The Pirate City: An Algerine Tale

by R. M. Ballantyne

  CHAPTER THREE.

  REVEALS SOMETHING SURPRISING IN REGARD TO EUROPEAN FORBEARANCE ANDPIRATIC IMPUDENCE.

  Seated on a gun-carriage, apart from his comrades in sorrow, FranciscoRimini gazed in stern silence upon the moonlit sea, and thought,perchance, of the little old lady with the rippling mouth, and thedark-eyed daughter of his adoption.

  "Your fate is a sad one," said a deep voice close to his side.

  Francisco started, and looked round with indignant surprise at Bacri.

  "None the less sad that a friend has proved false, Jew," he saidsternly. "It has never been my custom to call any of your race `dog,'as too many of my creed have done in time past, but I am tempted tochange my custom this night."

  "To misname me would do you no good and me no harm," replied the Jewgravely. "My race is an accursed one as far as man is concerned, butman's curse is of no more value than his blessing."

  "If these arms were free, Bacri," retorted Francisco hotly, "I wouldteach thee that which would prove anything but a blessing to thycarcase, thou huge caitiff! I had thought better of thee than thoudidst deserve.--Go, thy bulky presence is distasteful."

  "Wherein have I wronged you?" asked the Jew.

  "Wronged me!" exclaimed Francisco, with rising wrath, "art thou not handand glove with the chief pirate? Thinkest thou that my eyes have losttheir power of vision?"

  "Truly I am acquainted with the corsair, though the acquaintance wasnone of my seeking," returned the Jew, "for, as I said before, tradershave dealings with many sorts of men; but I did not advise him to attackyou, and I could not hinder him."

  "Scoundrel!" exclaimed the padrone, "couldst thou not restrain thinehand when it knocked the senses out of my boy Mariano? Wouldst have mebelieve that thy huge fists are not subject to thy villainous will, orthat they acted as they did by mere accident, instead of aiding to repelthe pirates?"

  "I did it to save his life," replied Bacri, "and not only his, but yourown and the lives of all your men. I saw that Mariano was about toprevail, and if he had slain the corsair chief, not one of you wouldhave been alive at this moment."

  Francisco's wrath when roused was not readily appeased, neverthelessthis statement puzzled him so much that he remained silently gazing atthe Jew, from sheer inability to express his feelings.

  "Listen," continued Bacri, drawing nearer, and speaking in a lower tone,"the man into whose hands you have fallen is Sidi Hassan, one of themost noted and daring of the pirates on the Barbary coast. Escape fromhim is impossible. I know him well, and can assure you that your onlyhope of receiving anything that deserves the title of good treatmentdepends on your quiet and absolute subjection to his will. Rebelliousor even independent bearing will insure your speedy and severehumiliation. We `dogs of Jews,'" continued Bacri, with a sad smile,"may seem to you to hang our heads rather low sometimes, but I have seenChristian men, as bold as you are, crawl upon the very dust before theseTurks of Algiers."

  "Our fate, then," said Francisco, "is, I suppose, and as I halfsuspected, to be slavery in that pirates' nest, Algiers?"

  "I fear it is," replied the Jew, "unless Providence permits a storm toset you free; but let me correct your notion of Algiers. A pirates'nest it undoubtedly is, but there are others than pirates in the nest,and some of these are even honest men."

  "Ha!" exclaimed the padrone, quickly and with bitterness; "is one ofthese said honest men a Jew of stalwart frame, and does his connexionwith the piratical nest free him from the bonds to which I and my sonsare doomed?"

  "To both questions I answer yes," replied the Jew.

  "Then a fig for your honesty, Master Bacri!" said Francisco, with a tossof his head, in lieu of a snap of his fingers, which in thecircumstances was impossible, "for I now believe that you knockedMariano down simply to save the life of your comrade Sidi Hassan, andthat you will pocket your own share of my ship and cargo."

  "I have not the power to alter your belief," said the Jew quietly, as heturned away and left the unfortunate captive to his meditations.

  As the night advanced the wind continued to abate, and when morningbroke, the broad breast of the Mediterranean undulated like a sheet ofclear glass, on which was gradually revealed the form of a strangevessel becalmed not far from the prize.

  As soon as it was sufficiently light to permit of objects being clearlyseen, Sidi Hassan fired a gun and showed the Algerine flag.

  "Our luck has changed," he said to his first officer, with an air ofsatisfaction. "Get the boats ready; we will board at once."

  "She shows British colours," said the mate, regarding the vessel inquestion intently through his glass.

  "So she does," returned the captain, "but that device won't go down withme. Board her at once, while I bring our broadside to bear."

  The mate, with two boats full of armed men, soon pulled alongside thestrange sail, and the pirate-vessel was brought round with her broadsideto bear by means of long oars or sweeps. In a short time the boatsreturned with the mortifying intelligence that the papers were allright, and that the vessel, being in truth a British merchantman, wasnot a legitimate prize. The corsair therefore sailed away under theinfluence of a light breeze which had arisen.

  At the time of which we write, (about sixty years ago), Algiers wasunder the dominion of Turkey, but exercised all the rights of anindependent state. It may be described as a monstrous blot of barbarismhanging on the skirts of civilisation. It was an anomaly too, for itclaimed to be an orthodox power, and was recognised as such by thenations of Europe, while in reality its chief power consisted inconsummate impudence, founded on pride and ignorance of the strength ofother powers, coupled with the peculiarity of its position and with thefact that the great nations were too much engaged fighting with eachother to be at leisure to pay attention to it. Its rulers or Deys weremost of them ignorant men, who had risen, in many cases, from the ranksof the janissaries or common Turkish soldiery, and its sole occupationwas piracy--piracy pure and simple.

