifty escaped; on the
_Fiorenza_ seventeen men alone remained alive; and other terrible
losses were incurred in the furious encounter. Upon this the ingenious
Doria perceived that he had outwitted only his own cause, and at last
turned back. The Marquis de Santa Cruz was already upon the enemy; Don
John was after him with twenty galleys; Ochiali was outnumbered, and
after a brilliant effort, made off in all haste for Santa Maura,
bearing with him the Standard of "the Religion" to be hung up in St.
Sophia. The battle of Lepanto is fought and won: the Turks have been
utterly vanquished.[49] Well might the good Pope cry, as the preacher
cried in St. Stephen's a century later when Sobieski saved Vienna,[50]
"_There was a man sent from GOD, whose name was JOHN_."
The Turkish fleet was almost annihilate: one hundred and ninety
galleys were captured, besides galleots, and fifteen more burnt or
sunk; probably twenty thousand men had perished, including an
appalling list of high dignitaries from all parts of the empire. The
Christians lost seven thousand five hundred men, including many of the
most illustrious houses of Italy and Spain. Cervantes, who commanded a
company of soldiers on board the _Marquesa_, fortunately escaped with
a wound in his left arm; and to many the Battle of Lepanto is familiar
only from the magical pages of _Don Quixote_. Seventeen Venetian
commanders were dead, and among them Vicenzo Quirini and the valiant,
chivalrous, and venerable Proveditore Barbarigo. Sixty Knights of the
diminished Order of St. John had given up the ghost. Twelve thousand
Christian slaves were freed from the Ottoman galleys.
The brilliant young conqueror did not wear his well-earned laurels
long. His statue was erected at Messina; his victory was the subject
of Tintoret and Titian; he was received with ovations wherever he
went. Two years later he recaptured Tunis. Then he was employed in the
melancholy task of carrying on Alva's detestable work in Flanders. He
inflicted a sanguinary defeat upon the Dutch at Gembloux, and then,
struck down by fever, the young hero died on October 1, 1578, in his
thirty-first year, the last of the great figures of medieval
chivalry--a knight worthy to have been commemorated in the Charlemagne
_gestes_ and to have sat at Arthur's Round Table with Sir Galahad
himself.
FOOTNOTES:
[46] H. de Grammont, _La course, l'esclavage, et la redemption_; _Un
pacha d'Alger_; _Hist. d'Algérie_.
[47] See _The Story of the Moors in Spain_, p. 278.
[48] See the complete list in Girolamo Catena, _Vita del gloriosissimo
Papa Pio Quinto_, 1587.
[49] Read the admirable and graphic description of the battle in Jurien
de la Gravière, _La Guerre de Chypre et la Bataille de Lepante_, ii.,
149-205.
[50] See the _Story of Turkey_, 237.
PART II.
_THE PETTY PIRATES._
XV.
THE GENERAL OF THE GALLEYS.
16th, 17th, and 18th Centuries.
The age of the great Corsairs may be said to have ended with the
battle of Lepanto, which sounded the knell of the naval supremacy of
the Ottomans. It is true that they seemed to have lost little by Don
John's famous victory; their beard was shorn, they admitted, but it
soon grew again:--their fleet was speedily repaired, and the Venetians
sued for peace. But they had lost something more precious to them than
ships or men: their prestige was gone. The powers of Christendom no
longer dreaded to meet the invincible Turk, for they had beaten him
once, and would beat him again. Rarely after this did an Ottoman fleet
sail proudly to work its devastating way along the coasts of Italy.
Small raids there might be, but seldom a great adventure such as
Barbarossa or Sinān led. Crete might be besieged for years; but the
Venetians, pressed by land, nevertheless shattered the Turkish ships
off the coast. Damad 'Ali might recover the Morea, and victoriously
surround the shores of Greece with his hundred sail; but he would not
venture to threaten Venice, to lay siege to Nice, to harry Naples, or
attack Malta. The Turks had enough to do to hold their own in the
Black Sea against the encroaching forces of Russia.
Deprived of the protection which the prestige of the Turks had
afforded, the Barbary Corsairs degenerated into petty pirates. They
continued to waylay Christian cargoes, to ravish Christian villages,
and carry off multitudes of captives; but their depredations were not
on the same grand scale, they robbed by stealth, and never invited a
contest with ships of war. If caught, they would fight; but their aim
was plunder, and they had no fancy for broken bones gained out of mere
ambition of conquest.
Ochiali was the last of the great Corsairs. He it was who, on his
return to Constantinople after the fatal October 7, 1571, cheered the
Sultan with the promise of revenge, was made Captain-Pasha, and sailed
from the Bosphorus the following year with a fleet of two hundred and
thirty vessels, just as though Lepanto had never been fought and lost.
He sought for the Christian fleets, but could not induce them to offer
battle. His operations in 1574 were limited to the recapture of Tunis,
which Don John had restored to Spain in 1573. With two hundred and
fifty galleys, ten _mahons_ or galleasses, and thirty caramuzels, and
supported by the Algerine squadron under Ahmed Pasha, Ochiali laid
siege to the Goletta, which had owned a Spanish garrison ever since
the conquest by Charles V. in 1535. Cervellon defended the fort till
he had but a handful of men, and finally surrendered at discretion.
Then Ochiali disappeared from the western seas; he fought for his
master in the Euxine during the Persian War, and died in 1580, aged
seventy-two, with the reputation of the most powerful admiral that had
ever held sway in the Golden Horn.
[Illustration: TUNIS IN 1573.
(_From a Map in the British Museum._)]
We have not closely followed the succession of the Pashas or
Beglerbegs of Algiers, because more important affairs absorbed the
whole energies of the Turkish galleys, and the rulers on land had
little of consequence to do. Ochiali was the seventeenth pasha of
Algiers, but of his predecessors, after the deaths of Urūj and
Kheyr-ed-dīn Barbarossa, few attained special eminence. Hasan the
son of Barbarossa took part in the siege of Malta, Sālih Reïs
conquered Fez and Bujēya; but the rest were chiefly occupied with
repressing internal dissensions, fighting with their neighbours, and
organizing small piratical expeditions. After Ochiali had been called
to Stambol as Captain-Pasha, in 1572, when he had been Pasha of
Algiers for four years, nine governors succeeded one another in
twenty-four years. At first they were generally renegades: Ramadān
the Sardinian (1574-7), Hasan the Venetian (1577-80 and 1582-3),
Ja'far the Hungarian (1580-2), and Memi the Albanian (1583-6),
followed one another, and (with the exception of the Venetian) proved
to be wise, just, and clement rulers. Then the too usual practice was
adopted of allotting the province to the highest bidder, and rich but
incompetent or rascally Turks bought the reversion of the Pashalik.
The reign of the renegades was over; the Turks kept the government in
their own hands, and the _rôle_ of the ex-Christian adventurers was
confined to the minor but more enterprising duties of a Corsair reïs
or the "general of the galleys." The Pashas, and afterwards the Deys,
with occasional exceptions, gave up commanding piratical expeditions,
and the interest of the history now turns upon the captains of
galleys.
Piracy without and bloodshed and anarchy within form the staple of the
records. Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers showed very similar symptoms.
Tripoli was the least powerful, and therefore the least injurious;
Algiers dominated the Western Mediterranean and to a considerable
extent the Atlantic; Tunis, less venturesome, but still formidable,
infested the Eastern Mediterranean, and made the passage of Malta and
the Adriatic its special hunting grounds. At Tunis thirty Deys,
appointed by the Sublime Porte, succeeded one another from 1590 to
1705--giving each an average reign of less than four years. Most of
them were deposed, many murdered, and one is related on credible
authority to have been torn to pieces and devoured by the enraged
populace. In 1705 the soldiery, following the example of Algiers,
elected their own governor, and called him Bey; and the Porte was
obliged to acquiesce. Eleven Beys followed one another, up to the
French "protectorate." The external history of these three centuries
is made up of lawless piracy and the levying of blackmail from most of
the trading powers of Europe, accompanied by acts of insufferable
insolence towards the foreign representatives; all of which was
accepted submissively by kings and governments, insomuch that William
III. treated a flagrant Corsair, 'Ali Reïs, who had become Dey, with
the courtesy due to a monarch, and signed himself his "loving friend."
The earliest English treaty with Tunis was dated 1662; many more
followed, and all were about equally inefficacious. Civil anarchy,
quarrels with France, and wars with Algiers, generally stopped "by
order" of the helpless Porte, fill up the details of this
uninteresting canvas.
Precisely the same picture is afforded by the modern annals of
Algiers. Take the Deys at the beginning of the eighteenth century.
Hasan Chāwush was deposed in 1700, and succeeded by the Aga of the
Sipāhis, Mustafa, nicknamed _Bogotillos_ or "Whiskerandos," who,
though something of a coward, engaged in two successful campaigns
against Tunis and one with Morocco, until he had the misfortune to
find the bow-string round his throat in 1706. Uzeyn Khōja followed,
and Oran fell during his one year's reign, after which he was banished
to the mountains, and died. Bektāsh Khōja, the next Dey, was
murdered on his judgment-seat in the third year of his reign. A fifth
Dey, Ibrahīm Deli, or "the Fool," made himself so hated by his
unconscionable licentiousness that he was assassinated, and his
mutilated body exposed in the street, within a few months, and 'Ali,
who succeeded in 1710, by murdering some three thousand Turks,
contrived to reign eight years, and by some mistake died in his bed.
The kingdom of Morocco is not strictly a Barbary state, and its
history does not belong to this volume Nevertheless, the operations
of the Morocco pirates outside the Straits of Gibraltar so closely
resemble those of the Algerine Corsairs within, that a few words about
them will not be out of place. At one time Tetwān, within the
Straits, in spite of its exposed haven, was a famous place for rovers,
but its prosperity was destroyed by Philip II. in 1564. Ceuta was
always semi-European, half Genoese, then Portuguese (1415), and
finally Spanish (1570 to this day). Tangiers, as the dowry of Charles
II.'s Queen, Catherine of Portugal, was for some time English
territory. Spanish forts at Peñon de Velez de la Gomera and Alhucemas,
and Portuguese garrisons, repressed piracy in their vicinity; and in
later times Salē was perhaps the only port in Morocco that sent
forth buccaneers. Reefs of rocks and drifts of sand render the west
coast unsuitable for anchorage, and the roads are unsafe when the wind
is in the south-west. Consequently the piracy of Salē, though
notorious and dreaded by merchantmen, was on a small scale; large
vessels could not enter the harbour, and two-hundred-ton ships had to
be lightened before they could pass the bar. The cruisers of Salē
were therefore built very light and small, with which they did not
dare to attack considerable and well-armed ships. Indeed, Capt.
Delgarno and his twenty-gun frigate so terrified the Salē rovers,
that they never ventured forth while he was about, and mothers used to
quiet naughty children by saying that Delgarno was coming for them,
just as Napoleon and "Malbrouk" were used as bugbears in England and
France. There was not a single full-sized galley at Salē in
1634, and accounts a hundred years later agree that the Salē
rovers had but insignificant vessels, and very few of them, while
their docks were practically disused, in spite of abundance of timber.
In the latter part of the eighteenth century there seems to have been
an increase in the depredations of the Salē pirates, which probably
earned them their exaggerated reputation. At that time they had
vessels of thirty and thirty-six guns, but unwieldy and badly built,
with which they captured Provençal ships and did considerable
mischief, till the Chevalier Acton in 1773, with a single Tuscan
frigate, destroyed three out of their five ships. About 1788 the whole
Morocco navy consisted of six or eight frigates of two hundred tons,
armed with fourteen to eighteen six-pounders, and some galleys. The
rovers of Salē formed at one time a sort of republic of pirates,
paying the emperor a tithe of prize-money and slaves, in return for
non-interference; but gradually the Government absorbed most of the
profits, and the trade declined, till the emperors, in return for rich
presents, concluded treaties with the chief maritime Powers, and to a
large extent suppressed piracy.[51]
[Illustration: SALĒ IN 1637.
(_From a Map in the British Museum._)]
Turning from the monotonous records of internal barbarism, the more
adventurous side of Algerine history claims a brief notice. Among the
captains who continued to make the name of Corsair terrible to
Christian ears, Murād Reïs holds the foremost place; indeed, he
belongs to the order of great Corsairs. There were several of the
name, and this Murād was distinguished as the Great Murād. He
was an Arnaut or Albanian, who was captured by an Algerine pirate at
the age of twelve, and early showed a turn for adventure. When his
patron was engaged at the siege of Malta in 1565, young Murād gave
him the slip, and went on a private cruise of his own, in which he
contrived to split his galleot upon a rock. Undeterred by this
misadventure, as soon as he got back to Algiers he set out in a
brigantine of fifteen banks, and speedily brought back three Spanish
prizes and one hundred and forty Christians. He was with Ochiali when
that eminent rover seized Saint-Clément's galleys, and was with
difficulty restrained from anticipating his admiral in boarding the
_St. Ann_. He soon gained the reputation of a Corsair of the first
water, and "a person, who, for our sins, did more harm to the
Christians than any other." In 1578, while cruising about the
Calabrian coast with eight galleots in search of prey, he sighted the
_Capitana_ of Sicily and a consort, with the Duke of Tierra Nuova and
his retinue on board. After a hot pursuit the consort was caught at
sea; the flagship ran on shore; the Duke and all the ship's company
deserted her; and the beautiful vessel was safely brought into Algiers
harbour. In 1585 Murād ventured out into the Atlantic out of sight
of land, which no Algerine had ever dared to do before, and picking up
a reinforcement of small brigantines at Salē, descended at daybreak
upon Lanzarote, one of the Canary Islands, sacked the town without
opposition, and carried off the governor's family and three hundred
captives. This done, he unblushingly ran up a flag of truce, and
permitted the Count and the chief families to come on board and buy
back their relations. In 1589, after picking up a stray trader or two,
he fell in with _La Serena_, a galley of Malta, which had a Turkish
prize in tow. Far from shirking a conflict with so formidable an
antagonist, Murād gave hot pursuit with his single galleot, and
coming up with the _Serena_, boarded and mastered her in half an hour.
Then, after stopping to arrest the misdoings of a Majorcan pirate, who
was poaching on his own private manor, the Corsair carried his prizes
into Algiers, where he was honourably mounted on the Pasha's own horse
and escorted in triumph to the Palace by a guard of Janissaries. In
1594, when he had attained the dignity of "General of the Algerine
Galleys," Murād, with four galleots, encountered two Tuscan galleys
off Tripoli; lowering the masts of two of his galleots, so that they
should escape observation, he towed them behind the other two, and
when the Tuscans had drawn near in full expectation of a couple of
prizes, he loosed the vessels astern, and with all four bore down upon
the enemy; both galleys were taken, and the Florentine knights and
soldiers were chained to the oars in place of the Turks who had lately
sat there.[52]
No more typical example of the later sort of pirate can be cited than
'Ali Pichinin, General of the Galleys and galleons of Algiers in the
middle of the seventeenth century. This notable slaver, without
Barbarossa's ambition or nobility, possessed much of his daring and
seamanship. In 1638, emboldened by the successes of the Sultan
Murād IV. against the Persians, 'Ali put to sea, and, picking up
some Tunisian galleys at Bizerta, set sail with a squadron of sixteen
for the east coast of Italy. He sacked the district of Nicotra in
Apulia, carrying off great spoils and many captives, not sparing even
nuns; and then scoured the Adriatic, took a ship in sight of Cattaro,
and picked up every stray vessel that could be found.
Upon this a strong Venetian squadron, under Marino Capello, sallied
forth, and compelled the Corsairs to seek shelter under the guns of
the Turkish fortress of Valona in Albania. In spite of the peace then
subsisting between Venice and the Porte, Capello attacked, and the
fortress naturally defended, the refugees. The Corsairs were obliged
to land, and then Capello, carried away by his zeal, and in
contravention of his orders, sent in his galleots and, after a sharp
struggle, towed away the whole Barbary squadron, leaving 'Ali and his
unlucky followers amazed upon the beach. For this bold stroke Capello
was severely reprimanded by the Senate, and the Porte was consoled for
the breach of treaty by a _douceur_ of five hundred thousand ducats:
but meanwhile the better part of the Algerine galley-fleet had ceased
to exist, and owners and captains were bankrupt. It was small
consolation that in the same summer an expedition to the north,
piloted by a renegade from Iceland, brought back eight hundred of his
unfortunate countrymen to exchange the cold of their native land for
the bagnios of Algiers.
In 1641, however, the Corsairs had recovered from their losses, and
'Ali Pichinin could boast a fleet of at least sixty-five vessels, as
we have it on the authority of Emanuel d'Aranda, who was his slave at
the time. The wealth and power of the General of the Galleys were then
at their zenith. Six hundred slaves were nightly locked up in his
prison, which afterwards was known as the Khan of 'Ali Pichinin, and
in Morgan's time was noted for its grape vines, which covered the
walls and fringed the windows with the luscious fruit up to the top
storey. The son of a renegade himself, he liked not that his followers
should turn Turk upon his hands; which "was but picking his pocket of
so much money to give a disciple to Mohammed, for whom he was remarked
to have no extraordinary veneration. He had actually cudgelled a
Frenchmen out of the name of Mustafa (which he had assumed with a
Turkish dress) into that of John, which he would fain have renounced.
His farms and garden-houses were also under the directions of his own
Christians. I have heard much discourse of an entertainment he once
made, at his garden, for all the chief Armadores and Corsairs, at
which the Pasha was also a guest, but found his own victuals, as
fearing some foul play; nothing of which is ill taken among the Turks.
All was dressed at town in the general's own kitchen, and passed
along from hand to hand by his slaves up to the garden-house, above
two miles' distant, where as much of the victuals as got safe thither
arrived smoking hot, as they tell the story."[53] A good part,
however, disappeared on the road, since, in Corsair's phrase, "the
Christian slaves wore hooks on their fingers," and the guests went
nigh to be starved. 'Ali's plan for feeding his slaves was
characteristic. He gave them no loaves as others did, but told them
they were indeed a sorry set of scoundrels, unworthy of the name of
slaves, if, during the two or three hours of liberty they enjoyed
before sunset, they could not find enough to keep them for a day. His
bagnios used to be regular auction-rooms for stolen goods, and were
besieged by indignant victims, who were reproached for their
carelessness, and made to re-purchase their own valuables: in fine,
'Ali Pichinin "has the honour of having trained up the cleanest set of
thieves that were anywhere to be met with." Once a slave found a
costly ring of the general's, and restored to him without price: for
which "unseasonable piece of honesty" 'Ali gave him half a ducat, and
called him a fool for his pains; the ring was worth his ransom.
Another time, a slave bargained to sell to an ironmaster the general's
anchor from out of his own galley: when discovered, he was commended
for his enterprising spirit, and told he was fit to be a slave, since
he knew how to gain his living. This slave-dealer had a genius for
wheedling the truth out of captives; he was so civil and sympathizing
when a new prize was caught, so ready with his "Count" and "my
lord" to plain gentlemen, and his "your Eminence" to simple clergymen,
that they soon confided in him, revealed their rank, and had their
ransom fixed: but, to do him justice, he kept his word, and once
promised the release was certain: "My word is my word," he would say.
[Illustration: FIGHT OF THE "MARY ROSE" WITH ALGERINE PIRATES, 1669.
(_Ogilby's Africa, 1670._)]
He was a man of very free views in religion. Once he asked a Genoese
priest to tell him candidly what would become of him; "frankly," said
Father Angelo, "I am persuaded that the devil will have you;" and the
response was cheerfully accepted. Another time it was a devout Moslem
sheykh who begged 'Ali to give him a Christian slave to kill, as he
did not feel that he had offered any sufficiently pleasing sacrifice
to the prophet Mohammed. 'Ali unchained the stroke-oar of his galley,
a muscular Spaniard, and armed him at all points, and sent him to be
killed by the holy man. "This Christian," shrieked the good sheykh,
running as hard as he could, "looks as if he rather wanted to kill me
than to be killed himself." "So is it," said 'Ali, "that you are to
merit the prophet's favour. Thus it is that Christians are to be
sacrificed. Mohammed was a brave, generous man, and never thought it
any service done him to slaughter those who were not able to defend
themselves. Go; get yourself better instructed in the meaning of the
Koran." He was a thorough Corsair, with the rough code of honour, as
well as the unprincipled rascality of the sea-rover.
FOOTNOTES:
[51] See John Windus, _Journey to Mequinez_ (Lond., 1735), describing
the embassy of Commodore Stewart to Morocco, in 1721, when two hundred
and ninety-six English slaves were freed, and a treaty repudiating
piracy and the right of search was concluded. Capt. John Braithwaite's
_History of the Revolutions in Morocco_ (1729) includes a journal of
events and observations made during Mr. Russell's mission in 1728. Salē
is described at pp. 343 ff. See also Chenier, _Present State of the
Empire of Morocco_ (Eng. transl., 1788). Chenier was French Consul from
1767: the original work is entitled _Recherches historiques sur les
Maures_.
[52] Morgan, 557-9, 588, 597, 607.
[53] Morgan, 674.
XVI.
GALLEYS AND GALLEY SLAVES.
16th Century.
