BARBARY AND THE BUCCANEERS
"_In lofty strains the bard shall tell_
_How Truxton fought, how Somers fell,_
_How gallant Preble's daring host_
_Triumphed along the Moorish coast,_
_Forced the proud infidel to treat,_
_And brought the Crescent to their feet!_"
I was straining like a leashed hound to board a ship and fight for my
brother's freedom, but no way was open to secure the release of the
captives except by diplomacy. As a vent for my feelings in those first
weeks of hot rage, I plunged into a study of the history of the Barbary
pirates. Every outrage done by them was the occasion for an outburst of
vain anger on my part. But was it, after all, vain? Later I had my wish
and shared in a campaign to free three hundred American prisoners from
captivity in Tripoli.
Meanwhile, we lost no time in sending to Alexander as comforting an
answer as we could compose. He had asked that we send his mail to the
care of the English consul who, he wrote, had obtained the consent of
the Dey to send and receive letters for the American captives.
Dr. Eccleston assured Alexander that Mr. Samuel Smith, Maryland's
representative in Congress, had taken an interest in the case and would
urge Congress to procure his speedy release. It was easy to predict a
swift release--but hard, we soon found, to obtain one. I have heard
men joke about the law's delays, but the delays of diplomats are longer
yet. _Alexander's captivity was to endure for years!_
Fortunately for me in my pursuit of knowledge concerning these
buccaneers, I could talk to the rector who had years before traveled
through Mohammedan countries. He poured out to me freely his
recollections of the miserable nations that occupied the African coast
of the Mediterranean.
In books concerning these pirates his library was not lacking. He was
a great bookworm--some of his people whispered that he would trade
the soul of one of his flock for a rare book. He made friends with
skippers, it was said, mainly to have them bring him the latest books
from abroad. By trading with sailors, schoolmasters and preachers, he
had acquired many volumes, among which were many books on travel and
exploration.
Wrecking and piracy had been followed by the inhabitants of the
communities bordering on the Mediterranean since the time of Odysseus.
The rector read to me from Thucydides how Minos of Greece used his
fleet to "put down piracy as far as he was able, in order that his
revenues might come in." From Homer he read the passage, "Do you wander
for trade or at random like pirates over the sea?"
[Illustration: WRECKING AND PIRACY HAD BEEN FOLLOWED BY THE COMMUNITIES
BORDERING ON THE MEDITERRANEAN SINCE THE EARLIEST DAYS.]
In the first half of the last century before Christ, I learned, Cicilia
and Crete were the chief buccaneering nations on the Mediterranean.
Rome had ruined all of her rivals, and therefore made no effort to
guard the seas from corsairs. Refugees from all nations joined the
pirate fleets of Cicilia and Crete. The small communities surrounding
these pirate states were forced to become allies of the pirate rulers.
In addition to seizing ships and goods, the buccaneers became slavers,
attacking small towns and carrying away men, women and girls. The
island of Delos became a clearing-house for this traffic, and in one
day ten thousand slaves were sold. It was said that while the harbor
of Delos was supposed to offer mariners protection from pirates, the
crew of a ship that anchored alongside a merchant vessel might be the
kind that made merry with the merchantman's crew on shore, and, after
learning of her cargo and destination, might follow her out of the
harbor to cut the throats of her crew on the high seas.
Along the southern coast of the Mediterranean, in that part which is
now called Barbary or Northern Africa, where Morocco, Algeria, Tunis
and Tripoli lie, the galleys of Phoenician traders roved in these early
times, exploring the rivers.
Following these traders came Carthaginian warriors who founded colonies
upon this coast. Among these communities was the famous city of
Carthage, that in time brought forth the mighty leader Hannibal.
Then came the Romans, who conquered the Carthaginians and turned
their cities to ruins. Thus the entire territory became Roman African
colonies.
Over six centuries after the birth of Christ, the Saracens began to
invade this region. Their wars continued until by the eighth century
all Roman authority was swept away, and Mohammedan rule was established
throughout the country.
"RED-BEARD"
Born of my reading and thinking about Mediterranean pirates, through
my dreams went a pageant of cruel corsairs and pitiable captives.
