AN AMERICAN FRIGATE BECOMES A CORSAIR'S CATTLESHIP
When I felt the deck of the _George Washington_ beneath my feet, I felt
a different thrill than that which had run through me when I stepped
aboard _The Rose of Egypt_. I was a navy lad now, and my own quest for
treasure, that had absorbed all of my attentions, dwindled before the
fact that it was now my duty to consider the interests of my country
more than my own selfish aims.
Moreover I was to meet men, and find adventures, that made my treasure
hunt for the time being a secondary interest. I intended before I
quitted the Barbary coast to make the search; meanwhile I was content
to take what experiences navy life brought me, awaiting my opportunity
to enter the desert in search of the riches. The Egyptian, I had
reason to believe, had been killed in the hurricane. The secret of the
treasure was safe with me. Time would unfold my opportunity.
As for those who are following this chronicle, let us hope that the
thrilling naval activities these pages will now mirror will be more
absorbing even than the personal experiences I have told about; yet if
any wonder as to the result of my quest for treasure, let me encourage
them by saying that it was the historic events I am now about to relate
that placed me at last in a position to reach the spot where the
jewels and trinkets described by the rector were buried.
My good friend Samuel Childs found an old comrade on board the _George
Washington_--one Reuben James. The two had been shipmates in the
merchant service. Reuben, though now scarcely more than a boy, was a
veteran sailor. He had gone to sea at the age of thirteen, had sailed
around the world, and had every sort of experience that comes to a
seaman. All of us became members of the frigate's crew, and Samuel and
I were chosen for Reuben's watch, so that the three of us had many a
chance to talk things over.
From Reuben I drew forth an account of the release of Alexander and the
other American captives. It was not until Samuel told him that I was a
brother to one of the captives that he displayed interest in me; after
he had discovered this fact, however, he went out of his way to be kind
to me.
ALEXANDER FREE
"Well do I remember Alexander Forsyth," Reuben said, "and I'll swear
that when I met him at Marseilles, where he was awaiting a passage home
after his release from bloody Algiers, he was the nearest thing to a
dead man that I have ever seen alive! He looked like a skeleton with a
beating heart! Mark my word, he'll never go to sea again! What can you
expect--after years of cruelty, starvation, sickness, chain-dragging!"
"You see," Reuben said in excuse for our statesmen, "our Congressmen
had other important things to worry about: Indian uprisings, trouble
at sea with England and France; a union to form between the bickering
commonwealths, finances to raise for running the government, and what
not? A few sailors imprisoned in an out-of-the-way part of the world
were apt to be forgotten!"
The fresh captures by the pirates that brought about the settlement
had, I was informed, happened in this manner:
When the Portuguese warships withdrew from guarding the Straits of
Gibraltar, the Algerine cruisers entered the Atlantic in four ships and
swooped down on unsuspecting American vessels. Eleven of our ships were
captured by corsairs. Their crews were taken as slaves to Algiers, and,
added to those already held in captivity, increased the number to one
hundred and fifteen.
The Swedish consul warned Colonel Humphreys, our minister to Portugal,
that Bassara, a Jew slave-broker at Algiers, through whom the United
States was trying to procure the release of the captives, was out
of favor with the Dey, and that to succeed the business should be
transferred to the Jew Bacri. This was done, and an agreement soon
followed.
Captain O'Brien was sent to Lisbon to get from Colonel Humphreys the
money the United States promised to pay. Humphreys was forced to send
O'Brien to London to borrow the funds, but, on account of the unsettled
condition of European politics, O'Brien failed in his mission. The
Dey, vexed at the delay, threatened to abandon the treaty. Upon this
a frigate was offered by the American envoys as an inducement to hold
to the treaty, while Bacri himself advanced the necessary gold. The
prisoners were then released and sent in Bacri's ship _Fortune_ to
Marseilles, where the American consul, Stephen Cathalan, Jr., secured a
passage home for them in the Swedish ship _Jupiter_.
What I had learned of the insolence of the Barbary rulers had come to
me thus far only by hearsay. I was now to see an example of it with my
own eyes.