"The Corsairs," says Haedo, "are those who support themselves by
continual sea-robberies; and, admitting that among their numbers some
of them are natural Turks, Moors, &c., yet the main body of them are
renegadoes from every part of Christendom; all who are extremely well
acquainted with the Christian coasts." It is a singular fact that the
majority of these plunderers of Christians were themselves born in the
Faith. In the long list of Algerine viceroys, we meet with many a
European. Barbarossa himself was born in Lesbos, probably of a Greek
mother. His successor was a Sardinian; soon afterwards a Corsican
became pasha of Algiers, then another Sardinian; Ochiali was a
Calabrian; Ramadān came from Sardinia, and was succeeded by a
Venetian, who in turn gave place to a Hungarian, who made room for an
Albanian. In 1588 the thirty-five galleys or galleots of Algiers were
commanded by eleven Turks and twenty-four renegades, including nations
of France, Venice, Genoa, Sicily, Naples, Spain, Greece, Calabria,
Corsica, Albania, and Hungary, and a Jew. In short, up to nearly the
close of the sixteenth century (but much more rarely afterwards) the
chiefs of the Corsairs and the governors were commonly drawn from
Christian lands. Some of them volunteered--and to the outlaws of
Europe the command of a Barbary galley was perhaps the only congenial
resort;--but most of them were captives seized as children, and torn
from their homes in some of the Corsairs' annual raids upon Corsica
and Sardinia and the Italian or Dalmatian coasts. Most of such
prisoners were condemned to menial and other labour, unless ransomed;
but the bolder and handsomer boys were often picked out by the
penetrating eye of the reïs, and once chosen the young captive's
career was established.
"While the Christians with their galleys are at repose, sounding their
trumpets in the harbours, and very much at their ease regaling
themselves, passing the day and night in banqueting, cards, and dice,
the Corsairs at pleasure are traversing the east and west seas,
without the least fear or apprehension, as free and absolute
sovereigns thereof. Nay, they roam them up and down no otherwise than
do such as go in chase of hares for their diversion. They here snap up
a ship laden with gold and silver from India, and there another richly
fraught from Flanders; now they make prize of a vessel from England,
then of another from Portugal. Here they board and lead away one from
Venice, then one from Sicily, and a little further on they swoop down
upon others from Naples, Livorno, or Genoa, all of them abundantly
crammed with great and wonderful riches. And at other times carrying
with them as guides renegadoes (of which there are in Algiers vast
numbers of all Christian nations, nay, the generality of the Corsairs
are no other than renegadoes, and all of them exceedingly well
acquainted with the coasts of Christendom, and even within the land),
they very deliberately, even at noon-day, or indeed just when they
please, leap ashore, and walk on without the least dread, and advance
into the country, ten, twelve, or fifteen leagues or more; and the
poor Christians, thinking themselves secure, are surprised unawares;
many towns, villages, and farms sacked; and infinite numbers of souls,
men, women, children, and infants at the breast, dragged away into a
wretched captivity. With these miserable ruined people, loaded with
their own valuable substance, they retreat leisurely, with eyes full
of laughter and content, to their vessels. In this manner, as is too
well known, they have utterly ruined and destroyed Sardinia, Corsica,
Sicily, Calabria, the neighbourhoods of Naples, Rome, and Genoa, all
the Balearic islands, and the whole coast of Spain: in which last more
particularly they feast it as they think fit, on account of the
Moriscos who inhabit there; who being all more zealous Mohammedans
than are the very Moors born in Barbary, they receive and caress the
Corsairs, and give them notice of whatever they desire to be informed
of. Insomuch that before these Corsairs have been absent from their
abodes much longer than perhaps twenty or thirty days, they return
home rich, with their vessels crowded with captives, and ready to sink
with wealth; in one instant, and with scarce any trouble, reaping
the fruits of all that the avaricious Mexican and greedy Peruvian have
been digging from the bowels of the earth with such toil and sweat,
and the thirsty merchant with such manifest perils has for so long
been scraping together, and has been so many thousand leagues to fetch
away, either from the east or west, with inexpressible danger and
fatigue. Thus they have crammed most of the houses, the magazines, and
all the shops of this Den of Thieves with gold, silver, pearls, amber,
spices, drugs, silks, cloths, velvets, &c., whereby they have rendered
this city the most opulent in the world: insomuch that the Turks call
it, not without reason, their India, their Mexico, their Peru."[54]
[Illustration: GALLEY RUNNING BEFORE THE WIND.
(_Jurien de la Gravière._)]
One has some trouble in realizing the sort of navigation employed by
Corsairs. We must disabuse our minds of all ideas of tall masts
straining under a weight of canvas, sail above sail. The Corsairs'
vessels were long narrow row-boats, carrying indeed a sail or two, but
depending for safety and movement mainly upon the oars. The boats were
called galleys, galleots, brigantines ("_galeotas ligeras o
vergãtines_," or _frigatas_), &c., according to their size: a galleot
is a small galley, while a brigantine may be called a quarter galley.
The number of men to each oar varies, too, according to the vessel's
size: a galley may have as many as four to six men working side by
side to each oar, a galleot but two or three, and a brigantine one;
but in so small a craft as the last each man must be a fighter as well
as an oarsmen, whereas the larger vessels of the Corsairs were rowed
entirely by Christian slaves.
[Illustration: STAGES IN BUILDING A GALLEY.
(_Jurien de la Gravière._)]
[Illustration: PLAN AND SECTIONS OF A GALLEY.
(_Jurien de la Gravière._)]
[Illustration: _Caique._ _Canoe._
HOLD OF A GALLEY.
(_Jurien de la Gravière._)]
The galley is the type of all these vessels, and those who are curious
about the minutest details of building and equipping galleys need only
consult Master Joseph Furttenbach's _Architectura Navalis: Das ist,
Von dem Schiff-Gebaw, auf dem Meer und Seekusten zu gebrauchen_,
printed in the town of Ulm, in the Holy Roman Empire, by Jonam Saurn,
in 1629. Any one could construct a galley from the numerous plans and
elevations and sections and finished views (some of which are here
reproduced) in this interesting and precise work.[55] Furttenbach is
an enthusiastic admirer of a ship's beauties, and he had seen all
varieties; for his trade took him to Venice, where he had a
galleasse,[56] and he had doubtless viewed many a Corsair
fleet, since he could remember the battle of Lepanto and the death of
Ochiali. His zeal runs clean away with him when he describes a
_stolo_, or great flagship (_capitanea galea_) of Malta in her pomp
and dignity and lordliness, as she rides the seas to the rhythmical
beat of her many oars, or "easies" with every blade suspended
motionless above the waves like the wings of a poised falcon. A galley
such as this is "a princely, nay, a royal and imperial _vassello di
remo_," and much the most suitable, he adds, for the uses of peace and
of war in the Mediterranean Sea. A galley may be 180 or 190 spans
long--Furttenbach measures a ship by _palmi_, which varied from nine
to ten inches in different places in Italy,--say 150 feet, the length
of an old seventy-four frigate, but with hardly a fifth of its cubit
contents--and its greatest beam is 25 spans broad. The one engraved on
p. 37 is evidently an admiral's galley of the Knights of Malta. She
carries two masts--the _albero maestro_ or mainmast, and the
_trinchetto_, or foremast, each with a great lateen sail. The Genoese
and Venetians set the models of these vessels, and the Italian terms
were generally used in all European navigation till the northern
nations took the lead in sailing ships. These sails are often clewed
up, however, for the mariner of the sixteenth century was
ill-practised in the art of tacking, and very fearful of losing sight
of land for long, so that unless he had a wind fair astern he
preferred to trust to his oars. A short deck at the prow and poop
serve, the one to carry the fighting-men and trumpeters and yardsmen,
and to provide cover for the four guns, the other to accommodate the
knights and gentlemen, and especially the admiral or captain, who sits
at the stern under a red damask canopy embroidered with gold,
surveying the crew, surrounded by the chivalry of "the Religion,"
whose white cross waves on the taffety standard over their head, and
shines upon various pennants and burgees aloft. Behind, overlooking
the roof of the poop, stands the pilot who steers the ship by the
tiller in his hand.
Between the two decks, in the ship's waist, is the propelling power:
fifty-four benches or banks, twenty-seven a side, support each four or
five slaves, whose whole business in life is to tug at the fifty-four
oars. This flagship is a Christian vessel, so the rowers are either
Turkish and Moorish captives, or Christian convicts. If it were a
Corsair, the rowers would all be Christian prisoners. In earlier days
the galleys were rowed by freemen, and so late as 1500 the Moors of
Algiers pulled their own brigantines to the attack of Spanish
villages, but their boats were light, and a single man could pull the
oar. Two or three were needed for a galleot, and as many sometimes as
six for each oar of a large galley. It was impossible to induce
freemen to toil at the oar, sweating close together, for hour after
hour--not sitting, but leaping on the bench, in order to throw their
whole weight on the oar. "Think of six men chained to a bench, naked
as when they were born, one foot on the stretcher, the other on the
bench in front, holding an immensely heavy oar [fifteen feet long],
bending forwards to the stern with arms at full reach to clear the
backs of the rowers in front, who bend likewise; and then having got
forward, shoving up the oar's end to let the blade catch the water,
then throwing their bodies back on to the groaning bench. A galley oar
sometimes pulls thus for ten, twelve, or even twenty hours without a
moment's rest. The boatswain, or other sailor, in such a stress, puts
a piece of bread steeped in wine in the wretched rower's mouth to stop
fainting, and then the captain shouts the order to redouble the lash.
If a slave falls exhausted upon his oar (which often chances) he is
flogged till he is taken for dead, and then pitched unceremoniously
into the sea."[57]
"Those who have not seen a galley at sea, especially in chasing or
being chased, cannot well conceive the shock such a spectacle must
give to a heart capable of the least tincture of commiseration. To
behold ranks and files of half-naked, half-starved, half-tanned meagre
wretches, chained to a plank, from whence they remove not for months
together (commonly half a year), urged on, even beyond human strength,
with cruel and repeated blows on their bare flesh, to an incessant
continuation of the most violent of all exercises; and this for whole
days and nights successively, which often happens in a furious chase,
when one party, like vultures, is hurried on almost as eagerly after
their prey, as is the weaker party hurried away in hopes of preserving
life and liberty."[58]
Sometimes a galley-slave worked as long as twenty years, sometimes for
all his miserable life, at this fearful calling. The poor creatures
were chained so close together in their narrow bench--a sharp cut was
the characteristic of the galley--that they could not sleep at full
length. Sometimes seven men (on French galleys, too, in the last
century), had to live and sleep in a space ten feet by four. The whole
ship was a sea of hopeless faces. And between the two lines of rowers
ran the bridge, and on it stood two boatswains (_comiti_) armed with
long whips, which they laid on to the bare backs of the rowers with
merciless severity. Furttenbach gives a picture of the two boatswains
in grimly humorous verse: how they stand,
Beclad, belaced, betrimmed, with many knots bespick;
Embroidered, padded, tied; all feathers and all flap;
Curly and queued, equipped, curious of hood and cap:
and how they "ever stolidly smite" the crew with the bastinado,
Or give them a backward prod in the naked flesh as they ply,
With the point that pricks like a goad, when "powder and shot" is
the cry;
in order to send the Turks to Davy's wet locker:--
As John of Austria nipped them and riddled them with ball,
As soon as his eyes fell on them, and ducked or slaughtered them all;
and how the boatswain's dreaded whistle shrieked through the ship:--
For they hearken to such a blast through all the swish and sweat,
Through rattle and rumpus and raps, and the kicks and cuffs that they
get,
Through the chatter and tread, and the rudder's wash, and the dismal
clank
Of the shameful chain which forever binds the slave to the bank.
To this may be added Captain Pantero Pantera's description of the
boatswain's demeanour: "He should appear kindly towards the crew:
assist it, pet it, but without undue familiarity; be, in short, its
guardian and in some sort its father, remembering that, when all's
said, 'tis human flesh, and human flesh in direst misery."
This terrible living grave of a galley, let us remember, is depicted
from Christian models. A hundred and fifty years ago such scenes might
be witnessed on many a European vessel. The Corsairs of Algiers only
served their enemies as they served them: their galley slaves were no
worse treated, to say the least, than were Doria's or the King of
France's own. Rank and delicate nurture were respected on neither
side: a gallant Corsair like Dragut had to drag his chain and pull his
insatiable oar like any convict at the treadmill, and a future grand
master of Malta might chance to take his seat on the rowing bench
beside commonest scoundrel of Naples. No one seemed to observe the
horrible brutality of the service, where each man, let him be never so
refined, was compelled to endure the filth and vermin of his neighbour
who might be half a savage and was bound to become wholly one; and
when Madame de Grignan wrote an account of a visit to a galley, her
friend Madame de Sévigné replied that she would "much like to see this
sort of Hell," and the men "groaning day and night under the weight of
their chains." _Autres temps, autres moeurs!_
Furttenbach tells us much more about the galley; and how it was rigged
out with brilliant cloths on the bulwarks on fête-days; how the
biscuit was made to last six or eight months, each slave getting
twenty-eight ounces thrice a week, and a spoonful of some mess of rice
or bones or green stuff; of the trouble of keeping the water-cans
under the benches full and fairly fresh. The full complement of a
large galley included, he says, besides about 270 rowers, and the
captain, chaplain, doctor, scrivener, boatswains, and master, or
pilot, ten or fifteen gentleman adventurers, friends of the captain,
sharing his mess, and berthed in the poop; twelve helmsmen
(_timonieri_), six foretop A.B's., ten warders for the captives,
twelve ordinary seamen, four gunners, a carpenter, smith, cooper, and
a couple of cooks, together with fifty or sixty soldiers; so that the
whole equipage of a fighting-galley must have reached a total of about
four hundred men.[59]
What is true of a European galley is also generally applicable to a
Barbary galleot, except that the latter was generally smaller and
lighter, and had commonly but one mast, and no castle on the prow.[60]
The Algerines preferred fighting on galleots of eighteen to
twenty-four banks of oars, as more manageable than larger ships. The
crew of about two hundred men was very densely packed, and about one
hundred soldiers armed with muskets, bows, and scimitars occupied the
poop. Haedo has described the general system of the Corsairs as he
knew it at the close of the sixteenth century, and his account, here
summarized, holds good for earlier and somewhat later periods:--
These vessels are perpetually building or repairing at Algiers; the
builders are all Christians, who have a monthly pay from the Treasury
of six, eight, or ten quarter-dollars, with a daily allowance of three
loaves of the same bread with the Turkish soldiery, who have four.
Some of the upper rank of these masters have six and even eight of
these loaves; nor has any of their workmen, as carpenters, caulkers,
coopers, oar-makers, smiths, &c., fewer than three. The _Beylik_, or
common magazine, never wants slaves of all useful callings, "nor is it
probable that they should ever have a scarcity of such while they are
continually bringing in incredible numbers of Christians of all
nations." The captains, too, have their private artificer slaves, whom
they buy for high prices and take with them on the cruise, and hire
them out to help the Beylik workmen when ashore.
The number of vessels possessed at any one time by the Algerines
appears to have never been large. Barbarossa and Dragut were content
with small squadrons. Ochiali had but fifteen Algerine galleys at
Lepanto. Haedo says that at the close of the sixteenth century (1581)
the Algerines possessed 36 galleots or galleys, made up of 3 of 24
banks, 1 of 23, 11 of 22, 8 of 20, 1 of 19, 10 of 18, and 2 of 15, and
these were, all but 14, commanded by renegades. They had besides a
certain number of brigantines of 14 banks, chiefly belonging to Moors
at Shershēl. This agrees substantially with Father Dan's account
(1634), who says that there were in 1588 thirty-five galleys or
brigantines (he means galleots) of which all but eleven were commanded
by renegades. Haedo gives the list[61] of the 35 captains, from which
the following names are selected: Ja'far the Pasha (Hungarian), Memi
(Albanian), Murād (French), Deli Memi (Greek), Murād Reïs
(Albanian), Feru Reïs (Genoese), Murād Maltrapillo and Yūsuf
(Spaniards), Memi Reïs and Memi Gancho (Venetians), Murād the Less
(Greek), Memi the Corsican, Memi the Calabrian, Montez the Sicilian,
and so forth, most of whom commanded galleys of 22 to 24 banks.[62]
It was a pretty sight to see the launching of a galley. After the long
months of labour, after felling the oak and pine in the forests of
Shershēl, and carrying the fashioned planks on camels, mules, or
their own shoulders, some thirty miles to the seashore; or perhaps
breaking up some unwieldy prize vessel taken from the Spaniards or
Venetians; after all the sawing and fitting and caulking and painting;
then at last comes the day of rejoicing for the Christian slaves who
alone have done the work: for no Mussulman would offer to put a finger
to the building of a vessel, saving a few Morisco oar-makers and
caulkers. Then the _armadores_, or owners of the new galleot, as soon
as it is finished, come down with presents of money and clothes, and
hang them upon the mast and rigging, to the value of two hundred or
three hundred ducats, to be divided among their slaves, whose only pay
till that day has been the daily loaves. Then again on the day of
launching, after the vessel has been keeled over, and the bottom
carefully greased from stem to stern, more presents from owners and
captains to the workmen, to say nothing of a hearty dinner; and a
great straining and shoving of brawny arms and bare backs, a shout of
_Allahu Akbar_, "God is Most Great," as the sheep is slaughtered over
the vessel's prow--a symbol, they said, of the Christian blood to be
shed--and the galleot glides into the water prepared for her career of
devastation: built by Christians and manned by Christians, commanded
probably by a quondam Christian, she sallies forth to prey upon
Christendom.
The rowers, if possible, were all Christian slaves, belonging to the
owners, but when these were not numerous enough, other slaves, or
Arabs and Moors, were hired at ten ducats the trip, prize or no prize.
If he was able, the captain (_Reïs_) would build and furnish out his
own vessel, entirely at his own cost, in hope of greater profit; but
often he had not the means, and then he would call in the aid of one
or more _armadores_. These were often speculative shopkeepers, who
invested in a part share of a galleot on the chance of a prize, and
who often discovered that ruin lay in so hazardous a lottery. The
complement of soldiers, whether volunteers (_levents_), consisting of
Turks, renegades, or _Kuroghler_ (_Kuloghler_)--_i.e._, _creoles_,
natives, Turks born on the soil--or if these cannot be had, ordinary
Moors, or Ottoman janissaries, varied with the vessel's size, but
generally was calculated at two to each oar, because there was just
room for two men to sit beside each bank of rowers: they were not paid
unless they took a prize, nor were they supplied with anything more
than biscuit, vinegar, and oil--everything else, even their blankets,
they found themselves. The soldiers were under the command of their
own Aga, who was entirely independent of the Reïs and formed an
efficient check upon that officer's conduct. Vinegar and water, with a
few drops of oil on the surface, formed the chief drink of the galley
slaves, and their food was moistened biscuit or rusk, and an
occasional mess of gruel (_burgol_): nor was this given out when hard
rowing was needed, for oars move slackly on a full stomach.
It was usual to consult an auguration book and a _marabut_, or saint,
before deciding on a fortunate day for putting to sea, and these
saints expected a share of the prize money. Fridays and Sundays were
the favourite days for sailing; a gun is fired in honour of their
tutelary patron; "God speed us!" shout the crew; "God send you a
prize!" reply the crowd on the shore, and the galleot swiftly glides
away on its destructive path. "The Algerines," says Haedo, "generally
speaking, are out upon the cruise winter and summer, the whole year
round; and so devoid of dread they roam these eastern and western
seas, laughing all the while at the Christian galleys (which lie
trumpetting, gaming, and banqueting in the ports of Christendom),
neither more nor less than if they went a hunting hares and rabbits,
killing here one and there another. Nay, far from being under
apprehension, they are certain of their game; since their galleots are
so extremely light and nimble, and in such excellent order, as they
always are[63]; whereas, on the contrary, the Christian galleys are
so heavy, so embarrassed, and in such bad order and confusion, that it
is utterly in vain to think of giving them chase, or of preventing
them from going and coming, and doing just as they their selves
please. This is the occasion that, when at any time the Christian
galleys chase them, their custom is, by way of game and sneer, to
point to their fresh-tallowed poops, as they glide along like fishes
before them, all one as if they showed them their backs to salute: and
as in the cruising art, by continual practise, they are so very
expert, and withal (for our sins) so daring, presumptuous, and
fortunate, in a few days from their leaving Algiers they return laden
with infinite wealth and captives; and are able to make three or four
voyages in a year, and even more if they are inclined to exert
themselves. Those who have been cruising westward, when they have
taken a prize, conduct it to sell at Tetwān, El-Araish, &c., in the
kingdom of Fez; as do those who have been eastward, in the states of
Tunis and Tripoli: where, refurnishing themselves with provisions,
&c., they instantly set out again, and again return with cargoes of
Christians and their effects. If it sometimes happens more
particularly in winter, that they have roamed about for any
considerable time without lighting on any booty, they retire to some
one of these seven places, viz:--If they had been in the west their
retreats were Tetwān, Al-Araish, or Yusale; those who came from the
Spanish coasts went to the island Formentara; and such as had been
eastward retired to the island S. Pedro, near Sardinia, the mouths of
Bonifacio in Corsica, or the islands Lipari and Strombolo, near Sicily
and Calabria; and there, what with the conveniency of those commodious
ports and harbours, and the fine springs and fountains of water, with
the plenty of wood for fuel they meet with, added to the careless
negligence of the Christian galleys, who scarce think it their
business to seek for them--they there, very much at their ease, regale
themselves, with stretched-out legs, waiting to intercept the paces of
Christian ships, which come there and deliver themselves into their
clutches."[64]
Father Dan describes their mode of attack as perfectly ferocious.