There was the corsair chief Uruj Barbarossa, who, hearing on his
native island of Lesbos of the rich galleons that passed through the
Mediterranean, entered the Sea in 1504 with a fleet of robber galleys
and made an alliance with the ruler of Tunis whereby that port became
the center for his thieving. This Barbarossa, or Red-Beard, was a
pirate of the heroic order. On one of his first voyages out of Tunis
he fell in with two galleys belonging to Pope Julius II, bearing rich
merchandise from Genoa. These galleys were far bigger than his two
galleots, yet Red-Beard attacked so fiercely that he overcame the
foremost galley. As the second galley came up without having seen the
outcome of the battle, he arrayed his sailors in the clothes of the
Christian captives and, taking the second galley by surprise, captured
her too. His victories made Europe tremble. Emperor Charles V of Spain
in 1516 sent ten thousand veterans to Barbary to end Red-Beard's
career. Barbarossa's army of fifteen hundred men was surprised by
the Spaniards in crossing a river. Having crossed, he turned back on
hearing the cries of his men and died fighting gallantly in their midst.
Next through my fancy passed Kheyr-ed-din, Red-Beard's brother. Having
slain Red-Beard, the Spaniards could have driven the corsairs out of
Africa, but instead of waging further war, the army returned to Spain.
Kheyr-ed-din then assumed command of the sea rovers, and with a fleet
of one hundred and fifty galleys and brigantines engaged an Allied
Christian fleet of one hundred and forty-six galleons under Admiral
Andrea Doria. The battle amounted only to a skirmish, for Andrea
Doria, although his vessels were manned by sixty thousand men--forces
far greater than that of the infidels--retired when the Moslems had
captured seven of his galleys.
GALLANT DON JOHN
Next in the pageant passed the great corsairs of the battle of Lepanto,
where the Turks, then at the height of their glory, suffered a crushing
defeat at the hands of the brilliant young emperor, Don John of Austria.
The Moslems, before this historic date of October 7, 1571, were
threatening to overwhelm Europe. They desired to make the rich island
of Cyprus one of their stepping-stones to the mainland. Venice, who
owned the island, resisted the claims of the infidels. The Moslems
thereupon threatened to conquer Venice herself. That city's fleet was
too small to cope with the great navy of the Turks. Philip II of Spain,
appealed to by Pope Pius V, went to her aid. The Holy League to protect
Christendom against the infidels was formed.
Don John of Austria, brother of Philip, was chosen to lead the
Christian fleet. He was tall and handsome, and, although only
twenty-four, had distinguished himself in wars against the Moors. He
went to join his navy in a dress of white velvet and cloth of gold.
A crimson scarf floated from his breast. Snow-white plumes adorned
his cap. He looked every inch a hero, and every inch a hero he proved
himself to be.
He found himself at the head of the greatest Christian fleet that had
ever assembled to fight the corsairs. Three hundred vessels and eighty
thousand men sailed forth under his command. The men were incited to
battle by news of the almost unbelievable cruelties the Moslems had
inflicted upon the Venetian garrison of a city in Cyprus which they
had captured. The captain of the Venetian troops, Bragadino, had had
his ears and nose cut off. He was next led around before the Turkish
batteries, crawling on hands and knees, laden with two baskets of
earth. Whenever he passed the quarters of the Turkish general, he was
forced to kiss the ground. Next, with Mustapha, the Moslem general,
looking on, he was flayed alive, and his skin, stuffed with straw, was
then paraded through the town.
Resolved to end forever such atrocities, the Christian fleet sought
that of Ali Pasha, the Turkish admiral. Three hundred galleys, with
one hundred and twenty thousand men, composed the Moslem fleet. They
came on with their decks covered with flags and streamers, while, hid
by this glory of banners, the galley slaves, chained to the oars,
toiled beneath the lash. The two fleets met near the Gulf of Lepanto.
Don John's lookout, from his perch on the main-top, discovered a white
sail. Behind it came sail after sail, until the full strength of the
Turkish navy was in sight.
Don John ran up his signal for battle--a white flag--and went in his
gig from galley to galley, encouraging his men.
"Ready, Sir, and the sooner the better!" they replied to his question
as to their preparedness.
As a last act before battle, Don John unfurled a standard containing
the figure of the Saviour, fell on his knees and prayed for God's
blessing on his cause, then formed his line of battle. The fire
from the huge floating castles that belonged to his fleet created a
panic among the Turks and broke their line. The ships of both sides
came together in a confused mass, so that their decks, almost joined
together, formed a huge platform upon which the Christians and Turks
battled.
