Christian slaves in Barbary, and addressed it to “a Member of Parliament.” As we believe this memoir to have been the very origin of the expeditions afterwards sent to Algiers, we cannot, in justice to the author, refrain from giving the principal part of it a place in our pages.
After describing a rencontre between a Dutch squadron and an Algerine corvette, which took place in his presence, on the 25th of the preceding month. Captain Croker proceeds as follows:–
“I have finished that part of my letter which, from a professional spectator, I presume will not be unacceptable to you. The subject and descriptions I now would treat of, deserve, indeed, a more able pen, and, though I must here fall short, yet, when I remember the few opportunities likely to offer to men of greater talent, to witness and describe the scenes of horror which I have lately seen, I humbly hope that my faithful relation of these facts will not be considered presumptuous, nor proceeding from any other motive than the fulfilment of a duty, which I feel that I owe to my poor suffering fellow-creatures, and to the honor of my country. It will also be an excuse, if excuse be necessary, that my feelings were called into action by a circumstance which rather singularly happened, only the day after my arrival at Algiers. On inquiry into the purport of a paper which I saw in the hands of the vice-consul, I found it to be a subscription for the relief of nearly three hundred Christian slaves, just arrived from Bona, after a journey of many days; and who, after the usual ceremony of bringing them to the Dey’s feet, were ordered to their different destinations: such as were able to go to their bani, or prison, were sent there; but the far greater number were found objects for the hospital, which Spain, in her better days, humanely established for the relief of Christian slaves at Algiers; it is the only one in that city.
“I naturally wished to know the particulars of the capture of those wretched persons. the Christians in Algiers, who are not slaves, are very far from numerous, being only the consuls of the Christian states, at peace with Algiers, and their families, with a very few dependents on their different protection: on the authority of them all, I learnt, that these last Christian slaves, three hundred and fifty-seven in number, were taken by two Algerine pirates, which presumed to carry the English colours, and, by so doing, decoyed those unhappy beings within their reach.
“They were landed at Bona, whence they were driven to Algiers like a herd of cattle. Those who were no longer able to walk were tied on mules, and if they became still more enfeebled, they were murdered. On their journey, fifty-nine expired, and one youth fell dead at the very moment they brought him to the feel of the Dey. Since their arrival, an interval of only six days, near seventy more have died!