Flying a foreign flag, they lure the unsuspecting victim within
striking distance, and then the gunners (generally renegades) ply the
shot with unabated rapidity, while the sailors and boatswains chain
the slaves that they may not take part in the struggle. The fighting
men stand ready, their arms bared, muskets primed, and scimitars
flashing, waiting for the order to board. Their war-cry was appalling;
and the fury of the onslaught was such as to strike panic into the
stoutest heart.
When a prize was taken the booty was divided with scrupulous honesty
between the owners and the captors, with a certain proportion (varying
from a fifth to an eighth) reserved for the Beylik, or government, who
also claimed the hulks. Of the remainder, half went to the owners and
reïs, the other half to the crew and soldiers. The principal officers
took each three shares, the gunners and helmsmen two, and the soldiers
and swabbers one; the Christian slaves received from 1½ to three
shares apiece. A scrivener saw to the accuracy of the division. If the
prize was a very large one, the captors usually towed it into Algiers
at once, but small vessels were generally sent home under a lieutenant
and a jury-crew of Moors.
There is no mistaking the aspect of a Corsair who has secured a prize:
for he fires gun after gun as he draws near the port, utterly
regardless of powder. The moment he is in the roads, the _Liman_ Reïs,
or Port Admiral, goes on board, and takes his report to the Pasha;
then the galleot enters the port, and all the oars are dropped into
the water and towed ashore, so that no Christian captives may make off
with the ship in the absence of the captain and troops. Ashore all is
bustle and delighted confusion; the dulness of trade, which is the
normal condition of Algiers between the arrivals of prizes, is
forgotten in the joy of renewed wealth; the erstwhile shabby now go
strutting about, pranked out in gay raiment, the commerce of the
bar-rooms is brisk, and every one thinks only of enjoying himself.
Algiers is _en fête_.
FOOTNOTES:
[54] Haedo, quoted by Morgan, 593-4.
[55] Hardly less valuable is Adm. Jurien de la Gravière's _Les Derniers
Jours de la Marine à Rames_ (Paris, 1885). It contains an admirable
account of the French galley system, the mode of recruiting,
discipline, and general management; a description of the different
classes of vessels, and their manner of navigation; while a learned
Appendix of over one hundred pages describes the details of
galley-building, finishing, fitting, and rigging, and everything that
the student need wish to learn. The chapters (ix. and x.) on
_Navigation à la rame_ and _Navigation à la voile_, are particularly
worth reading by those who would understand sixteenth and seventeenth
century seamanship.
[56] A galleasse was originally a large heavy galley, three-masted, and
fitted with a rudder, since its bulk compelled it to trust to sails as
well as oars. It was a sort of transition-ship, between the galley and
the galleon, and as time went on it became more and more of a sailing
ship. It had high bulwarks, with loopholes for muskets, and there was
at least a partial cover for the crew. The Portuguese galleys in the
Spanish Armada mounted each 110 soldiers and 222 galley-slaves; but the
Neapolitan galleasses carried 700 men, of whom 130 were sailors, 270
soldiers, and 300 slaves of the oar. Jurien de la Gravière, _Les
Derniers Jours de la Marine à Rames_, 65-7.
[57] So says Jean Marteille de Bergerac, a galley-slave about 1701,
quoted by Adm. Jurien de la Gravière, _Derniers Jours de la Marine à
Rames_, 13.
[58] Morgan, 517.
[59] In 1630 a French galley's company consisted of 250 forçats and 116
officers, soldiers, and sailors.
[60] Dan, _Hist. de Barbarie_, 268-71. See the cut of Tunisian galleots
on p. 183.
[61] _Topographia_, 18.
[62] Dan, 270-1.
[63] The Corsairs prided themselves on the ship-shape appearance of
their vessels. Everything was stowed away with marvellous neatness and
economy of space and speed; even the anchor was lowered into the hold
lest it should interfere with the "dressing" of the oars. The weapons
were never hung, but securely lashed, and when chasing an enemy, no
movement of any kind was permitted to the crew and soldiers, save when
necessary to the progress and defence of the ship. These Corsairs, in
fact, understood the conditions of a rowing-race to perfection.
[64] Haedo, 17.
XVII.
THE TRIUMPH OF SAILS.
17th Century.
[Illustration: GALLEASSE OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.
(_Jurien de la Gravière._)]
At the beginning of the seventeenth century a notable change came over
the tactics of the Corsairs: they built fewer galleys, and began to
construct square-sailed ships. In Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli the
dockyards teemed with workmen busily engaged in learning the new
build; and the honour, if such it be, of having taught them rests
apparently between England and Flanders. Simon Danser, the Flemish
rover, taught the Algerines the fashion of "round ships," in 1606, and
an Englishman seems to have rendered the same kind office to the
people of Tunis, aided by a Greek renegade, Memi Reïs; where,
moreover, another English pirate, "Captain Wer," was found in
congenial company at the Goletta by Monsieur de Brèves, the French
ambassador.[65] The causes of the change were twofold: first,
Christian slaves were not always to be caught, and to hire rowers for
the galleys was a ruinous expense; and secondly, the special service
for which the smaller galleots and brigantines were particularly
destined, the descents upon the Spanish coasts was to some degree
obstructed by the final expulsion of the last of the Moors from
Andalusia in 1610.[66] That stroke deprived the Corsairs of the ready
guides and sympathisers who had so often helped them to successful
raids, and larger vessels and more fighting men were needed if such
descents were to be continued. Moreover, the Barbary rovers were
ambitious to contend with their old enemies for golden treasure on the
Spanish main itself; the science of navigation was fast developing;
and they felt themselves as equal to venturing upon long cruises as
any European nation. Now a long cruise is impossible in a galley,
where you have some hundreds of rowers to feed, and where each pound
of biscuit adds to the labour of motion; but sails have no mouths, and
can carry along a great weight of provisions without getting tired,
like human arms. So sails triumphed over oars. The day of the galley
was practically over, and the epoch of the ship had dawned. As early
as 1616 Sir Francis Cottington reported to the Duke of Buckingham that
the sailing force of Algiers was exciting general alarm in Spain: "The
strength and boldness of the Barbary pirates is now grown to that
height, both in the ocean and the Mediterranean seas, as I have never
known anything to have wrought a greater sadness and distraction in
this Court than the daily advice thereof. Their whole fleet consists
of forty sail of tall ships, of between two and four hundred tons a
piece; their admiral [flagship] of five hundred. They are divided into
two squadrons; the one of eighteen sail remaining before Malaga, in
sight of the city; the other about the Cape of S. Maria, which is
between Lisbon and Seville. That squadron within the straits entered
the road of Mostil, a town by Malaga, where with their ordnance they
beat down part of the castle, and had doubtless taken the town, but
that from Granada there came soldiers to succour it; yet they took
there divers ships, and among them three or four from the west part of
England. Two big English ships they drove ashore, not past four
leagues from Malaga; and after they got on shore also, and burnt them,
and to this day they remain before Malaga, intercepting all ships that
pass that way, and absolutely prohibiting all trade into those parts
of Spain." The other squadron was doing the same thing outside the
straits, and the Spanish fleet was both too small in number and too
cumbrous in build to attack them successfully. Yet "if this year they
safely return to Algiers, especially if they should take any of the
fleet, it is much to be feared that the King of Spain's forces by sea
will not be sufficient to restrain them hereafter, so much sweetness
they find by making prize of all Christians whatsoever."
This dispatch shows that the Corsairs had speedily mastered the new
manner of navigation, as might have been expected of a nation of
sailors. They had long been acquainted with the great galleasse of
Spain and Venice, a sort of compromise between the rowed galley and
the sailing galleon; for it was too heavy to depend wholly on its oars
(which by way of distinction were rowed under cover), and its great
lateen sails were generally its motive power. The galleys themselves,
moreover, had sails, though not square sails; and the seaman who can
sail a ship on lateen sails soon learns the management of the square
rig. The engravings on pp. 5, 11, 165, 197, and 227 sufficiently show
the type of vessel that now again came into vogue, and which was known
as a galleon, nave, polacca, tartana, barcone, caravel, caramuzel,
&c., according to its size and country. The Turkish caramuzel or
tartan, says Furttenbach, stands high out of the water, is strong and
swift, and mounts eighteen or twenty guns and as many as sixty
well-armed pirates. It is a dangerous vessel to attack. From its
commanding height its guns can pour down so furious a fire upon a
Christian craft that the only alternative to surrender is positive
extirpation. If the enemy tries to sneak out of range below the level
of fire, the Turks drop grenades from the upper decks and set the ship
on fire, and even if the Christians succeeded in boarding, they find
themselves in a trap: for though the ship's waist is indeed cleared of
the enemy, the hurricane decks at poop and prow command the boarding
party, and through loopholes in the bulwarks--as good a cover as a
trench--a hail of grape pours from the guns, and seizing their
opportunity the Turks rush furiously through the doors and take their
opponents simultaneously in face and rear; and then comes a busy time
for scimitar and pike. Or, when you are alongside, if you see the
caramuzel's mainsail being furled, and something moving in the iron
cage on the _gabia_ or maintop, know that a petard will soon be
dropped in your midst from the main peak, and probably a heavy stone
or bomb from the opposite end of the long lateen yard, where it serves
the double purpose of missile and counterpoise. Now is the time to
keep your distance, unless you would have a hole in your ship's
bottom. The Corsairs, indeed, are very wily in attack and defence,
acquainted with many sorts of projectiles,--even submarine torpedoes,
which a diver will attach to the enemy's keel,--and they know how to
serve their stern chasers with amazing accuracy and rapidity.[67]
[Illustration: ANCHOR.]
With their newly-built galleons, the raids of the Corsairs became more
extensive: they were no longer bounded by the Straits of Gibraltar, or
a little outside; they pushed their successes north and south. In 1617
they passed the Straits with eight well-armed vessels and bore down
upon Madeira, where they landed eight hundred Turks. The scenes that
followed were of the usual character; the whole island was laid waste,
the churches pillaged, the people abused and enslaved. Twelve hundred
men, women, and children were brought back to Algiers, with much
firing of guns, and other signals of joy, in which the whole city
joined.
In 1627 Murād--a German renegade--took three Algerine ships as far
north as Denmark and Iceland, whence he carried off four hundred, some
say eight hundred, captives; and, not to be outdone, his namesake
Murād Reïs, a Fleming, in 1631, ravaged the English coasts, and
passing over to Ireland, descended upon Baltimore, sacked the town,
and bore away two hundred and thirty-seven prisoners, men, women, and
children, even from the cradle. "It was a piteous sight to see them
exposed for sale at Algiers," cries good Father Dan; "for then they
parted the wife from the husband, and the father from the child; then,
say I, they sell the husband here, and the wife there, tearing from
her arms the daughter whom she cannot hope to see ever again."[68]
Many bystanders burst into tears as they saw the grief and despair of
these poor Irish.
As before, but with better confidence, they pursue their favourite
course in the Levant, and cruise across the Egyptian trade route,
where are to be caught ships laden with the products of Cairo and
San'a and Bombay; and lay-to at the back of Cyprus to snare the Syrian
and Persian goods that sail from Scanderūn; and so home, with a
pleasant raid along the Italian coasts, touching perhaps at an island
or two to pick up slaves and booty, and thus to the mole of Algiers
and the welcome of their mates; and this in spite of all the big ships
of Christendom, "_qu'ils ne cessent de troubler, sans que tant de
puissantes galeres et tant de bons navires que plusieurs Princes
Chrestiens tiennent dans leur havres leur donnent la chasse, si ce ne
sont les vaisseaux de Malte ou de Ligorne_."[69] And since 1618, when
the Janissaries first elected their own Pasha, and practically ignored
the authority of the Porte, the traditional fellowship with France,
the Sultan's ally, had fallen through, and French vessels now formed
part of the Corsairs' quarry. Between 1628 and 1634, eighty French
ships were captured, worth, according to the reïses' valuation,
4,752,000 livres, together with 1,331 slaves. The King of France must
have regretted even the days when Barbarossa wintered at Toulon, so
great was the plague of the sea-rovers and apparently so hopeless the
attempt to put them down.
FOOTNOTES:
[65] Dan, Bk. III., ch. iv., p. 273-5, 280.
[66] See the _Story of the Moors in Spain_, 279.
[67] Furttenbach, _Architectura Navalis_, 107-110.
[68] Dan, _Hist. de Barbarie_, 277.
[69] Dan, _l. c._, 278.
XVIII.
THE REDEMPTION OF CAPTIVES.
17th and 18th Centuries.
When galleys went out of fashion, and "round ships" took their place,
it may be supposed that the captivity of Christian slaves diminished.
In reality, however, the number of slaves employed on the galleys was
small compared with those who worked on shore. If the Spanish
historian be correct in his statement that at the close of the
sixteenth century the Algerines possessed but thirty-six galleys and
galleots, (the brigantines were not rowed by slaves,) with a total of
twelve hundred oars, even allowing three men to an oar, which is
excessive for some of the Corsairs' light galleots, the number of
slaves is but three thousand six hundred. But in 1634 Father Dan found
twenty-five thousand Christian slaves in the city of Algiers and
roundabout, without counting eight thousand renegades, and so far was
the fleet from being diminished (except that there were few galleys)
that the priest reckoned no less than seventy sailing cruisers, from
large thirty-five and forty-gun ships, to ordinary galleons and
polaccas; and on August 7th he himself saw twenty-eight of the best
of them sail away in quest of Norman and English ships, which usually
came to Spain at that season to take in wine, oil, and spices. He adds
that Tunis had then but fourteen polaccas; Salē thirty very swift
caravels, drawing little water on account of the harbour bar; and
Tripoli but seven or eight, owing to the vigilance of the Knights of
Malta. Altogether, the whole Barbary fleet numbered one hundred and
twenty sailing ships, besides about twenty-five galleys and
brigantines.
[Illustration: TORMENTS OF THE SLAVES.
(_Dan, Hist. de Barbarie, 1637._)]
[Illustration: TORMENTS OF THE SLAVES.
(_Dan, Hist. de Barbarie, 1637._)]
Father Dan draws a miserable picture of the captives' life ashore.
Nothing of course could equal the torment of the galley-slaves, but
the wretchedness of the shore-slaves was bad enough. When they were
landed they were driven to the Besistān or slave-market, where they
were put up to auction like the cattle which were also sold there;
walked up and down by the auctioneer to show off their paces; and
beaten if they were lazy or weary or seemed to "sham." The purchasers
were often speculators who intended to sell again,--"bought for the
rise," in fact; and "Christians are cheap to day" was a business
quotation, just as though they had been stocks and shares. The
prettiest women were generally shipped to Constantinople for the
Sultan's choice; the rest were heavily chained and cast into vile
dungeons in private houses till their work was allotted them, or into
the large prisons or bagnios, of which there were then six in Algiers,
each containing a number of cells in which fifteen or sixteen slaves
were confined. Every rank and quality of both sexes might be seen
in these wretched dens, gentle and simple, priest and laic, merchant
and artisan, lady and peasant-girl, some hopeful of ransom, others
despairing ever to be free again. The old and feeble were set to sell
water; laden with chains, they led a donkey about the streets and
doled out water from the skin upon his back; and an evil day it was
when the poor captive did not bring home to his master the stipulated
sum. Others took the bread to the bake-house and fetched it back in
haste, for the Moors love hot loaves. Some cleaned the house, (since
Mohammedans detest dirt,) whitened the walls, washed the clothes, and
minded the children; others took the fruit to market, tended the
cattle, or laboured in the fields, sometimes sharing the yoke of the
plough with a beast of burden. Worst of all was the sore labour of
quarrying stone for building, and carrying it down from the mountains
to the shore.
Doubtless Father Dan made the worst of the misery he saw: it was not
to the interest of the owners to injure their slaves, who might be
ransomed or re-sold, and, at any rate, were more valuable in health
than in weakness and disease. The worst part of captivity was not the
physical toil and blows, but the mental care, the despair of release,
the carking ache of proud hearts set to slave for taskmasters. Cruelty
there certainly was, as even so staunch an apologist for the Moors as
Joseph Morgan admits, but it can hardly have been the rule; and the
report of another French priest who visited Algiers and other parts of
Barbary in 1719 does not bear out Dan's statements: nor is there any
reason to believe that the captives were worse treated in 1634 than
in 1719.[70] The latter report, with some of Morgan's comments, may be
summarized thus[71]:--
The slaves at Algiers are not indeed so unhappy as those in the hands
of the mountain Moors. The policy of those in power, the interests of
individuals, and the more sociable disposition of the townspeople,
make their lot in general less rigorous: still they are slaves, hated
for their religion, overtaxed with work, and liable to apostasy. They
are of two sorts: Beylik or Government slaves, and those belonging to
private persons. When a Corsair has taken a prize and has
ascertained, by the application of the bastinado, the rank or
occupation and proficiency of the various captives, he brings them
before the governor to be strictly examined as to their place in the
captured vessel, whether passengers or equipage: if the former, they
are claimed by their consuls, who attend the examination, and as a
rule they are set free; but if they served on board the ship for pay
they are enslaved. Drawn up in a row, one in eight is chosen by the
Dey for his own share, and he naturally selects the best workmen, and
the surgeons and ship's masters, who are at once sent to the
Government bagnio. The rest are to be divided equally between the
owners and the equipage, and are taken to the Besistān and marched
up and down by the _dellāls_ or auctioneers, to the time of their
merits and calling, till the highest bid is reached. This is, however,
a merely formal advance, for the final sale must take place at the
Dey's palace, whither the captives and their would-be purchasers now
resort. The second auction always realizes a much higher sum than the
first; but the owners and equipage are only permitted to share the
former price, while, by a beautifully simple process, the whole
difference between the first and second sales goes absolutely to the
Government.
The Government slaves wear an iron ring on one ankle, and are locked
up at night in the bagnios, while by day they do all the heavy work of
the city, as cleaning, carrying, and quarrying stone. Their rations
are three loaves a day. Some have been seen to toil in chains. They
have nevertheless their privileges; they have no work to do on
Fridays, and they are at free liberty to play, work, or steal for
themselves every day for about three hours before sunset, and Morgan
adds that they do steal with the coolest impunity, and often sell the
stolen goods back to the owners, who dare not complain. Sometimes the
Dey sends them to sea, when they are allowed to retain part of the
spoil; and others are permitted to keep taverns for renegades and the
general riff-raff, both of Turks and Christians, to carouze in.
Sometimes they may save enough to re-purchase their freedom, but it
often happened that a slave remained a slave by preference, sooner
than return to Europe and be beggared, and many of them were certainly
better off in slavery at Algiers, where they got a blow for a crime,
than in Europe, where their ill-deeds would have brought them to the
wheel, or at least the halter.
There were undoubtedly instances, however, of unmitigated barbarity in
the treatment of prisoners. For example, the Redemptionists relate the
sufferings of four Knights of Malta--three of them French gentlemen,
and one from Lucca--who were taken captive at the siege of Oran in
1706, and taken to Algiers. Here they were thrust into the Government
prison, along with other prisoners and slaves, to the number of two
thousand. Faint with the stench, they were removed to the Kasaba or
Castle, where they remained two years. News was then brought that the
galleys of Malta had captured the _capitana_ or flagship of Algiers,
with six hundred and fifty Turks and Moors aboard, besides Christian
slaves, to say nothing of killed and wounded: whereupon, furiously
incensed, the Dey sent the imprisoned knights to the castle dungeon,
and loaded them with chains weighing 120 lbs.; and there they
remained, cramped with the irons, in a putrid cavern swarming with
rats and other vermin. They could hear the people passing in the
street without, and they clanked their chains if so be they might be
heard, but none answered. At last their condition came to the ears of
the French consul, who threatened like penalties to Turkish prisoners
in Malta unless the knights were removed; and the Dey, on this,
lightened their chains by half, and put them in a better room. There
these unhappy gentlemen remained for eight long years more, save only
at the great festivals of the Church, when they were set free to join
in the religious rites at the French consulate; and once they formed a
strange and sad feature in the wedding festivities of the consul, when
they assumed their perukes and court-dresses for the nonce, only to
exchange them again for the badge of servitude when the joyful moment
of liberty was over. Their treatment grew worse as time wore on; they
were made even to drag trucks of stone, these knights of an heroic
Order; and hopeless of obtaining so large a sum as nearly $40,000,
which was demanded for their ransom, they managed to file their chains
and escape to the shore. But there, to their dismay, the ship they
expected was not to be seen, and they took refuge with a _marabut_ or
saint. Much to his credit, this worthy Moslem used his vast spiritual
influence for their protection, and the Dey spared their lives. At
last, by the joint efforts of their friends and the Redemptionists,
these poor gentlemen were ransomed and restored to their own
country.[72]
Among those who endured captivity in Algiers was one whom genius has
placed among the greatest men of all time. In 1575, Cervantes[73] was
returning from Naples--after serving for six years in the regiment of
Figueroa, and losing the use of his left arm at Lepanto--to revisit
his own country; when his ship _El Sol_ was attacked by several
Corsair galleys commanded by Arnaut Memi; and, after a desperate
resistance, in which Cervantes took a prominent part, was forced to
strike her colours. Cervantes thus became the captive of a renegade
Greek, one Deli Memi, a Corsair reïs, who, finding upon him letters of
recommendation from persons of the highest consequence, Don John of
Austria among them, concluded that he was a prisoner of rank, for whom
a heavy ransom might be asked. Accordingly the future author of _Don
Quixote_ was loaded with chains and harshly treated, to make him the
more anxious to be ransomed. The ransom, however, was slow in coming,
and meanwhile the captive made several daring, ingenious, but
unsuccessful attempts to escape, with the natural consequences or
stricter watch and greater severities. At last, in the second year of
his captivity, he was able to let his friends know of his condition;
whereupon his father strained every resource to send a sufficient sum
to release Miguel, and his brother Rodrigo, who was in the like
plight. The brother was set free, but Cervantes himself was considered
too valuable for the price.