Ali Pasha, the Moslem admiral, came alongside of Don John's ship and
was on the point of boarding it when the galley of the Spanish captain
Colonna rammed his vessel, while its crew poured a destroying fire
across the Turkish galley's deck. Ali Pasha was slain. The Ottoman
emblem fluttered down from the mast of the flagship, and the Christian
ensign rose in its place. Heartened by this victory, the other
Christian galleys triumphed over their foes. Such Turkish ships as were
able to escape fled, pursued by the Christians. The Moslems lost over
two hundred ships. Twenty thousand of their men perished. The Christian
fleet lost over seven thousand men. Twelve thousand Christian slaves
were set free from the Turkish galleys.
The Pope who had urged that the Christian fleet be assembled cried in
thanksgiving: "There was a man sent from God, whose name was John."
CERVANTES--WARRIOR AND AUTHOR
Following these great corsairs came cruel, mean-spirited buccaneers,
whom I was glad to dismiss and replace in my imaginings with that
noble captive of the Turkish pirates, Miguel Cervantes, who, after his
release was to write the immortal book, "Don Quixote."
In 1575 Cervantes set sail from Naples for the coast of Spain in
the vessel _El Sol_. His brother, Rodrigo, went with him. They were
returning to Spain, their native land, after serving as soldiers of
fortune abroad. Cervantes was the son of an impoverished nobleman of
Castile. He had commanded a company of soldiers on board the _Marquesa_
at the Battle of Lepanto. In this battle he lost his left arm. He bore
with him a letter of testimonial from Don John, stating that he was as
valiant as he was unlucky, and recommending him to Philip II of Spain.
His ship was almost in sight of the desired haven. The coast of Barbary
which lay on the shore of the Mediterranean opposite from Spain was
feared by the Spaniards because it was infested with pirates, but it
seemed that on this occasion they were to escape attack.
Suddenly, however, three corsair galleys, commanded by Arnaut Memi,
pushed out from the Algerine shore. The _El Sol's_ captain tried his
utmost to escape, but was overtaken. A desperate engagement followed,
in which Cervantes fought with valor, but the pirates were in
overwhelming numbers and the master of the _El Sol_ was at last forced
to strike his colors.
Deli Memi, a renegade Greek, took Cervantes as his captive. Finding
upon his person the letters of recommendation from Don John to the King
of Spain, the pirate thought that a rich and powerful person had become
his prisoner and so set a high ransom price upon him. To make Cervantes
the more anxious to be delivered from captivity, Deli Memi loaded him
with chains and treated him with continued cruelty.
As a matter of fact, Cervantes was poor both in money and the means of
borrowing it. His father, in the second year of his sons' captivity,
managed to raise enough funds to secure the release of one of them, but
Deli Memi, thinking Miguel of more importance than his brother, kept
the future author and set free Rodrigo. Upon this, Cervantes planned to
escape. In a cavern six miles from Algiers a number of fugitive slaves
were hiding. Rodrigo promised to send a Spanish ship to take away these
refugees. The captive Cervantes was to join them. The ship arrived but
some Algerine fisherman gave the alarm and the vessel was obliged to
put out to sea without the fugitives.
The Dey of Algiers, learning of the hiding place from a treacherous
comrade of Cervantes, sent soldiers to seize the escaped slaves. He
was a murderous ruler. Cervantes later in "Don Quixote" gave the Dey
eternal infamy by thus painting one of the characters in his colors:
"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."
Cervantes took the blame for the entire project on himself. Threatened
with torture and death, he held to his story. The ruler, amazed at his
boldness, departed from his usual custom and purchased Cervantes from
Deli Memi for five hundred crowns.
Again and again the Spaniard tried to escape, always at the risk
of being punished with death. At last, when his master was called
to Constantinople, and was taking Cervantes with him in chains, a
priest obtained his ransom for one hundred pounds, English money, and
Cervantes was free to go home and enter upon the literary career that
brought forth "Don Quixote."
The nations of Europe by persistent effort could have wiped out
piracy along the entire Barbary coast, but instead they continued to
allow their shipping to be preyed upon, paid ransoms meekly, and sent
bribes in the form of presents to the greedy and insolent rulers.
France incited the pirates to prey upon the shipping of Spain; Great
Britain and Holland urged the corsairs to destroy the sea commerce of
France--each great power sought the pirates as an aid to bar their
rivals from the trade of the Mediterranean.
The consuls sent from Europe to these provinces were often seized as
hostages by the pashas, deys and beys to whom they toadied, and if the
fleets of their countries in a spasm of rage at some fresh indignity
attacked the Barbary ports, the consuls were tortured. For instance,
when the French shelled Algiers in 1683, the Vicar Apostolic Jean de
Vacher, acting as consul, was blown to pieces from a cannon's mouth.
