White Gold

by Giles Milton

  1: A New and Deadly Foe, See here

  See here: The account of the 1625 attack on the West Country has been drawn largely from letters, notes and memoranda to be found in the various Calendars of State Papers. See particularly the Domestic Series, 1625—6, John Bruce (ed.), 1858. Here contains a report by the mayor of Plymouth of the attack on Looe, and lists numbers of people and ships captured; See here.

  Further reference to these attacks can be found in Allen B. Hinds (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, Venice, 1625—6, 1913; See here and note. This volume also contains a report by Zuane Pesaro, Venetian ambassador to England, which details how the corsairs “plundered the country, carried off a large number of slaves, did immeasurable damage and committed cruelties causing such terror that seven large districts have sent their outcry to the court, an unheard of event.”

  James Bagg’s letter to the Lord High Admiral, which details the destruction wrought by the corsairs, is published in Henri de Castries’s monumental work, Les Sources Inédites de l’Histoire du Maroc, 16 vols., Paris, 1905-48. See the first series, vol. 2, 1925, item CLXXII, p. 583. Francis Stuart’s report to the Duke of Buckingham is also published in this volume, item CLXXIV, p. 586.

  See here: The most interesting sixteenth-century account of Salé and Rabat is to be found in Leo Africanus, The History and Description of Africa, Robert Brown (ed.), 3 vols., 1896. The description of Salé is in vol. 2, p. 407. See also the long note on Salé’s slow decline, p. 574.

  The best and most comprehensive account of the rise of the Salé corsairs is to be found in Roger Coindreau, Les Corsaires de Salé, Paris, 1948. This provides background to the Hornacheros and details their most audacious attacks on European targets. It also gives information about their ships, their unusual flags and their tactics at sea.

  There is also much of interest about the Salé corsairs to be found in Budget Meakin’s classic, The Moorish Empire, 1899. More recently, the success of the Sallee Rovers has been examined by Peter Earle in his excellent book, The Pirate Wars, 2003; and in Stephen Clissold, The Barbary Slaves, 1977; see especially chapter 9.

  For more information about the Islamic fervor of the Barbary corsairs, see Daniel J. Vitkus (ed.), Piracy, Slavery and Redemption: Barbary Captivity Narratives from Early Modern England, New York, 2001. Nabil Matar’s excellent introduction sheds a particularly revealing light on the motives of the corsairs; See here.

  For more information on England’s failure to deal with the crisis, and Sir Francis Cottingham’s comments, see Stanley Lane-Poole, The Barbary Corsairs, 1890. For other contemporary observations on the growth of Barbary piracy, see William Lithgow, Rare Adventures, 1928.; and John Smith, The True Travels, published most recently in The Complete Works of Captain John Smith (3 vols.), Chapel Hill, 1986. See especially chapter 28. Vincent de Paul’s personal testimony of slavery in Tunis sheds light on the horrors of the slave market. See Graham Petrie, Tunis, Kairouan and Carthage, 1908.

  The extraordinarily bold expeditions of Murad Rais are detailed in Coindreau, Les Corsaires de Salé, especially here. See also Clissold, The Barbary Slaves,., for general information about the depredations of the corsairs.

  The French padre Pierre Dan was in Algiers when Murad Rais returned from Baltimore, and he witnessed the sale of the Irish slaves. See his Histoire de la Barbarie et de ses Corsaires, Paris, 1637, especially book 3. book 2.

  John Ward is one of the most fascinating renegade pirates to settle in North Africa. His story is outlined in Samuel C. Chew, The Crescent and the Rose: Islam and England during the Renaissance, New York, 1937, p. 347. There are many contemporary pamphlets and documents about his misdeeds. The best and most comprehensive is Andrew Barker, A True and Certain Report, 1609. See also anon., Newes from Sea of two notorious pyrats, 1609. There is an account of Ward’s character in Horatio F. Brown (ed.), Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, 1607-10, 1904, See here. Ward’s infamy was such that ballads were written about him. See A.E.H. Swain (ed.), Anglia, 1898, vol. 20. See also the Naval Records Society’s publication, C. H. Firth (ed.), Naval Songs and Ballads, 1908. This reprints The Famous Sea-Fight Between Captain Ward and the Rainbow, with its memorable couplet supposedly uttered by Ward:

  Go tell the King of England, go tell him from me,

  If he reign king of the land, I will reign king at sea.