With the help of his liberated brother he once more concerted a plan
of escape. In a cavern six miles from Algiers, where he had a friend,
he concealed by degrees forty or fifty fugitives, chiefly Spanish
gentlemen, and contrived to supply them with food for six months,
without arousing suspicion. It was arranged that a Spanish ship should
be sent by his brother to take off the dwellers in the cave, whom
Cervantes now joined. The ship arrived; communications were already
opened; when some fishermen gave the alarm; the vessel was obliged to
put to sea; and, meanwhile, the treachery of one of the captives had
revealed the whole plot to Hasan Pasha, the Viceroy, who immediately
sent a party of soldiers to the cavern. Cervantes, with his natural
chivalry, at once came to the front and took the whole blame upon
himself. Surprised at this magnanimity, the Viceroy--who is described
in _Don Quixote_ as "the homicide of all human kind"[74]--sent for
him, and found him as good as his word. No threats of torture or death
could extort from him a syllable which could implicate any one of his
fellow-captives. His undaunted manner evidently overawed the Viceroy,
for instead of chastizing he purchased Cervantes from his master for
five hundred gold crowns.
Nothing could deter this valiant spirit from his designs upon freedom.
Attempt after attempt had failed, and still he tried again. Once he
was very near liberty, when a Dominican monk betrayed him; even then
he might have escaped, if he would have consented to desert his
companions in the plot: but he was Cervantes. He was within an ace of
execution, thanks to his own chivalry, and was kept for five months in
the Moor's bagnio, under strict watch, though without blows--no one
ever struck him during the whole of his captivity, though he often
stood in expectation of impalement or some such horrible death. At
last, in 1580, just as he was being taken off, laden with chains, to
Constantinople, whither Hasan Pasha had been recalled, Father Juan Gil
effected his ransom for about £100 of English money of the time, and
Miguel de Cervantes, after five years of captivity, was once more
free. As has been well said, if _Don Quixote_ and all else of his had
never been written, "the proofs we have here of his greatness of soul,
constancy, and cheerfulness, under the severest of trials which a man
could endure, would be sufficient to ensure him lasting fame."[75]
[Illustration: FATHERS OF THE REDEMPTION.
(_Dan, Hist. de Barbarie, 1637._)]
Slavery in private houses, shops, and farms, was tolerable or
intolerable according to the character and disposition of the master
and of the slaves. Some were treated as members of the family, save
in their liberty, as is the natural inclination of Moslems towards the
slaves of their own religion; others were cursed and beaten, justly or
unjustly, and lived a dog's life. Those who were supposed to be able
to pay a good ransom were for a time especially ill-treated, in the
hope of compelling them to send for their money. Escape was rare: the
risk was too great, and the chances too small.
Thousands of Christian slaves meant tens of thousand of Christian
sympathisers, bereaved parents and sisters, sorrowing children and
friends; and it is easy to imagine what efforts were made to procure
the release of their unhappy relatives in captivity. At first it was
extremely difficult to open negotiations with the Corsairs; but when
nation after nation appointed consuls to watch over their interests at
Algiers and Tunis, there was a recognized medium of negotiation of
which the relations took advantage. As will presently be seen, the
office of consul in those days carried with it little of the power or
dignity that becomes it now, and the efforts of the consul were often
abortive.
There were others than consuls, however, to help in the good work. The
freeing of captives is a Christian duty, and at the close of the
twelfth century Jean de Matha, impressed with the unhappy fate of the
many Christians who languished in the lands of the infidels, founded
the "Order of the Holy Trinity and Redemption of Captives." The
convent of S. Mathurin at Paris was immediately bestowed upon the
Order, another was built at Rome on the Coelian Hill, another called
Cerfroy near Meaux, and others in many countries, even as far as the
Indies. Pope Innocent the Third warmly supported the pious design, and
wrote a Latin letter recommending the Redemptionists to the protection
of the Emperor of Morocco: it was addressed, _Illustri Miramomolin,
Regi Marochetanorum_. Matha's first voyage (1199) brought back one
hundred and eighty-six captives, and in succeeding generations some
twenty thousand slaves were rescued by the good fathers, who, clad in
their white robes, with the blue and red cross on the breast--three
colours symbolical of the Three Persons--fearlessly confronted the
Corsairs and bartered for the captives' ransom.
Father Pierre Dan and his colleagues of the Order of the Redemption
set out from Marseilles, in 1634, in the suite of Sanson le Page,
premier herald of France, and conversant in the Turkish tongue, to
arrange for the exchange of captives.[76] Some Turks confined in the
galleys at Marseilles were to be released in return for the freeing of
the three hundred and forty-two Frenchmen who were in captivity in
Algiers. The good father's views upon the origin of the Corsairs were
very pronounced. He held that they were descended from Ham, the
traitor, and were inheritors of the curse of the patriarch Noah;
further, that they were the cruellest of all the unnatural monsters
that Africa has bred, the most barbarous of mankind, pests of the
human race, tyrants over the general liberty, and the wholesale
murderers of innocent blood. He did not stop to examine into the
condition of the galley-slaves in the ports of his own France, or to
inquire whether the word Corsair applied to Moslems alone.
On July 15, 1634, Sanson and the priests arrived at Algiers. A full
divan was being held, and the Pasha received them courteously, despite
their obstinate refusal to dip the French flag to his crescent. They
were forced, in deference to the universal custom at Algiers, to
surrender their rudder and oars, not so much to prevent their own
unauthorized departure, as to remove the temptation of Christian
captives making their escape in the vessel. Orders were given that
every respect was to be paid to the envoy's party on pain of
decapitation. Rooms were prepared for them in the house of the agent
who represented the coral fisheries of the neighbouring Bastion de
France; and here Father Dan made an altar, celebrated Mass, and heard
confession of the captives. Two days after their arrival, a new Pasha
appeared from Constantinople: he was met by two state-galleys, and
saluted by the fifteen hundred guns in the forts and the forty galleys
in the harbour. The Aga of the Janissaries, and the Secretary of
State, with a large suite of officers, drummers, and fifes, received
him on his landing with a deafening noise. The new Pasha, who was
robed in white, then mounted a splendid barb, richly caparisoned with
precious stones and silk embroidery, and rode to the palace, whence
he sent the French envoy a present of an ox, six sheep, twenty-four
fowls, forty-eight hot loaves, and six dozen wax candles; to which the
Sieur le Page responded with gold and silver watches, scarlet cloth,
and rich brocades.
Despite these civilities, the negotiations languished; and finally,
after three months of fruitless endeavours, the Mission left "this
accursed town" in such haste that they never even looked to see if the
wind would serve them, and consequently soon found themselves driven
by a Greek Levant, or east wind, to Majorca; then across to Bujēya,
which was no longer a place of importance or of piracy, since the
Algerines had concentrated all their galleys at their chief port; and
then sighted Bona, which showed traces of the invasion of 1607, when
six Florentine galleys, commanded by French gentlemen, had seized the
fort, made mincemeat of the unfortunate garrison, and carried off
eighteen hundred men, women, and children to Leghorn. At last, with
much toil, they reached La Calle, the port of the Bastion de France, a
fine castle built by the merchants of Marseilles in 1561 for the
protection of the valuable coral fisheries, and containing two
handsome courts of solid masonry, and a population of four hundred
French people. Sanson Napolon had been governor here, but he was
killed in an expedition to Tabarka; Le Page accordingly appointed a
lieutenant, and then the Mission returned to Marseilles, without
results. The fathers, however, soon afterwards sailed for Tunis,
whence they brought back forty-two French captives, with whom they
made a solemn procession, escorted by all the clergy of Marseilles,
and sang a triumphant _Te Deum_, the captives marching joyfully beside
them, each with an illustrative chain over his shoulder.
This is but one example of a long course of determined efforts of the
Redemptionists (to say nothing of Franciscans and Dominicans) to
rescue their unhappy countrymen. In 1719 Father Comelin and others
brought away ninety-eight Frenchmen,[77] and similar expeditions were
constantly being made. The zeal of the Order was perhaps narrow: we
read that when they offered to pay 3,000 pieces for three French
captives, and the Dey voluntarily threw in a fourth without increasing
the price, they refused the addition because he was a Lutheran.
Nevertheless, they worked much good among the Catholic prisoners,
established hospitals and chapels in various parts of the Barbary
coast, and many a time suffered the penalty of their courage at the
hands of a merciless Dey, who would sometimes put them to a cruel
death in order to satisfy his vengeance for some reverse sustained by
his troops or ships from the forces of France. Catholic, and
especially French, captives at least had cause to be grateful to the
Fathers of the Redemption. Those of the Northern nations fared worse:
they had no powerful, widespread Church organization to help them,
their rulers took little thought of their misery, and their tears and
petitions went unregarded for many a long year.
FOOTNOTES:
[70] If one may draw an analogy from Morocco, the Christian slaves
there appear to have been well treated in 1728, certainly better than
the renegades. They had a Christian Alcaid, were allowed to keep
taverns, and were lodged in a tolerable inn, where the Moslems were not
allowed to come near them; they were nursed when sick by Spanish friars
(who paid the Emperor of Morocco for the privilege of curing his
slaves); and many of them amassed fortunes, and kept servants and
mules. At least so says Braithwaite, _Hist. of the Rev. in Morocco_,
343 ff.
[71] This is the standard account of Christian slavery under the
Corsairs. It is contained in the anonymous work entitled _Several
Voyages to Barbary_, &c., [translated and annotated by J. Morgan,]
second ed., London, Oliver Payne, &c., 1736. It is singular that
although Sir R. Lambert Playfair's account of the slaves in his
_Scourge of Christendom_ (1884) p. 9 ff. is practically taken verbatim
from this work, there is not a word to show his indebtedness. The name
of Joseph Morgan is never mentioned in the _Scourge of Christendom_,
though the author was clearly indebted to him for various incidents,
and among others for a faultily copied letter (p. 35) from the
well-known ambassador Sir Francis Cottington (whom Sir R. L. Playfair
calls Cotting_ham_). A good many errors in the _Scourge of Christendom_
are due to careless copying of unacknowledged writers: such as calling
Joshua Bushett of the Admiralty, "Mr. Secretary Bushell," or Sir John
Stuart, "Stewart," or eight bells "eight boats," or Sir Peter Denis,
"Sir Denis," or misreckoning the ships of Sir R. Mansell's expedition,
or turning San Lucar into "St. Lucas."
[72] _Several Voyages_, 58-65.
[73] This brief account of Cervantes' captivity is abridged from my
friend Mr. H. E. Watts's admirable Life, prefixed to his translation of
_Don Quixote_. The main original authority on the matter is Haedo, who
writes on the evidence of witnesses who knew Cervantes in Algiers, and
who one and all spoke with enthusiasm and love of his courage and
patience, his good humour and unselfish devotion (Watts, i. 76, 96).
[74] _Don Quixote_, I., chap. xl. (Watts): "Every day he hanged a
slave; impaled one; cut off the ears of another; and this upon so
little animus, or so entirely without cause, that the Turks would own
he did it merely for the sake of doing it, and because it was his
nature."
[75] H. E. Watts, _Life of Cervantes_, prefixed to his translation of
_Don Quixote_, i. 96.
[76] _Histoire de Barbarie et de ses Corsaires_, par le R. P. Fr.
Pierre Dan, Ministre et Superieur du Convent de la Sainte Trinité et
Redemption des Captifs, fondé au Chasteau de Fontaine-bleau, et
Bachelier en Theologie, de la Faculté de Paris.
A Paris, chez Pierre Rocolet, Libraire et Imprimeur ord^{re} du Roy, au
Palais, aux Armes du Roy et de la Ville. Avec Privilege de sa Majesté.
1637.
[77] _Several Voyages to Barbary_, second ed., Lond., 1736.
XIX.
THE ABASEMENT OF EUROPE.
16th to 18th Centuries.
It is not too much to say that the history of the foreign relations of
Algiers and Tunis is one long indictment, not of one, but of all the
maritime Powers of Europe, on the charge of cowardice and dishonour.
There was some excuse for dismay at the powerful armaments and
invincible seamanship of Barbarossa or the fateful ferocity of Dragut;
but that all the maritime Powers should have cowered and cringed as
they did before the miserable braggarts who succeeded the heroic age
of Corsairs, and should have suffered their trade to be harassed,
their lives menaced, and their honour stained by a series of insolent
savages, whose entire fleet and army could not stand for a day before
any properly generalled force of a single European Power, seems
absolutely incredible, and yet it is literally true.
Policy and pre-occupation had of course much to say to this state of
things. Policy induced the French to be the friends of Algiers until
Spain lost her menacing supremacy; and even later, Louis XIV. is said
to have remarked, "If there were no Algiers, I would make one."
Policy led the Dutch to ally themselves with the Algerines early in
the seventeenth century, because it suited them to see the lesser
trading States preyed upon. Policy sometimes betrayed England into
suffering the indignities of subsidizing a nest of thieves, that the
thieving might be directed against her enemies. Pre-occupation in
other struggles--our own civil war, the Dutch war, the great
Napoleonic war--may explain the indifference to insult or patience
under affront which had to be displayed during certain periods. But
there were long successions of years when no such apology can be
offered, when no cause whatever can be assigned for the pusillanimity
of the governments of Europe but sheer cowardice, the definite terror
of a barbarous Power which was still believed to possess all the
boundless resources and all the unquenchable courage which had marked
its early days.
Tunis as much as Algiers was the object of the servile dread of
Europe. The custom of offering presents, which were really bribes,
only died out fifty years ago, and there are people who can still
remember the time when consuls-general were made to creep into the
Bey's presence under a wooden bar.[78] One day the Bey ordered the
French consul to kiss his hand; the consul refused, was threatened
with instant death, and--kissed it (1740). When in 1762 an English
ambassador came in a King's ship to announce the accession of George
III., the Bey made the same order, but this time it was compromised by
some of the officers kissing his hand instead of their chief. Austria
was forced to sue for a treaty, and had to pay an annual tribute
(1784). The Danes sent a fleet to beg leave to hoist their flag over
their consulate in Tunis: the Bey asked fifteen thousand sequins for
the privilege, and the admiral sailed away in despair. After the
Venetians had actually defeated the Tunisians several times in the war
of 1784-92, Venice paid the Bey Hamuda forty thousand sequins and
splendid presents for the treaty of peace. About the same time Spain
spent one hundred thousand piastres for the sake of immunity from
piracy; and in 1799 the United States bought a commercial treaty for
fifty thousand dollars down, eight thousand for secret service,
twenty-eight cannon, ten thousand balls, and quantities of powder,
cordage, and jewels. Holland, Sweden, Denmark, Spain, and the United
States were tributaries of the Bey!
Yet we have it on the authority of the Redemptionist Fathers, who were
not likely to underestimate their adversaries, that in 1719 the
Algerines who, "among all the Barbary maritime Powers are much the
strongest," had but twenty-five galleons of eighteen to sixty guns,
besides caravels and brigantines; and it appears they were badly off
for timber, especially for masts, and for iron, cordage, pitch, and
sails. "It is surprising to see in what good condition they keep their
ships, since their country affords not wherewithal to do it.... When
they can get new timber (brought from Bujēya) sufficient to make a
ship's bottom-parts, they finish the remainder with the ruins of prize
vessels, which they perfectly well know how to employ to most
advantage, and thus find the secret of making very neat new ships and
excellent sailers out of old ones."[79] Still twenty-five small
frigates were hardly a big enough bugbear to terrify all Europe, let
them patch them never so neatly. Nevertheless, in 1712, the Dutch
purchased the forbearance of these twenty-five ships by ten
twenty-four pounders mounted, twenty-five large masts, five cables,
four hundred and fifty barrels of powder, two thousand five hundred
great shot, fifty chests of gun barrels, swords, &c., and five
thousand dollars. Being thus handsomely armed, the Algerines naturally
broke the treaty in three years' time, and the Dutch paid even more
for a second truce. So flourished the system of the weak levying
blackmail upon the strong.[80]
The period of Europe's abasement began when the Barbary Corsairs were
recognized as civilized states to be treated with on equal terms: that
is to say, when consuls, ambassadors, and royal letters began to
arrive at Tunis or Algiers. This period began soon after Doria's
disastrous campaign at Jerba, when the battle of Lepanto had destroyed
the prestige of the Ottoman navy, but increased if possible the terror
of the ruthless Corsairs. No really serious attempt was made to put
down the scourge of the Mediterranean between 1560 and Lord Exmouth's
victory in 1816. For nearly all that time the British nation, and most
of the other maritime states, were represented at Algiers and Tunis by
consular agents. Master John Tipton was the first Englishman to become
consul anywhere, and he was consul at Algiers, first appointed by the
newly-formed Turkey Company about 1580, and in 1585 officially named
consul of the British nation by Mr. Harebone, the ambassador of
England at the Sublime Porte. The records of the long succession of
consuls, and agents, and consuls-general, that followed him are a
title-roll of shame. The state of things at almost any point in this
span of two hundred and thirty years may be described in few words. A
consul striving to propitiate a sullen, ignorant, common soldier,
called a Dey; a Christian king, or government, submitting to every
affront put upon his representative, recalling him after mortal
insult, and sending a more obsequious substitute with presents and
fraternal messages; and now and then a King's ship, carrying an
officer of the King's navy, or an ambassador of the King's Council,
irresolutely loitering about the Bay of Algiers trying to mollify a
surly despot, or perhaps to experiment in a little meaningless
bluster, at which the Dey laughs in his sleeve, or even openly, for he
knows he has only to persevere in his demands and every government in
Europe will give in. Consuls may pull down their flags and threaten
war; admirals may come and look stern, and even make a show of a
broadside or two; but the Dey's Christian Brother of St. James's or
the Tuileries--or their ministers for them--have settled that Algiers
cannot be attacked: so loud may he laugh at consul and man-of-war.
To attempt to trace in detail the relations of the Pashas, Deys, and
Beys of the three Barbary States, and the Sherīfs of Morocco, with
the various European Powers, would be a task at once difficult and
wearisome. Those with England will be quite sufficient for the
purpose, and here, in regard to Algiers, we have the advantage of
following the researches of the Agent and Consul-General there, Sir R.
Lambert Playfair, who in his _Scourge of Christendom_,[81] has set
forth the principal incidents of British relations with the Dey in
great detail, and has authenticated his statements by references to
official documents of unimpeachable veracity. The facts which he
brings to light in a volume of over three hundred pages can here of
course be but slightly touched upon, but the reader may turn to his
interesting narrative for such more particular information as space
excludes from these pages.
The general results arrived at from a study of Sir Lambert Playfair's
researches are painful to English self-respect. It is possible that
our consuls were not always wisely chosen, and it was a vital defect
in our early consular system that our agents were allowed to trade.
Mercantile interests, especially in a Corsair state, are likely to
clash with the duties of a consul. Some consuls, moreover, were
clearly unfitted for their posts. Of one it is recorded that he drank
to excess; another is described as "a litigious limb of the law, who
values himself upon having practised his talents in that happy
occupation with success, against every man that business or occasion
gave him dealings with;" a third is represented as "sitting on his
bed, with his sword and a brace of pistols at his side, calling for a
clergyman to give him the Sacraments that he may die contented."
Still, in the long list of consuls, the majority were honourable,
upright men, devoted to their country, and anxious to uphold her
interests and rights. How were they rewarded? If their own government
resented a single act of the ferocious monster they called the
Dey--who was any common Janissary chosen by his comrades[82]--the
consul went in fear of his life, nay, sometimes was positively
murdered. If he was a strong-minded, courageous man, and refused to
stoop to the degradation which was expected of him at the Dey's
palace, he could not reckon on support at home; he might be recalled,
or his judgment reversed, or he might even pull down the consular flag
only to see it run up again by a more temporising successor, appointed
by a government which had already endorsed his own resistance. He
might generously become surety for thousands of pounds of ransoms for
English captives, and never receive back a penny from home. Whatever
happened, the consul was held responsible by the Algerines, and on the
arrival of adverse news a threatening crowd would surround his house.