DAUNTLESS MASTER NICHOLS
While we who were interested in the captives lamented that the nations
of the world, our country included, were so slow to wipe out these
pirates, my thoughts ran back to the story of an adventure that had
been passed on to me through some family chronicles, of one of our
ancestors who fought against this same race of corsairs. This Forsyth
was an English sailor. He shipped in the _Dolphin_, of London, along
with thirty-six men and two boys, under Master Nichols, a skilful and
experienced skipper.
While in sight of the island of Sardinia, in the Mediterranean Sea
they caught sight of a sail making towards them from the shore. Master
Nichols sent my forbear into the maintop, where he sighted five ships
following the one that had already been discovered. By their appearance
they were taken to be Turkish corsairs.
The _Dolphin_ was armed with nineteen guns and nine carronades, the
latter pieces being used to fire bullets for the purpose of sweeping
the decks when the ship was boarded by enemies. These guns were made
ready to resist an attack, the men were armed with muskets, pistols
and cutlasses, and the assault was awaited with courage. Master
Nichols, upon the poop, waved his sword as confidently as if the battle
was already won. His example did much to hearten the crew for the
ordeal confronting them.
When the foremost ship came within range, Master Nichols ordered
his trumpeter to sound and his gunner to aim and fire. The leading
ship, which had gotten the wind of the _Dolphin_, returned the fire
as fiercely. This ship, which was under the command of a renegade
Englishman named Walshingham who acted as admiral of the Moslem fleet,
came alongside of the _Dolphin_. She had twice as many pieces of
ordnance as the _Dolphin_, and had two hundred and fifty men to match
against the forty men on the English ship's decks. These boarded the
_Dolphin_ on the larboard quarter, and came towards the poop with pikes
and hatchets upraised to slaughter.
However, the _Dolphin's_ crew had a carronade in the captain's cabin,
or round house, and with bullets from this they drove the infidels
back, while their own gunners continued to pour shot into the corsair.
At last the Turkish ship was shot through and through and was in danger
of sinking. Walshingham therefore withdrew his men from the _Dolphin's_
deck and sailed his ship ahead of the English vessel, receiving a final
broadside as he passed.
Following Walshingham's ship, two other large Turkish vessels came to
attack, one on the starboard quarter, and the other on the port. Each
of them had twenty-five cannon and about two hundred and fifty men.
With scimiters, hatchets, pikes and other weapons, they poured on to
the _Dolphin's_ deck where the others had left off. One of the most
daring of the Turks climbed into the maintop of the _Dolphin_ to haul
down the flag, but the steward of the ship, espying him, took aim with
his musket. The Turk dropped dead into the sea, and the flag still
floated.
These boarders were repelled in the same fashion. The _Dolphin's_ crew
fired their small battery with great effect into both ships. They too,
torn and battered, passed on at last to mend their leaks.
After them came two more ships as well-armed and as well-manned as
those that had passed out of the fight. The gunners of the _Dolphin_
disposed of one of these quickly, and she hurried to get out of range.
The crew of the other one, however, approaching on the starboard side,
boarded the _Dolphin_ where the earlier assailants had entered, and
swarmed up the deck crying in the Turkish tongue: "Yield yourselves!
Yield yourselves!" Their leaders also promised that the lives of the
Englishmen would be spared, and their ship and goods delivered back to
them.
"Give no ear to them! Die rather than yield!" cried Captain Nichols.
His men fought on doggedly, plying their ordnance against the ship;
playing upon the boarders with small shot; meeting them in hand-to-hand
encounters.
Suddenly smoke poured out from the hatches of the _Dolphin_. The
infidels, fearing that their own ship would catch fire from the burning
vessel, retreated from the _Dolphin_, and permitted their ship to fall
far astern of her.
The _Dolphin's_ intrepid crew now set to work to quench the flames
and succeeded. A haven was near, into which they put, the enemy ships
having gone ashore in other places to save themselves from wreck.
In these three battles, the _Dolphin_ lost only six men and one boy,
with eight men and one boy hurt. The Moslems lost scores of men. Master
Nichols was wounded twice. The ship arrived safely in the Thames, near
London--a plain merchant ship, manned by ordinary sailors, but as
meritorious of honor as any ship that fought under Nelson or Drake.
I was glad that the story had been passed down to me. I thought of the
two boys in the crew--one killed, the other wounded. I resolved that
when my chance came to help rid the seas of these buccaneers I would
try to fight as nobly.