  For more information about Salé’s corsairs declaring the city a republic, see The Travels of the Sieur Mouette in the Kingdoms of Fez and Morocco during his eleven years’ captivity in those parts by Germain Mouette. The date of the first English edition is unclear; it is a translation of his Relation de la captivité du Sr. Mouette dans les Royaumes de Fez et de Maroc, Paris, 1683. I consulted the version published in Captain John Stevens, A New Collection of Voyages and Travels, 1710 (2 vols.). Mouette’s account is in vol. 2. All future page references refer to this book. See also the opening pages of Roland Frejus, The Relation of the Voyage made into Mauritania … [in] 1666, 1671. This is a translation of his Relation d‘un voyage fait dans la Mauritanie … en l’année 1666, Paris, 1670.

  See here: Robert Adams’s letter is in the Public Record Office (PRO); SP 71/12, f. 107.

  John Harrison led a most interesting life. He fought in Ireland, was a groom to Prince Henry and served as a sheriff of the Somers Islands (Bermuda). He was also the author of five books. For more information, see the Dictionary of National Biography, vol. 25, 1891.

  Harrison’s various missions to Morocco are outlined in P G. Rogers, A History of Anglo-Moroccan Relations to 1900, 1977, See here.

  All the surviving documents concerning this mission—including King Charles I’s letter to the Moroccan sultan and various petitions by the wives of enslaved mariners—are printed in de Castries, Les Sources Inédites. See the first series, vols. 2 and 3. For more information about the cruelty of the Moroccan sultan, see John Harrison, The Tragicall Life and Death of Muley Abdala Melek, the late king of Barbarie, 1633.

  See here: William Rainsborough’s commission for his 1637 voyage is published in de Castries, Les Sources Inédites, first series, vol. 3, See here. His account of the battle is in the same volume, See here. For a more comprehensive account of the expedition and battle, see John Dunton, A True Journal of the Sallee Fleet, published in vol. 2 of the Harleian Collection of Voyages, 2 vols., 1745.

  For more on Edmund Cason’s 1646 mission to Algiers, see Sir Godfrey Fisher, Barbary Legend, Oxford, 1957. Cason’s mission is also detailed in R. L. Playfair, The Scourge of Christendom, 1884. See chapter 5. Thomas Sweet’s letter to his family is quoted in Vitkus (ed.), Piracy, Slavery and Redemption.

  The best and most detailed account of the corsairs’ attacks on Spain is to be found in Ellen Friedman, Spanish Captives in North Africa in the Early Modern Age, Wisconsin, 1983. For more information about attacks on shipping from colonial North America, see Charles Sumner’s excellent short book, White Slavery in the Barbary States, Boston, 1847.

  2: Sultan of Slaves, See here

  : For general information on Moulay Ismail’s rise to power, see Wilfred Blunt’s biography, Black Sunrise: The Life and Times of Mulai Ismail, Emperor of Morocco, 1646—1727, 1951. See also Simon Ockley, An account of South-West Barbary; containing what is most remarkable in the territories of the King of Fez and Morocco, 1713, especially here. Another excellent source is Francis Brooks, Barbarian Cruelty. Being a true history of the distressed condition of the Christian captives under the tyranny of Mully Ishmael, Emperor of Morocco, 1693; especially here. For more information about Moulay Ismail’s late brother Moulay al-Rashid see Frejus, The Relation. See also Germain Mouette, Histoire des Conquestes de Moulay Archy … et de Moulay Ismail, Paris, 1683. Both Mouette, The Travels of the Sieur Mouette, and Ockley, South-West Barbary, provide descriptions of the barren wastelands of the Tafilalt.

  Jean Ladire’s harrowing story is recounted by Dominique Busnot in his History.

  The short account of Morocco in the sixteenth century is taken largely fr
om Africanus, The History and Description of Africa. The Spanish ambassador’s 1579 description of al-Badi is published in de Castries, Les Sources Inédites, first series, vol. 2, item XI, under the title Relation d’une Ambassade au Maroc.

  See here: The best history of the English garrison in Tangier is E.M.G. Routh, Tangier: England’s Lost Atlantic Outpost, 1661—1684, 1912. J. M. Smithers, The Tangier Campaign: The Birth of the British Army, 2003, examines the long siege. See also Rogers, Anglo-Moroccan Relations; and Linda Colley, Captives: Britain, Empire and the World, 2002. For more on daily life in Tangier, and comments about Colonel Percy Kirke, see Edwin Chappell (ed.), The Tangier Papers of Samuel Pepys, 1935, especially here, here, and here. Kirke’s mission to Meknes is described in an anonymous pamphlet entitled The Last Account from Fez, in a letter from one of the Embassy, etc., 1683. See also Routh, Tangier,.