Sometimes the consul and every Englishman in Algiers would be seized
and thrown into prison, and their effects ransacked, and never a
chance of restitution. Many were utterly ruined by the extortions of
the Dey and governors. Heavy bribes--called "the customary
presents"--had to be distributed on the arrival of each fresh consul;
and it is easy to understand that the Dey took care that they did not
hold the office too long. The government presents were never rich
enough, and the unlucky consul had to make up the deficit out of his
own pocket. The Dey would contemptuously hand over a magnificently
jewelled watch to his head cook in the presence of the donor; and no
consul was received at the Palace until the "customary presents" were
received. The presence of a remonstrating admiral in the bay was a new
source of danger; for the consul would probably be thrown into prison
and his family turned homeless into the streets, while his dragoman
received a thousand stripes of the bastinado. When the French shelled
Algiers in 1683, the Vicar Apostolic, Jean de Vacher, who was acting
as consul, and had worked untiringly among the poor captives for
thirty-six years, was, by order of Mezzomorto, with many of his
countrymen, blown from the cannon's mouth;[83] and the same thing
happened to his successor in 1688, when forty-eight other Frenchmen
suffered the same barbarous death. The most humiliating etiquette was
observed in the Dey's court: the consul must remove his shoes and
sword, and reverently kiss the rascal's hand. The Hon. Archibald
Campbell Fraser, in 1767, was the first consul who flatly refused to
pay this unparalleled act of homage, and he was told, in a few years,
that the Dey had no occasion for him, and he might go--as if he were
the Dey's servant. "Dear friend of this our kingdom," wrote that
potentate to H. M. George III. of England, "I gave him my orders,--and
he was insolent!" Mr. Fraser went, but was sent back to be reinstated
by a squadron of His Majesty's ships. Admiral Sir Peter Denis sailed
into Algiers Bay, and having ascertained that the Dey would not
consent to receive Mr. Fraser again, sailed out again. His Majesty's
Government expressed themselves as completely satisfied with the
admiral's action, and resolved to leave the Dey to his reflections.
Finally, in the very next year, King George accepts his friend of
Algiers' excuses, and appoints a new consul, specially charged "to
conduct himself in a manner agreeable to you." The nation paid a
pension of £600 a year to Mr. Fraser as indemnity for its Government's
poltroonery.
Every fresh instance of submission naturally swelled the overweening
insolence of the Deys. A consul had a Maltese cook: the Dey objected
to the Maltese, and took the man by force from the consul's house and
sent him away in irons. If the consul objected, he might go too. When
Captain Hope, of H.M.S. _Romulus_, arrived at Algiers, he received no
salute; the consul was ordered to go aboard, leaving his very linen
behind him; and frigate and consul were ordered out of the harbour.
Consul Falcon, so late as 1803, was arrested on a trumped-up charge,
and forcibly expelled the city: truly Consul Cartwright might describe
the consular office of Algiers as "the next step to the infernal
regions." In 1808, merely because the usual tribute was late, the
Danish consul was seized and heavily ironed, made to sleep in the
common prison, and set to labour with the slaves. The whole consular
body rose as one man and obtained his release, but his wife died from
the shock. A French consul about the same time died from similar
treatment.
Were all these consuls maltreated for mere obstinacy about trifles?
The records of piracy will answer that question. So early as 1582,
when England was at peace with the Porte (and as she continued to be
for 220 years), gentlemen of good birth began to find a voyage in the
Mediterranean a perilous adventure. Two Scottish lairds, the Masters
of Morton and Oliphant, remained for years prisoners at Algiers. Sir
Thomas Roe, proceeding to his post as ambassador at Constantinople,
said that unless checked the Algerine pirates will brave even the
armies of kings at sea, and endanger the coasts [which would have been
no new thing], and reported that their last cruise had brought in
forty-nine British vessels, and that there would soon be one thousand
English slaves in Algiers: the pirates were even boasting that they
would go to England and fetch men out of their beds, as it was their
habit to do in Spain. And indeed it was but a few years later that
they sacked Baltimore in County Cork, and literally carried out their
threat. The Corsairs' galleons might be sighted at any moment off
Plymouth Hoe or Hartland Point, and the worthy merchants of Bristol,
commercial princes in their way, dared not send their richly laden
bottoms to sea for fear of a brush with the enemy.
The Reverend Devereux Spratt was captured off Youghal as he was
crossing only from Cork to Bristol, and so distressed was the good man
at the miserable condition of many of the slaves at Algiers, that when
he was ransomed he yielded to their entreaties and stayed a year or
two longer to comfort them with his holy offices.[84] It was
ministrations such as his that were most needed by the captives: of
bodily ill-treatment they had little to complain, but alienation from
their country, the loss of home and friends, the terrible fate too
often of wife and children--these were the instruments of despair and
disbelief in God's providence, and for such as were thus tormented the
clergyman was a minister of consolation. In the sad circle of the
captives marriages and baptisms nevertheless took place, and some are
recorded in the parish register of Castmell, Lancashire, as having
been performed in "Argeir" by Mr. Spratt.
Matters went from bad to worse. Four hundred British ships were taken
in three or four years before 1622. Petitions went up to the Houses of
Parliament from the ruined merchants of the great ports of England.
Imploring letters came in from poor Consul Frizell, who continued to
plead for succour for twenty years, and then disappeared, ruined and
unaided. Touching petitions reached England from the poor captives
themselves,--English seamen and captains, or plain merchants bringing
home their wealth, now suddenly arrested and stripped of all they
possessed: piteous letters from out the very bagnios themselves, full
of tears and entreaties for help. In the fourth decade of the
seventeenth century there were three thousand husbands and fathers and
brothers in Algerine prisons, and it was no wonder that the wives and
daughters thronged the approaches to the House of Commons and besieged
the members with their prayers and sobs.
Every now and then a paltry sum was doled out by Government for the
ransom of slaves, whose capture was due to official supineness; and we
find the House of Lords subscribing nearly £3,000 for the same object.
In the first quarter of the seventeenth century 240 British slaves
were redeemed for £1,200; and the Algerines, who looked upon the whole
matter in a businesslike spirit, not only were willing to give every
facility for their purchase, but even sent a special envoy to the
Court of St. James's to forward the negotiations. Towards the middle
of the century a good many more were rescued by Edmond Casson as agent
for the Government. Alice Hayes of Edinburgh was ransomed for 1,100
double pesetas (two francs each), Sarah Ripley of London for 800, a
Dundee woman for only 200, others for as much as 1,390; while men
generally fetched about 500.[85] Sometimes, but very rarely, the
captives made their own escape. The story is told by Purchas[86] of
four English youths who were left on board a prize, the _Jacob_ of
Bristol, to help a dozen Turkish captors to navigate her, and who
threw the captain overboard, killed three more, drove the rest under
hatches, and sold them for a round sum in the harbour of San Lucar by
Cadiz. Even more exciting were the adventures of William Okeley, who
in 1639 was taken on board the _Mary_ bound for the West Indies, when
but six days from the Isle of Wight. His master, a Moor, gave him
partial liberty, and allowed him to keep a wineshop, in consideration
of a monthly payment of two dollars; and in the cellar of his shop the
slave secretly constructed a light canoe of canvas, while the staves
of empty winepipes furnished the oars. These he and his comrades
smuggled down to the beach, and five of them embarked in the crazy
craft, which bore them safely to Majorca. The hardest part was the
farewell to two more who were to have accompanied them, but were found
to overweight the little boat.
Several other narratives of successful escapes may be read in the
volume of voyages published by the Redemptionist Fathers, and
translated by Joseph Morgan. One at least is worth quoting:
"A good number, of different nations, but mostly Majorcans, conspired
to get away by night with a row-boat [_i.e._, brigantine] ready for
the cruise: they were in all about seventy. Having appointed a place
of rendezvous, at dead of night they got down through a sewer into the
port: but the dogs, which are there very numerous, ran barking at
them; some they killed with clubs and stones. At this noise, those who
were on guard, as well ashore as in the ships, bawled out with all
their might, 'Christians! Christians!' They then assembled and ran
towards the noise. And forty of the slaves having entered the
_fregata_, or row-boat, and being stronger than those who guarded her,
they threw them all into the sea; and it being their business to
hasten out of the port, embarrassed with cables of the many ships
which then quite filled it, and as they were desirous of taking the
shortest cut, they took the resolution of leaping all into the water,
hoisting up the boat on their shoulders, and wading with it till clear
of all those cables. Spite of the efforts to prevent their design,
they made out to sea, and soon reached Majorca. On hearing this the
Dey cried out, 'I believe these dogs of Christians will come one day
or other and take us out of our houses!'"[87]
Ransoms and escapes were more than made up by fresh captures. In 1655,
indeed, Admiral Blake, after trying to bring the Tunisians to terms,
ran into the harbour of Porto Farina on the 3rd of April, where the
fleet of the Bey, consisting of nine vessels, was anchored close in
under the guns of the forts and earthworks, and under a heavy fire he
burnt every one of them: then proceeding to Algiers, found the city in
such consternation that he liberated the whole body of British slaves
(English, Scots, Irish, and Channel Islanders) for a trifling sum.
Nevertheless, four years later, the Earl of Inchiquin, notorious as
"Morough of the Burnings," from his manner of making war, and his son,
Lord O'Brien, were caught off the Tagus while engaged in one of those
foreign services in which royalists were apt to enlist during the
troubles at home, and it took the Earl seven or eight months'
captivity and 7,500 crowns to obtain his release. In the following
century the remnant of the brave Hibernian Regiment, on its way from
Italy, was surrounded and overcome, to the number of about eighty, and
was treated with peculiar barbarity. It was no rare thing to see
British ships--once even a sloop of war--brought captive into Algiers
harbour, on some pretext of their papers being out of form; and the
number of slaves continued to increase, in spite of the philanthropic
efforts of some of the wealthy merchants, like William Bowtell, who
devoted themselves to the humane attempt.
Very often it was the captive's own fault that he was taken.
Frequently he was serving on a vessel of a power then at war with
Algiers. The system of passes for the Mediterranean opened the way to
a good deal of knavery; ships sailed under false colours, or, being
themselves at war with Algiers, carried passes purchased from her
allies. The Algerines were shy of contracting too many alliances, lest
there should be no nation to prey upon, and we read of a solemn debate
in the Divan to decide which nation should be broken with, inasmuch as
the slave-masters were becoming bankrupt from the pacific relations of
the State. This was when the cupidity of the Dey had led him to accept
a heavy bribe from Sweden in return for his protection, and the
Corsairs rushed excitedly to the palace declaring that they had
already too many allies: "Neither in the ocean nor narrow sea can we
find scarce any who are not French, English, or Dutch; nothing remains
for us to do, but either to sell our ships for fuel, and return to
our primitive camel-driving, or to break with one of these
nations."[88] Thus there was generally one favoured nation--or perhaps
two--to whom the Algerines accorded the special favour of
safe-conducts over the Mediterranean, and it was the object of all
other traders to borrow or buy these free passes from their happy
possessors. The Algerines were not unnaturally incensed at finding
themselves cheated by means of their own passes. "As for the
Flemings," complained the Corsairs, "they are a good people enough,
never deny us anything, nor are they worse than their word, like the
French; but they certainly play foul tricks upon us, in selling their
passes to other infidels: For ever since we made peace with them, we
rarely light on either Swede, Dane, Hamburgher, &c. All have Dutch
complexions; all Dutch passes; all call each other _Hans, Hans_, and
all say _Yaw, Yaw!_"
Many of these counterfeit allies carried English seamen, and such, not
being under their own colours, were liable to be detained in slavery.
So numerous was this class of captives that, although in 1694 it was
reported that no Englishmen captured under the British flag remained
in slavery in Algiers, there was ample application soon afterwards for
Betton's beneficial bequest of over £21,000 for the purpose of
ransoming British captives.
Expedition after expedition was sent to argue, to remonstrate, to
threaten, with literally no result. Ambassador after ambassador came
and went, and made useless treaties, and still the Algerines
maintained the preposterous _right to search British vessels_ at sea,
and take from them foreigners and goods. Sir Robert Mansell first
arrived in 1620 with eighteen ships and five hundred guns, manned by
2,600 men; and accomplished nothing. As soon as they turned their
backs the pirates took forty British ships. Sir Thomas Roe made a
treaty, which turned out to be waste paper. Blake frightened the
Corsairs for the moment. The Earl of Winchelsea, in 1660, admitted the
right of search. Lord Sandwich in the following year cannonaded
Algiers without result from a safe distance. Four times Sir Thomas
Allen brought his squadron into the bay, and four times sailed he out,
having gained half his purpose, and twice his desert of insult: "These
men," cried 'Ali Aga, "talk as if they were drunk, and would force us
to restore their subjects whether they will or no! Bid them
begone."[89] The only satisfactory event to be reported after fifty
years of fruitless expeditions is Sir E. Spragg's attack on the
Algerine fleet, beached under the guns of Bujēya: like Blake, he
sent in a fireship and burnt the whole squadron. Whereupon the
Janissaries rose in consternation, murdered their Aga, and, carrying
his head to the Palace, insisted on peace with England.
It was a very temporary display of force. Five years later Sir John
Narborough, instead of bombarding, was meekly paying sixty thousand
"pieces of eight" to the Algerines for slaves and presents. In 1681
Admiral Herbert, afterwards Lord Torrington, executed various amicable
cruises against the Algerines. In 1684 Sir W. Soame with difficulty
extorted a salute of twenty-one guns to His Britannic Majesty's flag.
And so the weary tale of irresolution and weakness went on. Admiral
Keppel's expedition in 1749 is chiefly memorable for the presence of
Sir Joshua Reynolds as a guest on board the flagship; and it is
possible that two sketches reproduced by Sir Lambert Playfair are from
his pencil: the drawings were the only fruit of the cruise. James
Bruce, the African traveller, as agent or consul-general in 1763, put
a little backbone into the communications, but he soon went on his
travels, and then the old fruitless course of humble remonstrances and
idle demonstrations went on again. Whenever more serious attempts were
made, the preparations were totally inadequate. Spain, Portugal,
Naples, and Malta sent a combined fleet in 1784 to punish the
Algerines, but the vessels were all small and such as the Corsairs
could tackle, and so feeble and desultory was the attack that, after a
fortnight's fooling, the whole fleet sailed away.
FOOTNOTES:
[78] Broadley, _Tunis_, i. 51.
[79] _Several Voyages_, 97.
[80] _Ibid._ 104, note.
[81] London: Smith and Elder, 1884.
[82] Up to 1618 Algiers was governed by a Pasha directly appointed by
the Sultan; from 1618 the Pasha was chosen by the Janissaries and other
militia subject to the veto of the Sultan; in 1671 the Janissaries
first elected a Dey out of their own number, every soldier being
eligible, and their Dey soon made the Sultan's Pasha a lay figure; in
1710 the two offices were united in a Dey chosen by the soldiery. These
parvenus were by no means ashamed of their origin or principles.
Mohammed Dey (1720), getting into a passion with the French consul,
exclaimed with more frankness than courtesy: "My mother sold sheeps'
feet, and my father sold neats' tongues, but they would have been
ashamed to expose for sale so worthless a tongue as thine." Another
time the Dey confessed with dignified _naïveté_ to Consul Cole: "The
Algerines are a company of rogues--_and I am their Captain!_"
[83] _Several Voyages_, 111 ff.
[84] See his descendant Adm. Spratt's _Travels and Researches in
Crete_, i. 384-7.
[85] Playfair, 64 ff.
[86] _Voyages_, ii. 887.
[87] _Several Voyages_, 57-8.
[88] Morgan, Pref. v., vi.
[89] Playfair, 94.
XX.
THE UNITED STATES AND TRIPOLI.
1803-5.
These dark days of abasement were pierced by one ray of sunlight; the
United States refused the tribute demanded by the Barbary Rovers. From
its very birth the new nation had, in common with all other maritime
countries, accepted as a necessary evil a practice it was now full
time to abolish. As early as 1785 the Dey of Algiers found in American
commerce a fresh field for his ploughing; and of all traders, none
proved so welcome as that which boasted of its shipping, yet carried
not an ounce of shot to defend it. Hesitating protests and
negotiations were essayed in vain; until at last public opinion was so
aroused by the sufferings of the captives as to demand of Congress the
immediate construction of a fleet. Ill news travels apace, and the
rumours of these preparations echoed so promptly among the white walls
of Algiers, that the Dey hastened to conclude a treaty; and so, long
before the frigates were launched, immunity was purchased by the
payment of a heavy tribute. Like all cowardly compromises, this one
shaped itself into a two-edged sword; and soon every rover from
Mogador to the Gates of the Bosphorus was clamouring for _backsheesh_.
In 1800, Yūsuf, the Pasha of Tripoli, threatened to slip his
falcons upon the western quarry, unless presents, similar to those
given by England, France, and Spain, were immediately sent him. He
complained that the American Government had bribed his neighbours, the
cut-throats of Tunis, at a higher price, and he saw no reason why,
like his cousin of Algiers, he should not receive a frigate as
hush-money. His answer to a letter of the President, containing
honeyed professions of friendship, was amusing. "We would ask," he
said, "that these your expressions be followed by deeds, and not by
empty words. You will, therefore, endeavour to satisfy us by a good
manner of proceeding.... But if only flattering words are meant
without performance, every one will act as he finds convenient. We beg
a speedy answer without neglect of time, as a delay upon your part
cannot but be prejudicial to your interests."
The Bey of Tunis made demands no less arrogant. He declared that
Denmark, Spain, Sicily, and Sweden had made concessions to him, and
then he announced: "It would be impossible to keep peace longer,
unless the President sent him without delay ten thousand stand of arms
and forty cannons of _different calibre_. And all these last" (he
added, with a fine Hibernicism) "must be 24-pounders." Algiers hinted
that her money was in arrears, and Morocco intimated that her delay
in arranging terms was due simply to the full consideration which she
was giving to a matter so important.
Whatever other faults Yūsuf of Tripoli may have had, he was in this
matter as good as his word, and the six months' notice having been
fruitless, he proclaimed war on May 14, 1801, by chopping down the
flagstaff of the American Consulate. But the government of the United
States was weary of the old traditions followed by Christendom in its
dealings with these swashbucklers. They had by this time afloat a
small but effective squadron, and were very proud of the successes it
had gained in the _quasi_-war with France just ended. They were tired
also of a policy which was utterly at odds with their boast that all
men were born free and equal, and the nation was roused with the
shibboleth that there were "millions for defence, but not one cent for
tribute."
When the excitement had cooled, however, it seemed as if there was as
usual to be more in the promise than in the performance, for, though a
force existed sufficient for vigorous and decisive action, nothing was
accomplished during two years and more. Of the three squadrons sent
out, the first, under Dale, was hampered by the narrow restrictions of
the President's orders, due to constitutional scruples as to the
propriety of taking hostile measures before Congress had declared war;
and the second was unfortunate in its commander, though individual
deeds reflected the greatest credit upon many of the subordinate
officers. In 1803 the third squadron assembled at Gibraltar under the
broad pennant of Commodore Edward Preble, and then at last came the
time for vigorous measures.
The flag-officer's objective point was Tripoli, but hardly were his
ships gathered for concerted action, when the _Philadelphia_,
thirty-six guns, captured off the coast of Spain the _Meshboa_, an
armed cruiser which belonged to Morocco, and had in company as prize
the Boston brig _Celia_. Of course it was of the highest importance to
discover upon what authority the capture had been made; but the
Moorish commander lied loyally, and swore that he had taken the
_Celia_ in anticipation of a war which he was sure had been declared,
because of the serious misunderstanding existing when he was last in
port between his Emperor and the American consul. This story was too
improbable to be believed, and Captain Bainbridge of the
_Philadelphia_ threatened to hang as a common pirate the mendacious
Reïs Ibrahīm Lubarez unless he showed his commission. When the
rover saw this menace did not issue in idleness, he confessed he had
been mistaken, and that he had been ordered by the Governor of
Tangiers to capture American vessels. This made the matter one which
required decisive action, and so the prize was towed to Gibraltar, and
Preble sailed for Tangiers to demand satisfaction. There was the usual
interchange of paper bullets and of salutes; but, in the end, the
aggressive Commodore prevailed. The Emperor expressed his regret for
the hostile acts, and disowned them; he punished the marauders,
released all vessels previously captured, agreed to ratify the treaty
made by his father in 1786, and added that "his friendship for
America should last for ever."
This affair being settled, Preble detailed the _Philadelphia_ and
_Vixen_ for the blockade of Tripoli, and then, as the season was too
advanced for further operations, began preparations for the repairs
and equipment needed for the next season.
The work assigned to the _Philadelphia_ and _Vixen_ was rigorous, for
the coast--fretted with shoals, reefs, and unknown currents, and
harassed by sudden squalls, strong gales, and bad holding
grounds--demanded unceasing watchfulness, and rendered very difficult
the securing of proper food and ship's stores from the distance of the
supplying base. Bad as this was in the beginning, it became worse when
in October the _Vixen_ sailed eastward in search of a Tripolitan
cruiser which was said to have slipped past the line at night, for
then the whole duty, mainly inshore chasing, fell to the deep-draught
frigate. It was while thus employed that she came to misfortune, as
Cooper writes, in his History of the United States Navy: "Towards the
last of October the wind, which had been strong from the westward for
some time previously, drove the _Philadelphia_ a considerable distance
to the eastward of the town, and on Monday, October the 31st, as she
was running down to her station again with a fair breeze, about nine
in the morning a vessel was seen inshore and to windward, standing for
Tripoli. Sail was made to cut her off. Believing himself to be within
long gun-shot a little before eleven, and seeing no other chance of
overtaking the stranger in the short distance that remained, Captain
Bainbridge opened fire in the hope of cutting something away. For near
an hour longer the chase and the fire were continued; the lead, which
was kept constantly going, giving from seven to ten fathoms, and the
ship hauling up and keeping away as the water shoaled or deepened. At
half-past eleven, Tripoli then being in plain sight, distant a little
more than a league, (satisfied that he could neither overtake the
chase nor force her ashore,) Captain Bainbridge ordered the helm
a-port to haul directly off the land into deep water. The next cast of
the lead, when this order was executed, gave but eight fathoms, and
this was immediately followed by casts that gave seven and six and a
half. At this moment the wind was nearly abeam, and the ship had eight
knots way upon her. When the cry of 'half-six' was heard, the helm was
put hard down and the yards were ordered to be braced sharp up. While
the ship was coming up fast to the wind, and before she had lost her
way, she struck a reef forwards, and shot on it until she lifted
between five and six feet."