  It did not, like other powers, find a pretext for war in the righting ofa supposed or real wrong. The birds of the Pirates' Nest were much toosimple in their grandeur thus to beat about the bush. They wentstraight to the point. Without any pretext at all they declared warwith a nation when they had a mind to plunder it, and straightway setabout making prizes of the merchantmen of that nation; at the same timekeeping carefully clear of its cruisers. If there had been a tangiblegrievance, diplomacy might have set it right--but there never was anygrievance, either real or imaginary. If there had been a worthy fleetthat would come out and face a foe, courage and power might have settledthe question--but there was no such fleet. The nest possessed only afew small frigates and a considerable number of boats, large and small,which crept along the northern shores of Africa, and pounced upon unwarytraders, or made bold dashes at small villages on the southern shores ofEurope and in the isles of the Mediterranean. Trade was horriblyhampered by them, though they had no ostensible trade of their own;their influence on southern Europe being comparable only to that of awasps' nest under one's window, with this difference, that even wasps,as a rule, mind their own business, whereas the Algerine pirates mindedthe business of everybody else, and called _that_ their own specialvocation!

  Like other powers, they took prisoners, but instead of exchanging thesein times of war and freeing them on return of peace, they madegalley-slaves of them all, and held them to ransom. At all times therewere hundreds of Christian slaves held in bondage. Even in this presentcentury, so late as 1816, the Algerine Turks held in captivity thousandsof Christian slaves of all grades and classes, from all parts of Europe,and these were in many cases treated with a degree of cruelty which isperhaps equalled, but not surpassed, by the deeds recorded of negroslavery; and so hopeless were people as to the power or intention ofgovernments to mend this state of things, that societies were formed insome of the chief countries in the world, including England, France, andAmerica, for the express purpose of ransoming Christian slaves fr
omthose dreaded shores of Barbary.

  Having said this, the reader will doubtless be prepared to hear that thecivilised world, howling with indignation, assailed, burned, andexterminated this pirates' nest. Not at all. The thing was tolerated;more than that, it was recognised! Consuls were actually sent to thenest to represent Great Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Holland,Sweden, Denmark, America; disgraceful treaties were entered into; andannual tribute was paid by each of these, in the form of a costly"present" to the Dey, for the purpose of securing immunity to theirtrading vessels! Whatever nation kept a consul at this nest and paid"black-mail" passed scot free. The nation that failed in these respectswas ruthlessly and systematically plundered--and this at the time whenLord Nelson was scouring the ocean with mighty armaments; when our songslauded the wooden walls of old England to the skies; and when GreatBritain claimed to herself the proud title of "Mistress of the Sea"! Ifyou doubt this, reader, let us assure you that all history asserts it,that recorded facts confirm it, and that our proper attitude in regardto it is to stand amazed, and admit that there are some things in thiscurious world which "no fellow can understand."

  Without apologising for this digression, we return to the thread of ourtale.

  Finding, then, as we have said, that the British merchantman was not alegitimate foe, the corsair proceeded to look out for a more worthyobject of attack--namely, a vessel of some hapless petty state, which,being too venturesome, or too poor to pay black-mail, was at war,perforce, with the Algerines. Fortune, however, ceased for a short timeto be propitious. No suitable vessel was to be found, therefore SidiHassan resolved to exercise the rights of the unusually free andindependent power of which he was a worthy representative in a somewhatstrange fashion.

  Bearing down on the coast, he sailed along it for some time, with theintention of making a bold dash at some small fishing village. His materather objected to this, knowing well that such attempts were too apt tobe attended with considerable loss of life; but Sidi Hassan was not aman to be easily turned from his purpose. The sight of a brig in theoffing, however, induced him to run out again to sea. He was soonwithin hail, and, finding that the vessel was a Sicilian trader, boardedher at once.

  No opposition was offered, the brig being totally without arms and hercrew small. She, like the vessel of our friend Francisco, was ladenwith wine and fruit. There were only two passengers on board, but thesetwo were great prizes in Hassan's estimation, being beautiful girls ofabout seventeen and eighteen respectively. They were sisters--the elderbeing on her way with her infant son to join her husband in Malta.

  Hassan was glad of the opportunity thus thrown in his way of pleasinghis master the Dey of Algiers by presenting to him these unfortunates,whose manners and appearance bespoke them ladies, and at once sent themon board his vessel, along with their money and jewels. Their wardrobewas distributed among the pirate crew--the money and jewels being theDey's perquisite.

  "I have a plan in my head," said Hassan to his second in command, "whichthe capture of this brig has suggested to me. Go, take charge of ourvessel, and send me twenty of the best men of our crew fully armed--alsoa British Union-jack. There is a captain of a port in thisneighbourhood against whom I have a special grudge, and to whom I wouldfain give a free passage to Algiers! so make haste."

  The order was soon executed, and the pirate-vessel ordered to remainwhere she was while the brig stood inshore and sailed along the coast.In a few hours she was off the port above referred to, when she hove-to,hoisted the British flag, and fired a gun. The captain of the portinnocently put off to the brig, and in a few minutes found himself andhis boat's crew taken captive by the Algerines!

  Having thus successfully accomplished his design, Hassan returned to hisvessel, put a crew on board the second prize, and, directing his courseto Africa made all sail for the port of Algiers.

  During the voyage the unfortunate captives saw little of each other,nevertheless Mariano saw enough of the sisters, to create in his breastfeelings of the tenderest pity--especially for the younger sister, whomhe thought rather pretty than otherwise! As for the Jew, he kept alooffrom all the captives, but seemed to have a good understanding with thepirate captain, and to be acquainted with several of his men.