  The best account of Kaid Muhammad ben Haddu Ottur’s stay in London is found in William Bray (ed.), Memoirs illustrative of the life and writings of John Evelyn, 2 vols., 1818; see especially vol. 1, p. 505.

  The English slave Thomas Phelps would eventually make it home to England. He wrote an account of his experiences, which was published in 1685 under the title A true Account of the Captivity of T Phelps at Machaness in Barbary, and of his strange escape.

  For full details of the English abandonment of Tangier, see Routh, Tangier. The best brief account of the negotiations that followed the withdrawal of troops is in Rogers, Anglo-Moroccan Relations.

  3: Seized at Sea,

  : The only account of Thomas Pellow’s early life, and of the Francis’s departure from Falmouth, is to be found in Pellow’s Adventures. For more information about Penryn, and the seafaring families that lived in the village, see June Palmer, Penryn in the Eighteenth Century, privately published in 1991. See also Daniel Defoe, A Tour thro’ the Whole Island of Great Britain, 3 vols., 1724—27. For Peter Mundy’s comments, see John Keast (ed.), The Travels of Peter Mundy, 1597—1667, 1984.

  Much of the information about the capture of British and colonial American vessels in the period 1715—20 has been drawn from documents held in the PRO. The most relevant file, SP71/16, contains a wealth of information, including correspondence, petitions and consuls’ reports.

  For more information about the ships used by the Barbary corsairs, see Lane-Poole, The Barbary Corsairs, and Coindreau, Les Corsaires de Salé. On the preparations undertaken before putting to sea, see Dan, Histoire de la Barbarie. Dan also has much to say about the violence of their attacks. “It is a terrifying thing to see the frenzy they work themselves into when they attack the ships,” he wrote. “They appear on the upper deck, sleeves rolled up, their scimitar in hand, bawling all together in a most terrifying fashion.”

  See here: Joseph Pitts’s account of his capture and subsequent years as a slave is one of the most interesting and perceptive accounts of slavery in North Africa. It was published in 1704 under the title A True and Faithful Account of the Religion and Manners of the Mohammetans, with an Account of the Author’s Being Taken Captive.

  Abraham Browne’s fascinating account of his capture is little known. It was printed in Stephen T. Riley (ed.), Seafaring in Colonial Massachusetts, published by the Colonial Society of Massachusetts, Boston, in 1980. Captain Bellemy’s grisly death is recounted in Brooks, Barbarian Cruelty.

  Whether or not Delgarno was commander of the mystery ship sighted off Salé remains unclear. His flagship, the Hind, was undergoing repairs in Gibraltar after military action off Cape Cantin. See Morsy, La Relation de Thomas Pellow, n. 13.

  See here: The best contemporary description of Salé is in Mouette, The Travels of the Sieur Mouette. See also Captain John Braithwaite, The History of the Revolutions in the Empire of Morocco, 1729, p. 343.

  The arrival in Salé was always a harrowing experience for new slaves. The French ambassador Pidou de St. Olon, witnessed the arrival of one batch and saw them suffer “curses and hootings of the whole town, and particularly of the young fry, some of which follow them merely to bellow out a volley of abusive words, or throw stones at them.” His excellent book was published in English in 1695 under the title The Present State of the Empire of Morocco. It is a translation of his Estat Présent de L’Empire de Maroc, Paris, 1694.

  The best general account of the treatment of slaves in Barbary is in Clissold, The Barbary Slaves. See also Christopher Lloyd, English Corsairs on the Barbary Coast, 1981. For more on slavery in Tripoli, see Seton Dearden, A Nest of Corsairs, 1905. The English slave George Elliot wrote a most interesting account of his life as a slave. His book, A true narrative of the life of Mr. G. E. who was taken and sold for a slave, was published in 1780; See here. See also Adam Elliot, A Narrative of my travails, captivity, and escape from Salle in the kingdom of Fez, 1682. The best description of the Salé matamores, and the conditions in which slaves were held, is in Mouette, The Travels of the Sieur Mouette.