Every effort was made to get her off, but in vain. The noise of the
cannonading brought out nine gun-boats; and then, as if by magic,
swarms of wreckers slipped by the inner edge of the shore, stole from
some rocky inlet, or rushed from mole and galley, and keeping beyond
range, like vultures near a battle-field, awaited the surrender of the
ship. A gallant fight was made with the few guns left mounted, but at
last the enemy took up a position on the ship's weather quarter, where
her strong heel to port forbade the bearing of a single piece. "The
gun-boats," continues the historian, "were growing bolder every
minute, and night was at hand. Captain Bainbridge, after consulting
again with his officers, felt it to be an imperious duty to haul down
his flag, to save the lives of his people. Before this was done the
magazines were drowned, holes were bored in the ship's bottom, the
pumps were choked, and everything was performed that it was thought
would make sure the final loss of the vessel. About five o'clock the
colours were lowered." The ship was looted, the officers and men were
robbed, half stripped in some cases, and that night the crew was
imprisoned in a foul Tripolitan den. Within a week the rovers, aided
by favourable winds and unusual tides, not only got the _Philadelphia_
afloat, but, as the scuttling had been hastily done, towed her into
port, and weighed all the guns and anchors that lay in shallow water
on the reef. The ship was immediately repaired, the guns were
re-mounted, and the gallant but unfortunate Bainbridge had the final
misery of seeing his old command safely moored off the town, and about
a quarter of a mile from the Pasha's castle.
[Illustration: TRIPOLI.
(_Ogilby's Africa, 1670._)]
Preble heard of this catastrophe from an English frigate to which he
spoke off Sardinia on his way to Tripoli. The blow was a severe one,
for the ship represented over one-third of his fighting force, and the
great number of captives gave the enemy a material and sentimental
strength which he would be sure to use pitilessly in all future
negotiations. But the energetic sailor was only stimulated by the
disaster to greater exertions, and plans were immediately made for the
destruction of the captured ship. Fortunately there was no lack of
material, and, in selecting the leaders, it became an embarrassment to
decide between the claims of the volunteers. Finally the choice fell
upon Lieutenant Stephen Decatur. He was at this time twenty-four years
of age, and had by his marked qualities so distinguished himself as to
have been appointed to the command of the _Enterprise_. To great
prudence, self-control, and judgment, he united the dash, daring, and
readiness of resources which have always characterized the famous
sailors of the world; and in the victory which made his name renowned
in naval annals, he displayed these qualities in such a high degree as
to deserve the greatest credit for what he achieved as well as for
what, under great temptation, he declined to do.
After taking on board a load of combustibles, the _Intrepid_ sailed
from Syracuse for Tripoli upon the 3rd of February, 1804. The ketch
itself had a varied history, for she was originally a French gun
vessel, which had been captured by the English in Egypt and presented
to Tripoli, and which finally was seized by Decatur while running for
Constantinople with a present of female slaves for the Grand Vezīr.
The brig _Siren_, Lieutenant Charles Stewart, commanding, convoyed the
expedition, and had orders to cover the retreat, and if feasible to
assist the attack with its boats. In affairs of this kind personal
comfort is always the least consideration, but had not the weather
been pleasant, the hardships endured might seriously have affected the
success of the enterprise. The five commissioned officers were crowded
in the small cabin; the midshipmen and pilot on one side, and the
seamen upon the other, were stowed like herrings upon "a platform laid
across water-casks, whose surface they completely covered when they
slept, and at so small a distance below the spar deck that their heads
would reach it when seated." To these inconveniences were added the
want of any room for exercise on deck, the attacks of innumerable
vermin which their predecessors, the slaves, had left behind them, and
(as the salted meat put on board had spoiled) the lack of anything but
biscuits to eat and water to drink.
After a voyage of six days the town was sighted, but strong winds had
rendered the entrances dangerous, and the heavy gale which came with
night drove the Americans so far to the eastward before it abated that
they found themselves fairly embayed in the Gulf of Sidra. On the
afternoon of the 16th Tripoli was once more made out; and as the wind
was light, the weather pleasant, and the sea smooth, Decatur
determined to attack that night. By arrangement the _Siren_ kept
almost out of sight during the day, and her appearance was so changed
as to lull all suspicion of her true character. The lightness of the
wind allowed the ketch to maintain the appearance of an anxious desire
to reach the harbour before night, without bringing her too near to
require any other change than the use of drags (in this case buckets
towed astern) which could not be seen from the city. The crew was kept
below, excepting six or eight persons at a time, so that inquiry might
not be awakened by unusual numbers; and such men remained on deck as
were dressed like Maltese. When the _Philadelphia_ was sighted, no
doubt was left of the hazardous nature of the attack, for she lay a
mile within the entrance, riding to the wind and abreast of the town.
Her foremast, which was cut away while on the reef, had not yet been
replaced, her main and mizzen masts were housed, and her lower yards
were on the gunwales. The lower standing rigging, however, was set up,
and her battery was loaded and shotted. She lay within short range of
the guns on the castle, on the mole-head, and in the New Fort; and
close aboard rode three Tripolitan cruisers and twenty gun-boats and
galleys. To meet and overcome this force Decatur had a few small guns
and seventy men, but these were hearts of oak, tried in many a
desperate undertaking, and burning now to redeem their country's
honour.
As the _Intrepid_ drew in with the land, they saw that the boiling
surf of the western passage would force them to select the northern
entrance, which twisted and turned between the rocks and the shoals.
It was now nearly ten o'clock, and as the ketch drifted in before the
light easterly breeze she seemed a modest trader bent upon barter, and
laden with anything but the hopes of a nation.
The night was beautiful; a young moon sailed in the sky; the lights
from wall and tower and town, and from the ships lazily rocking at the
anchorages, filled the water with a thousand points of fire. The
gentle breeze wafted the little craft past reefs and rocks into the
harbour noiselessly, save for the creaking of the yards, the
complainings of the block, the wimple of wavelets at the bow, and the
gurgle of eddies at the pintles and under the plashing counter. On
deck forward only a few figures were silhouetted against the
background of white wall and grayish sky; and aft Decatur and the
pilot stood conning the ship as it stole slowly for the frigate's bow.
Owing to the ketch's native rig, and to the glib Tripolitanese of the
Sicilian pilot, no suspicion was excited in the _Philadelphia's_ watch
by the answer to their hail that she had lost her anchors in a gale
and would like to run a line to the war-ship and to ride by it through
the night. So completely were the Tripolitans deceived that they
lowered a boat and sent it with a hawser, while at the same time some
of the _Intrepid's_ crew leisurely ran a fast to the frigate's
fore-chains. As these returned they met the enemy's boat, took its
rope, and passed it into their own vessel. Slowly, but firmly, it was
hauled upon by the men on board, lying on their backs, and slowly and
surely the _Intrepid_ was warped alongside. But at the critical moment
the ruse was discovered, and up from the enemies' decks went the
wolf-like howl of "Americanos! Americanos!"
The cry roused the soldiers in the forts and batteries, and the chorus
these awakened startled the Pasha from his sleep, and thrilled with
joy the captive Americans behind their prison walls.
In another moment the _Intrepid_ had swung broadside on, and
quickly-passed lashings held the two ships locked in a deadly embrace.
Then Decatur's cry of "board" rang out, and with a quick rush, and the
discharge of only a single gun, the decks were gained.
The surprise was as perfect as the assault was rapid, and the
Tripolitan crew, panic stricken, huddled like rats at bay awaiting the
final dash. Decatur had early gathered his men aft, stood a moment for
them to gain a sight of the enemy, and then, with the watchword
"_Philadelphia_" rushed upon the rovers. No defence was made, for,
swarming to leeward, they tumbled, in mad affright, overboard; over
the bows, through gun-ports, by aid of trailing halliards and stranded
rigging, out of the channels, pell-mell by every loop-hole they
went--and then, such as could, swam like water-rats for the friendly
shelter of the neighbouring war-galleys.
One by one the decks and holds were cleared, and in ten minutes
Decatur had possession of the ship, without a man killed, and only one
slightly wounded. In the positions selected so carefully beforehand,
the appointed divisions assembled and piled up and fired the
combustibles. Each party acted by itself, and as it was ready; and so
rapid were all in their movements, that those assigned to the
after-holds had scarcely reached the cockpit and stern store-rooms
before the fires were lighted over their heads. Indeed, when the
officer entrusted with this duty had completed his task, he found the
after-hatches so filled with smoke from the fire in the ward-room and
steerage, that he was obliged to escape to the deck by the forward
ladders.
Satisfied that the work was thoroughly done, the Americans leaped upon
the _Intrepid's_ deck, cut with swords and axes the hawsers lashing
them to the _Philadelphia_, manned the sweeps, and, just as the
flames were scorching their own yards and bulwarks, swung clear. Then
came the struggle for escape, and this last scene can best be told,
perhaps, in the words of one of the participants, Commodore Charles
Morriss, who gave on that night, when he was the first to board the
_Philadelphia_, the earliest proof of the great qualities which
afterwards made him one of the first sailors of his time. "Up to this
time," he wrote, "the ships and batteries of the enemy had remained
silent, but they were now prepared to act; and when the crew of the
ketch gave three cheers in exultation of their success, they received
the return of a general discharge from the enemy. The confusion of the
moment probably prevented much care in their direction, and though
under the fire of nearly a hundred pieces for half an hour, the only
shot which struck the ketch was one through the topgallant sail. We
were in greater danger from the _Philadelphia_, whose broadsides
commanded the passage by which we were retreating, and whose guns were
loaded, and discharged as they became heated. We escaped these also,
and while urging the ketch onwards with sweeps, the crew were
commenting upon the beauty of the spray thrown up by the shot between
us and the brilliant light of the ship, rather than calculating any
danger that might be apprehended from the contact. The appearance of
the ship was, indeed, magnificent. The flames in the interior
illuminated her ports, and, ascending her rigging and masts, formed
columns of fire, which, meeting the tops, were reflected into
beautiful capitals; whilst the occasional discharge of her guns gave
an idea of some directing spirit within her. The walls of the city
and its batteries, and the masts and rigging of cruisers at anchor,
brilliantly illuminated and animated by the discharge of artillery,
formed worthy adjuncts and an appropriate background to the picture.
Fanned by a light breeze our exertions soon carried us beyond the
range of their shot, and at the entrance of the harbour we met the
boats of the _Siren_, which had been intended to co-operate with us,
and whose crew rejoiced at our success, whilst they grieved at not
having been able to partake in it.... The success of this enterprise
added much to the reputation of the navy, both at home and abroad.
Great credit was given, and was justly due to Commodore Preble, who
directed and first designed it, and to Lieutenant Decatur, who
volunteered to execute it, and to whose coolness, self-possession,
resources, and intrepidity its success was, in an eminent degree,
due."
Commodore Preble, in the meantime, hurried his preparations for more
serious work, and on July 25th arrived off Tripoli with a squadron,
consisting of the frigate _Constitution_, three brigs, three
schooners, six gun-boats, and two bomb vessels. Opposed to him were
arrayed over a hundred guns mounted on shore batteries, nineteen
gun-boats, one ten-gun brig, two schooners mounting eight guns each,
and twelve galleys. Between August 3rd and September 3rd five attacks
were made, and though the town was never reduced, substantial damage
was inflicted, and the subsequent satisfactory peace rendered
possible. Preble was relieved by Barron in September, not because of
any loss of confidence in his ability, but from exigencies of the
service, which forbade the Government sending out an officer junior to
him in the relief squadron which reinforced his own. Upon his return
to the United States he was presented with a gold medal, and the
thanks of Congress were tendered him, his officers, and men, for
gallant and faithful services.
The blockade was maintained vigorously, and in 1805 an attack was made
upon the Tripolitan town of Derna, by a combined land and naval force;
the former being under command of Consul-General Eaton, who had been a
captain in the American army, and of Lieutenant O'Bannon of the
Marines. The enemy made a spirited though disorganized defence, but
the shells of the war-ships drove them from point to point, and
finally their principal work was carried by the force under O'Bannon
and Midshipman Mann. Eaton was eager to press forward, but he was
denied reinforcements and military stores, and much of his advantage
was lost. All further operations were, however, discontinued in June,
1805, when, after the usual intrigues, delays, and prevarications, a
treaty was signed by the Pasha, which provided that no further tribute
should be exacted, and that American vessels should be for ever free
of his rovers. Satisfactory as was this conclusion, the uncomfortable
fact remains that tribute entered into the settlement. After all the
prisoners had been exchanged man for man, the Tripolitan Government
demanded, and the United States paid, the handsome sum of sixty
thousand dollars to close the contract.
This treaty, however, awakened the conscience of Europe, and from the
day it was signed the power of the Barbary Corsairs began to wane. The
older countries saw their duty more clearly, and ceased to legalize
robbery on the high seas. To America the success gave an immediate
position which could not easily have been gained in any other way,
and, apart from its moral results, the contest with Tripoli was the
most potent factor in consolidating the navy of the United States.
XXI.
THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS.
1816.
Nelson was in the Mediterranean at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, as every one knows, but the suppression of the Barbary
Corsairs formed no part of his instructions. Twice, indeed, he sent a
ship of war to inquire into the complaints of the consuls, but without
effect; and then on the glorious Twenty-First of October, 1805, the
great admiral fell in the supreme hour of victory. Collingwood made no
attempt to deal with the Algerine difficulty, beyond sending a
civilian agent and a present of a watch, which the Dey consigned to
his cook. The British victories appear to have impressed the pirates'
mind but slightly; and in 1812 we find Mr. A'Court (Lord Heytesbury)
condescending to negotiate terms between the Corsairs and our allies
the Portuguese, by which the latter obtained immunity from molestation
and the release of their countrymen by the payment altogether of over
a million of dollars, and an annual tribute of $24,000.
To the United States of America belongs the honour of having first
set an example of spirited resistance to the pretensions of the
Corsairs. So long as they had been at war with Great Britain, the
States were unable to protect their commerce in the Mediterranean; and
they were forced to fall in with the prevailing custom and make peace
with the robbers on the basis of a bribe over a million of Spanish
dollars, and a large annual tribute in money and naval stores. But as
soon as the Treaty of Ghent set them free in 1815 they sent a squadron
to Algiers, bearing Mr. William Shaler as American consul, and
Captains Bainbridge and Stephen Decatur as his assessors in the
impending negotiations. The result was that after only two days a
Treaty was concluded on June 30, 1815, by which all money payment was
abolished, all captives and property were restored, and the United
States were placed on the footing of the most favoured nation. The
arguments of the Americans appear to have been more eloquent than
British broadsides.
Shamed by this unexpected success, the English Government at length
sent Lord Exmouth (formerly Sir Edward Pellew) to obtain favourable
terms for some of the minor Mediterranean Powers, and to place the
Ionian Islands, as British dependencies, on the same footing as
England. Yet he was evidently not authorized to proceed to extreme
measures or demand unconditional surrender of existing pretensions. He
arranged terms for Naples, which still included tribute and presents.
Sardinia escaped for a sum down. The Ionians were admitted on the
English footing. Then Lord Exmouth went on to Tunis and Tripoli, and
obtained from the two Beys the promise of the total abolition of
Christian slavery.
His proceedings at Tunis were marked by much firmness, and rewarded
with commensurate success. He arrived on the 12th of April, 1816,
shortly after a Tunisian Corsair, in devastating one of the Sardinian
islands, had roused the indignation of Europe. Lord Exmouth demanded
nothing less than the total abolition of Christian slavery. "It
happened that at this very time Caroline, Princess of Wales, was
enjoying the splendid hospitality of Mahmūd Bey in his city palace.
Neither party seemed inclined to yield, and matters assumed a very
threatening aspect. The mediation of the royal guest was invoked in
vain; Lord Exmouth was inexorable. The Princess sent the greater part
of her baggage to the Goletta, the British merchants hastened to
embark on board the vessels of the squadron, the men-of-war were
prepared for action, and the Bey did his best to collect all available
reinforcements. The excitement in Tunis was immense, and a pacific
solution was considered almost impossible. On the 16th Lord Exmouth,
accompanied by Mr. Consul-General Oglander and his staff, proceeded to
the Bardo Palace. The flagstaff of the British Agency was previously
lowered to indicate a resolution to resort to an appeal to arms in
case of failure, and the Princess of Wales expected every hour to be
arrested as a hostage. The antecedents of the Bey were not precisely
calculated to assuage her alarm, but Mahmūd sent one of his
officers to assure her that, come what might, he should never dream of
violating the Moslem laws of hospitality. While the messenger was
still with her, Lord Exmouth entered the room and announced the
satisfactory termination of his mission. On the following morning the
Bey signed a Treaty whereby in the name of the Regency he abolished
Christian slavery throughout his dominions. Among the reasons which
induced the Bey to yield to the pressure used by Lord Exmouth was the
detention of the Sultan's envoy, bearing the imperial firman and robe
of investiture, at Syracuse. The Neapolitan Government would not allow
him to depart until the news of the successful result of the British
mission had arrived, and Mahmūd felt it impossible to forego the
official recognition of his suzerain."[90]
The wife of George IV. was extremely angry at being interrupted in a
delightful course of entertainments, and picnics among the ruins of
Carthage and the orange groves, whither she repaired in the Bey's
coach and six, escorted by sixty memlūks. The Tunisians were, of
course, indignant at the Bey's surrender, nor did piracy cease on
account of the Treaty. Holland, indeed, repudiated the blackmail in
1819, but Sweden still paid a species of tribute in the form of one
hundred and twenty-five cannons in 1827.
Having gained his point at Tunis and Tripoli--a most unexpected
triumph--Lord Exmouth came back to Algiers, and endeavoured to
negotiate the same concessions there, coolly taking up his position
within short range of the batteries. His proposals were indignantly
rejected, and he was personally insulted; two of his officers were
dragged from their horses by the mob, and marched through the streets
with their hands tied behind their backs; the consul, Mr. McDonell,
was put under guard, and his wife and other ladies of his family were
ignominiously driven into the town from the country house.[91] Lord
Exmouth had no instructions for such an emergency; he arranged that
ambassadors should be sent from Algiers to London and Constantinople
to discuss his proposal; and then regretfully sailed for England. He
had hardly returned when news arrived of extensive massacres of
Italians living under British protection at Bona and Oran by order of
the Dey--an order actually issued while the British admiral was at
Algiers. Lord Exmouth was immediately instructed to finish his work.
On the 25th of July in the same year his flagship, the _Queen
Charlotte_, 108, led a squadron of eighteen men of war, of from ten to
one hundred and four guns, and including three seventy-fours, out of
Portsmouth harbour. At Gibraltar the Dutch admiral, Baron Van
Capellan, begged to be allowed to join in the attack with six vessels,
chiefly thirty-sixes, and when the time came he fought his ships
admirably. On the 27th of August they arrived in the roads of Algiers.
The _Prometheus_ had been sent ahead to bring off the consul McDonell
and his family. Captain Dashwood succeeded in bringing Mrs. and Miss
McDonell on board; but a second boat was less fortunate: the consul's
baby took the opportunity of crying just as it was being carried in a
basket past the sentinel, by the ship's surgeon, who believed he had
quieted it. The whole party were taken before the Dey, who, however,
released all but the boat's crew, and, as "a solitary instance of his
humanity," sent the baby on board. The Consul-General himself remained
a prisoner.
No reply being vouchsafed to his flag of truce, Lord Exmouth bore up
to the attack, and the _Queen Charlotte_ dropped anchor in the
entrance of the Mole, some fifty yards off, and was lashed to a mast
which was made fast to the shore. A shot from the Mole, instantly
answered from the flagship, opened the battle. "Then commenced a
fire," wrote the admiral, "as animated and well-supported as I believe
was ever witnessed, from a quarter before three till nine, without
intermission, and which did not cease altogether till half-past eleven
[P.M.]. The ships immediately following me were admirably and coolly
taking up their stations, with a precision even beyond my most
sanguine hope; and never did the British flag receive, on any
occasion, more zealous and honourable support.
"The battle was fairly at issue between a handful of Britons, in the
noble cause of Christianity, and a horde of fanatics, assembled round
their city, and enclosed within its fortifications, to obey the
dictates of their Despot. The cause of God and humanity prevailed; and
so devoted was every creature in the fleet, that even British women
served at the same guns with their husbands, and, during a contest of
many hours, never shrank from danger, but animated all around them."
Some of the men-of-war, especially the _Impregnable_, Rear-Admiral
Milne, were hard beset; but about ten o'clock at night the main
batteries were silenced, and in a state of ruin, and "all the ships in
the port, with the exception of the outer frigate [which had been
boarded], were in flames, which extended rapidly over the whole
arsenal, storehouses, and gun-boats, exhibiting a spectacle of awful
grandeur and interest no pen can describe."[92] At one o'clock
everything in the Marine seemed on fire: two ships wrapped in flames
drifted out of the port. Heavy thunder, lightning, and rain, increased
the lurid effect of the scene.
Next morning, says Mr. Shaler, "the combined fleets are at anchor in
the bay, apparently little damaged; every part of the town appeared to
have suffered. The Marine batteries are in ruins, and may be occupied
without any effort. Lord Exmouth holds the fate of Algiers in his
hands."
Instead, however, of demolishing the last vestige of the
fortifications, and exacting pledges for future good behaviour, the
admiral concluded a treaty by which prisoners of war in future should
be exchanged and not enslaved; and the whole of the slaves in Algiers,
to the number of 1,642 (chiefly Italian, only eighteen English), were
at once set at liberty, and the Dey was made to refund the money,
amounting to nearly four hundred dollars, which he had that year
extorted from the Italian States. Finally, he was made to publicly
apologize to the unfortunate McDonell, who had been confined during
the siege half naked in the cell for condemned murderers, loaded with
chains, fastened to the wall, exposed to the heavy rain, and
momentarily expecting his doom. He was now reinstated, and publicly
thanked by the admiral.
It was, indeed, satisfactory to have at last administered some
salutary discipline to the insolent robbers of Algiers; but it had
been well if the lesson had been final. Their fleet was certainly
gone: they had but two vessels left. Their fortifications were
severely damaged, but these were soon repaired. No doubt it was no
small advantage to have demonstrated that their batteries could be
turned and silenced; but it would have been better to have taken care
that they should never mount another gun. Even the moral effect of the
victory seems to have been shortlived, for when, in 1819, in pursuance
of certain resolutions expressed at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle
(1818) the French and English admirals delivered "identical notes" to
the new Dey, that potentate replied after his manner by throwing up
earthworks.
As a matter of fact the same course of insolence and violence
continued after the Battle of Algiers as before. Free European girls
were carried off by the Dey; the British consulate was forced open,
and even the women's rooms searched; Mr. McDonell was still
victimized; and the diplomacy and a little fancy firing of Sir Harry
Neale in 1824 failed to produce the least effect. Mr. McDonell had to
be recalled, and the Dey as usual had his own way. Nothing but
downright conquest could stop the plague, and that final measure was
reserved for another nation than the English.
FOOTNOTES:
[90] Broadley, 85-6.
[91] Playfair, 256.
[92] Lord Exmouth's Despatch, August 26, 1816. See also the American
Consul Shaler's Report to his Government, September 13th, quoted by
Playfair, 269-72. The bombardment destroyed a large part of Mr.
Shaler's house, and shells were perpetually whizzing by his ears. His
report is full of graphic details, and he was always a true friend of
the unlucky McDonell. It is stated that the fleet fired 118 tons of
powder, 50,000 shot, nearly 1,000 shells, &c. The English lost 128
killed and 690 wounded. The admiral was wounded in three places, his
telescope broken in his hand, and his coat cut to strips. Nor was the
Dey less forward at the post of danger.
XXII.
THE FRENCH IN AFRICA.
1830-1881.
The successes of the English and American fleets had produced their
effects, not so much in arresting the course of piracy, as in
encouraging the European States to defy the pirates. The _coup de
grâce_ was administered by France--the _vis-à-vis_, the natural
opponent of the Algerine Corsairs, and perhaps the chief sufferer by
their attacks. A dispute in April, 1827, between the French consul and
the Dey, in which the former forgot the decencies of diplomatic
language, and the latter lost his temper and struck the offender with
the handle of his fan, led to an ineffectual blockade of Algiers by a
French squadron for two years, during which the Algerines aggravated
the breach by several acts of barbarity displayed towards French
prisoners. Matters grew to a crisis; in August, 1829, the Dey
dismissed a French envoy and fired upon his ship as he was retiring
under a flag of truce; and it became evident that war on a decisive
scale was now inevitable.
Accordingly, on May 26th, 1830, a large fleet sailed out of Toulon.
Admiral Duperré commanded, and the land-forces on board numbered
thirty-seven thousand foot, besides cavalry and artillery. Delayed by
stress of weather, the fleet was not sighted off Algiers till June
13th, when it anchored in the Bay of Sidi Ferrūj, and there landed
next day, with little opposition, and began to throw up entrenchments.
A force of Arabs and Kabyles was severely defeated on the 19th, with
the loss of their camp and provisions, and the French slowly pushed
their way towards the city, beating back the Algerines as they
advanced. The defenders fought game to the last, but the odds were
overwhelming, and the only wonder is that so overpowering a force of
besiegers, both by sea and land, should have evinced so much caution
and diffidence of their own immense superiority. On July 4th, the
actual bombardment of the city began; the Fort de l'Empereur was
taken, after the Algerines had blown up the powder magazine; and the
Dey asked for terms of surrender. Safety of person and property for
himself and for the inhabitants of the city was promised by the French
commander, and on this condition the enemy occupied Algiers on the
following day, July 5th. A week later the Dey, with his family and
attendants and belongings, sailed for Naples in a French frigate, and
Algiers had seen the last of its Mohammedan rulers.[93]
Here, so far as Algiers is concerned, the Story of the Corsairs
properly ends. But a glance at the events which have occurred during
the French occupation may usefully supplement what has already been
recorded. The conquest had been marked by a moderation and humanity
which did infinite honour to the French arms; it would have been well
if a similar policy had distinguished their subsequent proceedings. It
is not necessary to dwell upon the assurance given by France to Great
Britain that the occupation was only temporary; upon the later
announcement of permanent annexation; or upon England's acquiescence
in the perfidy, upon the French engaging never to push their conquests
further to the east or west of Algiers--an engagement curiously
illustrated by the recent occupation of Tunis. But if the
aggrandizement of France in North Africa is matter for regret,
infinitely more to be deplored is the manner in which the possession
of the interior of the country has been effected. It is not too much
to say that from the moment when the French, having merely taken the
city of Algiers, began the work of subduing the tribes of the interior
in 1830, to the day when they at last set up civil, instead of
military, government, after the lessons of the Franco-German war in
1870, the history of Algeria is one long record of stupidly brutal
camp-rule, repudiation of sacred engagements, inhuman massacres of
unoffending natives of both sexes and all ages, violence without
judgment, and severity without reason. One French general after
another was sent out to bring the rebellious Arabs and Kabyles into
subjection, only to display his own incompetence for the inhuman
task, and to return baffled and brutalized by the disgraceful work he
thought himself bound to carry out. There is no more humiliating
record in the annals of annexation than this miserable conquest of
Algiers. It is the old story of trying to govern what the conquerors
call "niggers," without attempting to understand the people first.
Temper, justice, insight, and conciliation would have done more in
four years than martial intolerance and drum tyranny accomplished in
forty.
In all these years of miserable guerilla warfare, in which such
well-known commanders as Bugeaud, Pelissier, Canrobert, St. Arnaud,
MacMahon, and many more, learned their first demoralizing lessons in
warfare, the only people who excite our interest and admiration are
the Arab tribes. That they were unwise in resisting the inevitable is
indisputable; but it is no less certain that they resisted with
splendid valour and indomitable perseverance. Again and again they
defeated the superior forces of France in the open field, wrested
strong cities from the enemy, and even threatened to extinguish the
authority of the alien in Algiers for ever. For all which the invaders
had only to thank themselves. Had General Clausel, the first military
governor of Algiers, been a wise man, the people might have accepted,
by degrees, the sovereignty of France. But the violence of his
measures, and his ignorance of the very word "conciliation," raised up
such strenuous opposition, engendered such terrible reprisals, and set
the two parties so hopelessly against each other, that nothing less
than a prolonged struggle could be expected.
The hero of this sanguinary conflict was 'Abd-el-Kādir, a man who
united in his person and character all the virtues of the old Arabs
with many of the best results of civilization. Descended from a
saintly family, himself learned and devout, a Hāj or Meccan
pilgrim; frank, generous, hospitable; and withal a splendid horseman,
redoubtable in battle, and fired with the patriotic enthusiasm which
belongs to a born leader of men, 'Abd-el-Kādir became the
recognized chief of the Arab insurgents. The Dey of Algiers had
foreseen danger in the youth, who was forced to fly to Egypt in fear
of his life. When he returned, a young man of twenty-four, he found
his country in the hands of the French, and his people driven to
desperation. His former fame and his father's name were talismans to
draw the impetuous tribes towards him; and he soon had so large a
following that the French deemed it prudent for the moment to
recognize him (1834) as Emīr of Maskara, his native place, of which
he had already been chosen king by general acclamation. Here he
prepared for the coming struggle; and when the French discovered a
pretext for attacking him in 1835, they were utterly routed on the
river Maska. The fortunes of war vacillated in the following year,
till in May, 1837, 'Abd-el-Kādir triumphantly defeated a French
army in the plain of the Metija. A fresh expedition of twenty thousand
met with no better success, for Arabs and Berbers are hard to trap,
and 'Abd-el-Kādir, whose strategy evoked the admiration of the Duke
of Wellington, was for a time able to baffle all the marshals of
France. The whole country, save a few fortified posts, was now under
his sway, and the French at last perceived that they had to deal with
a pressing danger. They sent out eighty thousand men under Marshal
Bugeaud, and the success of this officer's method of sweeping the
country with movable columns was soon apparent. Town after town fell;
tribe after tribe made terms; even 'Abd-el-Kādir's capital,
Takidemt, was destroyed; Maskara was subdued (1841); and the heroic
chief, still repudiating defeat, retreated to Morocco. Twice he led
fresh armies into his own land, in 1843 and 1844; the one succumbed to
the Duc d'Aumale, the other to Bugeaud. Pelissier covered himself with
peculiar glory by smoking five hundred men, women, and children to
death in a cave. At last, seeing the hopelessness of further efforts
and the misery they brought upon his people, 'Abd-el-Kādir accepted
terms (1847), and surrendered to the Duc d'Aumale on condition of
being allowed to retire to Alexandria or Naples. It is needless to add
that, in accordance with Algerian precedent, the terms of surrender
were subsequently repudiated, though not by the Royal Duke, and the
noble Arab was consigned for five years to a French prison. Louis
Napoleon eventually allowed him to depart to Brusa, and he finally
died at Damascus in 1883, not, however, before he had rendered signal
service to his former enemies by protecting the Christians during the
massacres of 1860.
Though 'Abd-el-Kādir had gone, peace did not settle upon Algeria.
Again and again the tribes revolted, only to feel once more the
merciless severity of their military rulers. French colonists did not
readily adopt the new field for emigration. It seemed as though the
best thing would be to withdraw from a bootless, expensive, and
troublesome venture. Louis Napoleon, however, when he visited Algiers
in 1865, contrived somewhat to reassure the Kabyles, while he
guaranteed their undisturbed possession of their territories; and
until his fall there was peace. But the day of weakness for France was
the opportunity for Algiers, and another serious revolt broke out; the
Kabyles descended from their mountains, and Gen. Durieu had enough to
do to hold them in check. The result of this last attempt, and the
change of government in France, was the appointment of civil instead
of military governors, and since then Algeria has on the whole
remained tranquil, though it takes an army of fifty thousand men to
keep it so. There are at least no more Algerine Corsairs.
It remains to refer to the affairs of Tunis. If there was provocation
for the French occupation of Algiers in 1830, there was none for that
of Tunis in 1881.[94] It was a pure piece of aggression, stimulated by
the rival efforts of Italy, and encouraged by the timidity of the
English Foreign Office, then under the guidance of Lord Granville. A
series of diplomatic grievances, based upon no valid grounds, was set
up by the ingenious representative of France in the Regency--M.
Théodore Roustan, since deservedly exposed--and the resistance of the
unfortunate Bey, Mohammed Es-Sādik, to demands which were in
themselves preposterous, and which obviously menaced his
semi-independence as a viceroy of the Ottoman Empire, received no
support from any of the Powers, save Turkey, who was then depressed in
influence and resources by the adversities of the Russian invasion.
The result was natural: a strong Power, unchecked by efficient rivals,
pursued her stealthy policy of aggression against a very weak, but not
dishonest, State; and finally seized upon the ridiculous pretext of
some disturbances among the tribes bordering on Algeria to invade the
territory of the Bey. In vain Mohammed Es-Sādik assured M. Roustan
that order had been restored among the tribes; in vain he appealed to
all the Powers, and, above all, to England. Lord Granville believed
the French Government when it solemnly assured him that "the
operations about to commence on the borderland between Algeria and
Tunis are meant solely to put an end to the constant inroads of the
frontier clans into Algerian territory, and that the independence of
the Bey and the integrity of his territory are in no way threatened."
It was Algiers over again, but with even more serious consequences to
English influence--indeed to all but French influence--in the
Mediterranean. "Perfide Albion" wholly confided in "Perfida Gallia,"
and it was too late to protest against the flagrant breach of faith
when the French army had taken Kef and Tabarka (April 26, 1881), when
the tricolor was floating over Bizerta, and when General Bréart, with
every circumstance of insolent brutality, had forced the Treaty of
Kasr-es-Sa'īd upon the luckless Bey under the muzzles of the guns
of the Republic (May 12th). It is difficult to believe that the
feeling of the English statesmen of the day is expressed in the
words--_Haec olim meminisse juvabit._
The Bey had been captured--he and since his death Sidi 'Alī Bey
have continued to be the figureheads of the French Protectorate--but
his people were not so easily subdued. The southern provinces of Tunis
broke into open revolt, and for a time there ensued a period of
hopeless anarchy, which the French authorities made no effort to
control. At last they bestirred themselves, and to some purpose. Sfax
was mercilessly bombarded and _sacked_, houses were blown up with
their inhabitants inside them, and a positive reign of terror was
inaugurated, in which mutual reprisals, massacres, and executions
heightened the horrors of war. The whole country outside the fortified
posts became the theatre of bloodshed, robbery, and anarchy. It was
the history of Algiers _in petto_. Things have slowly improved since
then, especially since M. Roustan's recall; doubtless in time Tunis
will be as subdued and as docile as Algiers; and meanwhile France is
developing the resources of the land, and opening out one of the
finest harbours in existence. Yet M. Henri de Rochefort did not,
perhaps, exaggerate when he wrote: "We compared the Tunisian
expedition to an ordinary fraud. We were mistaken. The Tunis business
is a robbery aggravated by murder." The "Algerian business" was of a
similar character. _Qui commence bien finit bien_, assumes Admiral
Jurien de la Gravière in his chapter entitled "Gallia Victrix." If the
history of France in Africa ends in bringing the southern borderlands
of the Mediterranean, the old haunts of the Barbary Corsairs, within
the pale of civilization, it may some day be possible to bury the
unhappy past, and inscribe upon the tombstone the optimistic motto:
_Finis coronat opus._
FOOTNOTES:
[93] See the graphic journal of the British Consul-General, R. W. St.
John, published in Sir R. Lambert Playfair's _Scourge of Christendom_,
pp. 310-322.
[94] For a full account of this scandalous proceeding, see Mr. A. M.
Broadley's _Tunis, Past and Present_.
THE END.
INDEX.
A
'Abd-el-Kādir, 305-6
'Abd-el-Melik. Khalif, 7
'Abd-er-Rahmān, 7
Acre, 62
Acton, Chevalier, 191
Aden, 98
Aegina, 97
"Africa" (Mahdīya), Siege of, 128-133;
(Illustr.) 129;
taken by Dragut, 133;
retaken by Doria, 134.
Aghlabīs, 7, 21
Aix-la-Chapelle, Congress, 4, 299
Alghero, 62
Algiers, 8;
taken by D. Pedro Navarro, 13;
orthography, 13 _n._, 16, 19;
occupied by Urūj Barbarossa, 46;
ruled by Kheyr-ed-dīn, 54;
Hasan Aga, viceroy, 81;
Charles V.'s Expedition, 112-123;
renegade Pashas, 185;
Turkish Deys, 185-7;
its galleys, 218 ff.;
its slaves, 235 ff.;
arrogance of its Deys, 257 ff.;
bombardment, 297;
French occupation, 301-7
Algiers (Illustr.) frontispiece, 48, 115
Alhucemas, 188
'Ali Aga, 272
'Ali Pasha at Lepanto, 164, 173-6
Allen, Sir T., 272
Almohades, 7, 21
Almoravides, 21
Alva, Duke of, 113
'Amr, General, 7
Angelo, Fort (Corfu), 97
Angelo, Fort (Malta), 136, 142 ff.
Aragon, 23
Aranda, Emanuel d', 195
Arenela, 143
Armadores, 221
Arta, Gulf of, 101 ff.
Astrolabe, 170
Astrolabe, observation with, 104
Atlas range, 14
Aubusson, D', 66
Aumale, Duc d', 306
Ayās, Grand Vezīr, 96
Aydīn Reïs "Drub-Devil," 56, 57, 89
B
Bab Azūn, 117, 118
Bab-el-Wēd, 117
Bainbridge, Capt., 277 ff.
Balaklava, 62
Balearic Islands, 24, 56, 57
Baltimore in Ireland sacked, 233, 265
Barbarigo, 173, 175
Barbarossa, Urūj, birth, 31;
Lives of, 31 _n._;
arrives at Tunis, 32;
takes Papal Galleys, 35;
settles at Jerba, 40;
attacks Bujēya, 40;
is wounded, 43;
second attempt on Bujēya, 44;
goes to Jījil, 44;
surprises Shershēl, 46;
occupies Algiers, 49;
defeats the Spaniards, 50;
conquers Tinnis, 51;
is pursued by the Spaniards, 51;
and killed, 52
Barbarossa, Kheyr-ed-dīn, see _Kheyr-ed-dīn_
Barbary peninsula, 14 ff.
Barbary, map of, 17
Barcone, 231
Bastion de France, 253-4
Bazan, Alvaro de, 173
Beaufort, Henry, 131
Bekri, El, 26
Beshiktash, 111
Besistān, 243
Beys of Tunis, 22
Blake, Admiral, 269
Blomberg, Barba, 167
Boccanegra, 103
Bona, 19, 24, 26
Bona, Cape, 19
Borāk Reïs, 66-7
Bourbon, Duke of, 131
Bourbon, François de, 106
Boyssat, 89 _n._
Brigantine (Vergãtina), 10, 205
Bragadino, 164
Braithwaite, Capt., 191 _n._
Brèves, M. de, 226
Broadley, A. M., 89 _n._, 257, 295, 307
Bruce, James, 273
Bugeaud, Marshal, 306
Bujēya, taken by Spaniards, 12;
harbour, 19, 23;
besieged by
Urūj Barbarossa, 40;
again, 44, 51;
Charles V. at, 122, 254
Burgol, 222
C
Caesarea Augusta, 13 _n._
Cairo, 21
Canale, 95
Capellan, Van, 296
Capello, 101-4, 194
Carack, 86, 103
Caramuzel, 231
Caravel (Illustr.), 11, 231
Cardona, Juan de, 150, 168, 177
Carthage, 19
Castelnuovo, 105
Catena, 9, 168 _n._
Cattaro, 105
Cerda, Juan de la, 147
Cervantes, 177, 246-8
Cervellon, 182
Cetraro, 84
Ceuta, 16, 20, 23, 188
Challoner, Sir T., 122
Charles V., 51, 57, 77;
at Tunis, 86-91;
at Algiers, 112-123, 167
Chenier, 191 _n._
Chesneau, 83 _n._
Chioggia, 62
Christian privileges in Barbary, 22
Clément, Saint-, 161, 192
Col, 55
Collingwood, Admiral, 292
Colonna, 163, 173, 176
Comares, Marq. de, 51
Comelin, Father, 255
Commercial Treaties, 22
Compass, 99
Condulmiero, 103
Constantine, 55
Constantinople, 82-3
Consuls at Algiers, &c., 259 ff.
Cordova, 7
Corfu, 95;
besieged, 96-7
Corsica, 7, 24
Cortes, 114
Cossier, 89
Cottington, 229
Courcy, De, 131
Crossbow, observation with, 55
Cruz, Marquis of Santa, 177
Cyprus, 72;
taken by Turks, 162-4
D
Damad 'Alī, 181
Dan, Father, 218, 219, 220, 233, 235 ff., 252 ff.
Danser, Simon, 226
Dardanelles, 62
Daūd Pasha, 67-71
Decatur, Stephen, 283 ff., 293
Delgarno, 188
Deli Memi, 246
Dellāls, 243
Denis, Sir Peter, 264
Denmark and Tunis, 258 ff.
Deys of Algiers, 22, 262 ff.