  Virtually every account written by a former slave includes a description of the slave market and auction. One of the most interesting testimonies is to be found in William Okeley, Ebenezer: or, A Monument of Great Mercy, Appearing in the Miraculous Deliverence of William Okeley, 1675. This rare book was reprinted in Vitkus (ed.), Piracy, Slavery and Redemption; See here. Pitts’s A True and Faithful Account also contains an interesting description of the Algiers market.

  Pellow and his men were fortunate that their march to Meknes was undertaken without too much hardship. John Whitehead was one of many slaves who, in 1693, had endured great torment. “After the fatigue of our journey, every day, sleeping in the night abroad under unwholesome dews that fell, and sometimes rain, made us all sick; some of an ague and feaver, and some of a feaver alone.” Whitehead wrote a fascinating testimony of his life as a slave. Entitled “John Whitehead: His Relation of Barbary,” the manuscript has never been published. The original is in the British Library, MS Sloane, 90.

  4: Pellow’s Torments, See here

  See here: There are numerous descriptions of Moulay Ismail, as well as many accounts of his character, dress and appearance. Two Moroccan histories have proved particularly useful in assessing his long reign. Le Maroc de 1631 à 1812 is an edited translation of Abou-l-Kasem ben Ahmed ez-Zayyani, Ettordjeman elmoarib an douel elmachriq ou ’lmaghrib. The French translation is by Octave Houdas and is published by the Ecole des Langues Orientales Vivantes, series 3, vol. 18, Paris, 1886. The other account is Ahmad ben Khalid al-Nasari, Kitab al-istiqsa liakhbar duwal al-Maghrib al-Aqsa. This was published in French under the title, Chronique de la Dynastie Alaouie du Maroc, Eugène Fumey (trans.). It is in vols. 9 and 10 of the Archives Marocaines, Publication de la Mission Scientifique du Maroc, Paris, 1906—7.

  Some of the most perceptive and interesting contemporary descriptions are to be found in Busnot, History, and Brooks, Barbarian Cruelty. Whitehead, “His Relation of Barbary,” provides ample further evidence of the sultan’s cruelty, while St. Olon, The Present State, gives an account of the sultan’s reception of foreign embassies. Other fascinating accounts about Moulay Ismail are contained in Jean-Baptiste Estelle’s various memoirs; see de Castries, Les Sources Inédites, second series, vol. 3. For a modern analysis of his character, see Blunt, Black Sunrise. See also Defontin-Maxange, Le Grand Ismail, empereur du Maroc, Paris, 1928. For a penetrating analysis of the sultan’s rule, see Henri de Castries, Moulay Ismail et Jacques II, Paris, 1903.

  Another of the sultan’s peculiarities was the way in which his skin changed color according to his humor and temperament. He was a “moletto by his colour,” wrote Francis Brooks, “but when he is in a passion, he looks … as black as an infernal imp.” Jean-Baptiste Estelle recorded that the sultan became “unbelievably black” when he was angry. Busnot, too, was surprised by this strange phenomenon. When happy, the sultan was “whiter than ordinary.” But when he was annoyed, “he turns black and his eyes are blood red.”

  The Koubbat el-Khayyatin can be visited to this day. A maze of tunnels lead d
eep into the earth, where they connect with storerooms and yet more tunnels. The inner recesses have been closed since the 1950s, when a couple of French tourists descended deep into the labyrinth and were never seen again.

  The punishment of slaves receives wide coverage in all of the narratives written by escaped captives. Okeley, Mouette, George Elliot and Brooks all wrote about the bastinado, as did Dominique Busnot.

  Forcible conversion was widespread in Barbary, but there were many captives who decided to “turn Turk” in order to escape the horrors of the slave pen. Pitts recounts his own experience of being forcibly converted in his A True and Faithful Account. There is also an excellent account in Dan, Histoire de la Barbarie. An even earlier description is to be found in A True Relation of the Travels and Most Miserable Captivity of William Davis, Barber-Surgeon of London, circa 1597. This fascinating narrative was published in Stevens, A New Collection of Voyages. See also Mouette, The Travels of the Sieur Mouette,.

  See here: Much of this section has been drawn from documents in de Castries, Les Sources Inédites, series 2, vol. 2. Documents relating to the capture of Mamora are in this volume. See especially Germain Mouette, Histoire des Conquestes, which is also reprinted in this volume. Documents about the Larache campaign are in vol. 3 and include reports by Jean Perillié, the French consul and much interesting information about the negotiations that followed the capture of the presidio. See also Voyage en Espagne d’un Ambassadeur Marocain, 1690-1691, H. Sauvaire (trans.), Paris, 1884.