Doria, Andrea, drives Kheyr-ed-dīn from the Goletta, 43;
life up to 1533, 76-8;
portrait, 79;
takes Coron, 81;
misses Kheyr-ed-dīn, 82;
expedition to Tunis, 86 ff.;
chases Kheyr-ed-dīn, 93;
fight off Paxos, 95;
defeated at Prevesa, 101-4;
inactivity, 110;
expedition to Algiers, 113 ff.;
to Mahdīya, 133;
lets Dragut slip, 135;
death, 140
Doria, Giannettino, 112, 127
Doria, Giovanni Andrea, 138-40, 163, 168, 173, 175
Doria, Roger, at Jerba, 128
Dragut, Reïs (Torghūd), 56, 98, 103, 110, 112;
early career, 124;
captivity, 127;
ransom, 112, 127;
at Jerba, 128;
takes "Africa," 133, and loses it, 134;
escape from Jerba, 135;
joins the Ottoman navy, 136, 138;
destroys the Christian fleet at Jerba, 140;
dies at the siege of Malta, 146-9
"Drub-Devil" Aydīn, 56
Duperré, Admiral, 302
Dynasties of N. Africa, 21
E
Echinades, 173
Elba looted, 82
Elmo, Fort St., 142-9
England and Algiers, 257 ff.
Eski Serai, 82
Evangelista, Master, 142
Exmouth, Lord, 293 ff.
F
Falcon, Consul, 264
Fātimīs, 7, 21, 24
Ferdinand the Catholic, 8, 13, 44
Fez, Bishop of, 22
Fondi sacked, 84-5
Formentara, 57, 224
France and Algiers, 256 ff., 301 ff.
Francis I., 77, 94, 106-10
Frazer, Hon. A. C., 264
Frizell, Consul, 266
Froissart, 128-33
Furttenbach, 206 ff., 232
G
Gabes, Gulf of, 26
Galata, 62
Galleasse, 68, (illustr.) 69, 227;
description, 206, 230
Galleon (illustr.), 6;
description, 205
Galleot, description, 218
Galley (illustr.), 37, 64;
building at Constantinople, 83;
(illustr.) 107, 203, 207, 209, 211;
description of, 200 ff., 213 ff.
Gembloux, 178
Genoa, 23, 43, 61 ff., 77
Goletta of Tunis, 16, 32, 78, 86
Gonzaga, Giulia, escape of, 84-5
Granada, fall of, 8
Gravière, Admiral Jurien de la, 31 _n._, 59, 71, 73, 81, 83, 104, 123,
138, 150, 177, 206, 215
Greece, raid among the isles of, 97
Greek fire, 131
Grimani, 67, 71, 101-4
Guaras, Jean de, 146
H
Haedo, Diego de, 31 _n._, 36, 82 _n._, 200-5, 219, 220, 223-4
Hafs, dynasty, 21, 23, 32, 85
Hājji Khalīfa, 31 _n._, 67, 82 _n._, 98, 104
Hammād, dynasty, 21
Hammer, Von, 31 _n._, 104
Harebone, Mr., 260
Hasan Aga, 81, 112;
defends Algiers against Charles V., 112-23
Hasan, King of Tunis, 85-91
Hasan, Pasha of Algiers, 246-7
Herbert, Admiral, 272
Hisār Reïs, 134
Holland and Algiers, 257 ff., 271, 295
Hope, Capt., 264
Hospitallers, Knights of St. John, 66, 73, 76, and see _Malta_
I
Ibrahīm, Grand Vezīr, 83, 89, 94
Ibrahīm Lubarez, 277
Idrīs, 21
Inchiquin, Earl of, 269
India, expedition to, 98
J
Jerba, lotus-eaters' island, 16, 40;
(illustr.) 125;
Dragut's lair, 128;
his escape from, 135;
destruction of the Christian fleet, 139
Jezaïr, Al-, 13 _n._
Jījil, 19, 20;
occupied by Urūj Barbarossa, 44
John of Austria, Don, 164-78, 246
Julius II., Pope, 35
K
Kasaba at Algiers, 244 ff.
Kara Hasan, 49
Kayrawān, 91
Kemāl Reïs, 66
Keppel, Admiral, 273
Khaldūn, Ibn-, 26
Khalifs, 7, 21
Kheyr-ed-dīn Barbarossa, birth, 31 and _n._, 36 _n._;
driven from the Goletta, 43;
character, 53;
policy towards Sultan, 54;
appointed Governor of Algiers, 54;
defeats Hugo de Moncada, 55;
storms the Peñon de Alger, 58;
summoned to Constantinople, 75;
arrival, 82;
High Admiral of Turkey, 83, 94;
raid in Italy, 84;
sacks Fondi, 85;
takes Tunis, 86;
is expelled, 89;
sacks Port Mahon, 92-3;
at Stambol, 94;
lays waste Apulia, 96;
siege of Corfu, 96-7;
takes Castelnuovo, 105;
at Marseilles, 106;
siege of Nice, 109;
winters at Toulon, 109;
returns to Constantinople, 111;
death, 111
Knights of St. John, 66, 73, 76
Koka, 67
Kuroghler, Creole, 221
L
Lacalle, 19;
taken by Turks, 71
Lepanto, 67;
battle of, 164-178
Lesbos, 31
Liman Reïs, Port Admiral, 225
Lomellini family, 19, 43
Loredani family, 65, 68
Louis, St., 85
Lucida, S., stormed, 84
Luni, 24
Lutfi Pasha, 81, 96
M
Madeira, 232
Mahon, Port, sacked, 93, 114
Mahdīya, 16, 21, 24, 26;
siege by Bourbon, 128-133;
(Illustr.) 129;
taken by Dragut, 133;
by Doria, 134
Mahmūd, Bey of Tunis, 294-5
Majorca, 57
Malta, description of, 143
Malta, Knights of, 76, 86 ff., 109, 118-123, 136-8, 141-159, 161, 177,
213;
captives, 244 ff.
Mansell, Sir R., 272
Marabut, 222
Marmora, 62
Matha, Juan de, 251
Marmol, 31 _n._
Marsa, La, 143
Mars-el-Kebīr, 19
Marseilles merchants, 19, 254
Marseilles receives the Turkish fleet, 106
Martinego, 73
Mas-Latrie, Cte. de, 24, 25
Maura, Santa, 103
McDonell, Consul, 296 ff.
Medina-Celi, Duke of, expedition to Jerba and defeat, 138-140
Memi Arnaut, 185
Memi Gancho, 220
Mendoza, 81, 114
Merin, dynasty, 22
Minorca, 92
Modon, 71
Mohammed II., 31, 65, 66
Mohammed Es-Sādik, 308-9
Moor of Alexandria, 95
_Moors in Spain_, _Story of_, 8, 167
Morgan, S., 36, 46, 52, 58, 91, 104, 215, 241, 268
Moriscos, 26, 57, 59
Morocco, 187-191
Mujāhid (Muget), 24
Muñatones, 156
Murād Reïs, 98, 192, 193, 233
Murād IV., 194
Muset, 143
Mustafa, Seraskier, 144 ff.
Mustafa, Lala, 162-3
Mustafa, Bogotillos, 187
N
Narborough, Sir John, 272
Navarino, 67, 68
Navarro, D. Pedro, takes Oran, Algiers, &c., 12-13, 43, 138
Nave, 231
Naxos, 97
Neale, Sir H., 300
Negropont, 65
Nelson, Admiral Lord, 292
Nice, siege of, 109
O
Ochiali (El-Ulūji, Uluj Ali), at Jerba, 140;
at Malta, 146;
his exploits, 161;
at the battle of Lepanto, 175-7;
retakes Tunis, 182;
death, 185, 219
Oglander, Consul, 294
Oliva, 57
'Omar, Khalif, 7
Oran, 8;
taken by Spaniards, 12;
harbour, 19, 51
Othello, 65
Otranto, 65
P
Page, Sanson Le, 252-4
Pallavicini, Cristofero, 81
Patras, 71, 81
Paxos, 95, 97
Pellew, Sir Edward, see _Exmouth_
Peñon de Alger founded, 13, 45, 46, 49, 51;
destroyed, 59
Peñon de Velez da la Gomera, 188
Pertev Pasha, 176
Piāli Pasha, 138;
at Jerba, 140;
at Malta, 145 ff.;
at Cyprus, 162-4
Pichinin, 'Ali, 194-9
Piracy, pleasures of, 9-13
Pisa, 23, 24, 25
Pius V., 162, 164, 177
_Philadelphia_, loss of the, 280
Playfair, Sir R. L., 242 _n._, 261, 273, 296, 302
Polacca, 231
Porto Farino, 19, 269
Portundo, General, 57
Portus Divinus, 19
Preble, Commodore, 276 ff.
Prevesa, battle of, 101-4
Provence, 23
R
Ramadan Sardo, 185, 200
Ransoms, 267
Redemption, order of, 251 ff.
Reggio looted, 84;
burnt, 106
Reïs, 221
"Religion, The," 86
Renegades, 200 ff.
Reynolds, Sir Joshua, 273
Rhodes, siege of, 66;
second siege and fall, 73
Robles, Melchior de, 150 ff.
Roe, Sir T., 272, 285
Romegas, 142
Roustan, M., 307-9
S
Sáhara, 14, 15
Salē, 20, 23, 188, 191
Sālih Reïs, 56, 57, 98, 103, 110, 112
Sālih Reïs (II.), 156, 185
Salim, 45, 46, 49, 50
Sandwich, Lord, 272
Sanson Napolon, 254
Saracens, arts of, 72
Sardinia, 7, 24
Sarmiento, D. Francisco, 105
Scirocco (Mohammed Shaluk), 175
Selīm II., 161
Sevigné, Mons., on galley slaves, 217
Sfax, 128
Shaler, W., 293, 298
Sherīfs of Morocco, 22
Shershēl, 8, 19;
taken by Urūj Barbarossa, 46;
attacked by Doria, 78;
219
Ship supersedes galley, 229 ff.
Sicily, 7, 23, 24, 25
Sinān Pasha, attacks Malta, 136;
and Tripoli, 137
Sinān Reïs, 56, 89, 98, 112
Simeoni, 109
Slaves on galleys, 39
Soame, Sir W., 273
Spain and Tunis, 258 ff.
Spragg, Sir E., 272
Spratt, Rev. D., 266
Stradiotes, 65
Suleymān the Magnificent, 60, 72 ff., 78, 82, 96-8, 104, 134, 142,
143, 161
Susa, 128
Syrtes, Greater, 16
Sweden and Tunis, 258 ff., 295
T
Tabarka, 19, 43
Tangiers, 16, 188
Tartana, 231
Temendefust, 121
Tetwān, 188, 223-4
Tierra Nuova, Duke of, 192
Tilimsān, 7, 51
Timur, 66
Tinnis, 19;
conquered by Urūj, 51
Tipton, John, 259
Toledo, D. Garcia de, 133
Tongues of the Order of St. John, 73, 137
Torghūd, see _Dragut_
Torpedoes, 232
Toulon receives Turkish fleet, 109
Treaties of Commerce, 22
Tripoli, 23, 274 ff., 294-5;
(Illustr.) 281
Tron, Alexandro, 97
Tunis, 7, 16, 20, 21, 23, 25, 32, 85;
taken by Kheyr-ed-dīn, 86;
retaken by Charles V., 86-93;
taken by Ochiali, 161;
retaken by Don John of Austria, 178;
again taken by Ochiali, 182;
arrogance of the Beys, 257 ff.;
Lord Exmouth, 294-5;
French invasion, 307-310
Tunis, Illustr. of, 33, 87
_Turkey_, _Story of_, 65, 66, 72, 78, 82, 94, 138
U
United States and Barbary States, 258 ff., 274-293
Urūj, see _Barbarossa_
V
Vacher, Jean de, 263
Valette, de la, 127, 142, 145 ff.
Vargas, D. Martin de, 58
Vasquez, 168
Venice, 23, 61 ff., 71 ff., 94 ff.
Venice, Oriental commerce of, 72
Venice, Greek islands, 97
Veniero, 62, 173, 176
Vera, D. Diego de, 50
Villiers, Gaspard de, 138
W
Wales, Caroline, Princess of, 294-5
Watts, H. E., on Cervantes, 246-8
Wer, Captain, 226
William III., letter to 'Ali Reïs, 187
Winchelsea, Earl of, 272
Windus, J., 191 _n._
X
Ximenes, Cardinal, 50
Y
Yamboli, 104
Yāni, 66
Z
Zanne, 163
Zante, 72
Zeyrīs of Tunis, 21
Ziyān, dynasty, 21
The Story of the Nations.
Messrs. G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS take pleasure in announcing that they have
in course of publication a series of historical studies, intended to
present in a graphic manner the stories of the different nations that
have attained prominence in history.
In the story form the current of each national life will be distinctly
indicated, and its picturesque and noteworthy periods and episodes
will be presented for the reader in their philosophical relation to
each other as well as to universal history.
It is the plan of the writers of the different volumes to enter into
the real life of the peoples, and to bring them before the reader as
they actually lived, labored, and struggled--as they studied and
wrote, and as they amused themselves. In carrying out this plan, the
myths, with which the history of all lands begins, will not be
overlooked, though these will be carefully distinguished from the
actual history, so far as the labors of the accepted historical
authorities have resulted in definite conclusions.
The subjects of the different volumes will be planned to cover
connecting and, as far as possible, consecutive epochs or periods, so
that the set when completed will present in a comprehensive narrative
the chief events in the great STORY OF THE NATIONS; but it will, of
course not always prove practicable to issue the several volumes in
their chronological order.
The "Stories" are printed in good readable type, and in handsome 12mo
form. They are adequately illustrated and furnished with maps and
indexes. They are sold separately at a price of $1.50 each.
The following volumes are now ready (November, 1889):
THE STORY OF GREECE. Prof. Jas. A. Harrison.
" " " ROME. Arthur Gilman.
" " " THE JEWS. Prof. James K. Hosmer.
" " " CHALDEA. Z. A. Ragozin.
" " " GERMANY. S. Baring-Gould.
" " " NORWAY. Hjalmar H. Boyesen.
" " " SPAIN. Rev. E. E. and Susan Hale.
" " " HUNGARY. Prof. A. Vámbéry.
" " " CARTHAGE. Prof. Alfred J. Church.
" " " THE SARACENS. Arthur Gilman.
" " " THE MOORS IN SPAIN. Stanley Lane-Poole.
" " " THE NORMANS. Sarah Orne Jewett.
" " " PERSIA. S. G. W. Benjamin.
" " " ANCIENT EGYPT. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson.
" " " ALEXANDER'S EMPIRE. Prof. J. P. Mahaffy.
" " " ASSYRIA. Z. A. Ragozin.
" " " THE GOTHS. Henry Bradley.
" " " IRELAND. Hon. Emily Lawless.
" " " TURKEY. Stanley Lane-Poole.
" " " MEDIA, BABYLON, AND PERSIA. Z. A. Ragozin.
" " " MEDIÆVAL FRANCE. Prof. Gustav Masson.
" " " HOLLAND. Prof. J. Thorold Rogers.
" " " MEXICO. Susan Hale.
" " " PHŒNICIA. Prof. Geo. Rawlinson.
" " " THE HANSA TOWNS. Helen Zimmern.
" " " EARLY BRITAIN. Prof. Alfred J. Church.
Now in Press for immediate issue:
THE STORY OF BARBARY CORSAIRS. Stanley Lane-Poole.
" " " RUSSIA. W. R. Morfill.
" " " VEDIC INDIA. Z. A. Ragozin.
" " " THE THIRTEEN COLONIES. Helen A. Smith.
" " " MODERN FRANCE. Emily Crawford.
" " " THE JEWS UNDER ROME. W. D. Morrison.
" " " CANADA. A. R. Macfarlane.
" " " SCOTLAND. James Macintosh.
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PUBLICATIONS OF G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
THE SCRIPTURES,
HEBREW AND CHRISTIAN.
ARRANGED AND EDITED AS AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF THE BIBLE.
EDITORS.
REV. EDWARD T. BARTLETT, D.D.,
Dean of the Divinity School of the P. E. Church in Philadelphia, and
Mary Wolfe, Prof. of Ecclesiastical History.
REV. JOHN P. PETERS, PH.D.,
Professor of Old Testament Literature and Language in the Divinity
School of the P. E. Church in Philadelphia, and Professor of Hebrew in
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The work is to be completed in three volumes, containing each about
500 pages, Vols. I. and II. now ready.
Vol. I. includes Hebrew story from the Creation to the time of
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Vol. II. is devoted to Hebrew poetry and prophecy.
Vol. III. will contain the selections from the Christian Scriptures.
The volumes are handsomely printed in 12mo form, and with an open,
readable page, not arranged in verses, but paragraphed according to
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Each volume is complete in itself, and will be sold separately at
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The editors say in their announcement: "Our object is to remove stones
of stumbling from the path of young readers by presenting Scriptures
to them in a form as intelligible and as instructive as may be
practicable. This plan involves some re-arrangements and omissions,
before which we have not hesitated, inasmuch as our proposed work will
not claim to be the Bible, but an introduction to it. That we may
avoid imposing our own interpretation upon Holy Writ, it will be our
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the treatment of the Prophets of the Old Testament and the Epistles of
the New Testament, it will not be practicable entirely to avoid
comment, but no attempt will be made to pronounce upon doctrinal
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The first volume is divided into four parts:
PART I.--Hebrew Story, from the Beginning to the Time of Saul.
" II.--The Kingdom of all Israel.
" III.--Samaria, or the Northern Kingdom.
" IV.--Judah, from Rehoboam to the Exile.
The second volume comprises:
PART I.--Hebrew History from the Exile To Nehemiah.
" II.--Hebrew Legislation.
" III.--Hebrew Tales.
" IV.--Hebrew Prophecy.
" V.--Hebrew Poetry.
" VI.--Hebrew Wisdom.
The third volume will comprise the selections from the New Testament,
arranged as follows:
I.--The Gospel according to St. Mark, Presenting the Evangelical
Story in its Simplest Form; Supplemented by
Selections from St. Matthew and St. Luke.
II.--The Acts of the Apostles, with some Indication of the
Probable Place of the Epistles in the Narrative.
III.--The Epistles of St. James and the First Epistle of St. Peter.
IV.--The Epistles of St. Paul.
V.--The Epistle to the Hebrews.
VI.--The Revelation of St. John (A Portion).
VII.--The First Epistle of St. John.
VIII.--The Gospel of St. John.
Full details of the plan of the undertaking, and of the methods
adopted by the editors in the selection and arrangement of the
material, will be found in the separate prospectus.
"I congratulate you on the issue of a work which, I am sure, will find
a wide welcome, and the excellent features of which make it of
permanent value."--Rt. Rev. Henry C. Potter, Bishop of New York.
"Should prove a valuable adjunct of Biblical instruction."--Rt. Rev.
W. E. Stevens, Bishop of Pennsylvania.
"Admirably conceived and admirably executed.... It is the Bible story
in Bible words. The work of scholarly and devout men.... Will prove a
help to Bible study."--Rev. Howard Crosby, D.D.
"We know of no volume which will better promote an intelligent
understanding of the structure and substance of the Bible than this
work, prepared, as it is, by competent and reverent Christian
scholars."--_Sunday-School Times._
G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
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27 KING WILLIAM ST., STRAND
Transcriber's Note:
Minor typographical errors (omitted punctuation, omitted or transposed
letters, etc.) have been amended without note. Use of hyphenation and
accents have also been made consistent without note, where there was a
definite preference of one variation over the other.
The following amendments have also been made (the errors in the index
being amended with reference to the main text):
Page viii--41 amended to 40--"... Unsuccessful siege of Bujēya,
40 ..."
Page 72--Tinnēs amended to Tinnis--"... Damietta, Alexandria,
Tinnis, and Cairo ..."
Page 83--Vizīr amended to Vezīr--"The Grand Vezīr
Ibrahīm recognized ..."
Page 133--a closing quote immediately before footnote reference
[40] has been deleted. The text immediately preceding this quote
mark does not occur in the referenced work, so I have made the
assumption that this quote mark was a typographical error and
deleted it.
Page 175--battaille amended to bataille--"... the centre _corps
de bataille_ ..."
Page 222, footnote--less amended to lest--"... the hold lest it
should interfere ..."
Page 230--absoluting amended to absolutely--"... and absolutely
prohibiting all trade ..."
Page 233--cruize amended to cruise--"... and cruise across the
Egyptian trade route ..."
Page 242, second footnote--Olive amended to Oliver--"second ed.,
London, Oliver Payne, ..."
Page 280--omitted word 'to' added--"... from an English frigate
to which he spoke ..."
Page 283--Vizir amended to Vezīr--"... a present of female
slaves for the Grand Vezīr."
Page 298--Rear-Amiral amended to Rear-Admiral--"Rear-Admiral
Milne, were hard beset ..."
Page 311--41 amended to 40--"attacks Bujēya, 40;"
Page 312--Francis amended to François--"Bourbon, François de, 106"
Page 312--Castelnuova amended to Castelnuovo--"Castelnuovo, 105"
Page 314--38 amended to 36--"Kheyr-ed-dīn Barbarossa, birth, 31
and n., 36 n.;"
Page 314--211 amended to 213--"Malta, Knights of, 76, 86 ff., 109,
118-123, 136-8, 141-159, 161, 177, 213;"
Any remaining variations in spelling or unusual usage of language are
as in the original text, for example, the author's use of annihilate
in the past tense without the usual 'd' ending.
Some illustrations have been shifted slightly so that they are not in
the middle of a paragraph. The illustration tags for the decorative
chapter headers and footers have not been retained in this version.
The forward advertising material and frontispiece illustration have
been moved to follow the title page.
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