While I was thus gathering the details of Alexander's tardy release,
the _George Washington_ was proceeding from Morocco to Algiers, Captain
Bainbridge having been ordered by our government to deliver presents to
the Algerine prince. Before leaving Morocco, Captain Bainbridge, who
had heard the story of the assault upon us with amazement and anger,
demanded of the Dey of Morocco that he surrender to him the Egyptian,
Murad, for the action of our government.
Word came back that a search had been made for Murad but that no person
such as we described could be found in the city. Punishment for those
who had attacked us was also requested, but the oily monarch protested
that his officers could find no citizens who had attempted such a raid.
Baffled, we went on our way.
I looked over the rail towards the frowning castles of Algiers in huge
disgust. Yet I was curious to see the town in which Alexander had been
enslaved, and Captain Bainbridge, knowing of my relationship to one of
the released Americans, provided a way that I might enter the palace
as one of his attendants when he went with Consul O'Brien to pay his
supposed respects to the Dey.
By listening to the English renegade who acted as interpreter between
our officers and the ruler, I gathered that the Dey was in trouble with
his overlord, the Sultan of Turkey, because he had made peace with
France while Turkey, then allied with England, was making war on the
French forces in Egypt.
To appease the wrath of the Sultan, the Dey had decided to send to that
monarch at Constantinople an ambassador bearing valuable gifts. With
amazing cheek, he now asked Consul O'Brien to lend him the frigate
_George Washington_ for the purpose of bearing the envoy and his train.
Captain Bainbridge blushed. "It is impossible for an American naval
officer to carry out such a mission," I heard him cry.
"Your ship is anchored under my batteries. My gunner will sink her if
you refuse!" the Dey said with a scowl.
"That is no work for an American ship," Captain Bainbridge said.
"Aren't Americans my slaves? Don't they pay tribute to me?" the Dey
demanded. "I now command you to carry my embassy!"
I felt like rushing forward and choking the creature, and I saw from
Captain Bainbridge's look that it was all that he could do to restrain
himself from drawing his sword and plunging it into the fat stomach of
the beast.
Consul O'Brien came forth with soothing words. He advised Bainbridge to
obey the ruler, and Bainbridge, because of the superior authority of
the consul, was forced to consent.
"Shade of Washington!" he exclaimed, when he returned aboard ship,
"behold thy sword hung on a slave to serve a pirate! I never thought to
find a corner of this world where an American would stoop to baseness.
History shall tell how the United States first volunteered a _ship of
war_, equipped, as a _carrier_ for a pirate. It is written. Nothing but
blood can blot the impression out."
We heard that he wrote thus to the Navy Department:
"I hope I may never again be sent to Algiers with tribute, unless
I be authorized to deliver it from the mouth of the cannon."
THE VOYAGE TO CONSTANTINOPLE
When the ambassador to Constantinople came on board, his suite and
following were enough to make angels laugh. There were one hundred
Moslems attending him. Many of the officers brought their wives and
children. In addition there were four horses, twenty-five horned
cattle, four lions, four tigers, four antelopes, and twelve parrots.
The money and regalia loaded as presents for the Sultan were valued at
a million dollars.
When our frigate reached the two forts that commanded the entrance to
Constantinople, Captain Bainbridge decided that he would save the time
that would be spent in entering the port in the usual formal way. We
approached the anchorage as if we meant to come to a stop. We clewed up
our courses, let go the topsails, and seemed to be complying with the
rules of the port. Then our commander ordered that a salute be fired,
but, when the guns of the fort replied, he ordered sail to be made
under cover of the smoke. By this trick, we passed by the guns under
the smoke screen, and were inside the harbor and beyond range before
the Turks realized it.
An officer rowed out to ask to what country our ship belonged.
"The United States," answered our commander.
The officer returned to shore. A half-hour later he again rowed out to
inform Captain Bainbridge that the Sultan had never heard of the United
States, and desired to know more about it. Our captain replied that he
came from the new world discovered by Columbus. Again the officer went
ashore and returned, bringing this time a lamb and a bunch of flowers,
as tokens of peace and welcome.
The admiral of the Turkish fleet, Capudan Pasha, took the _George
Washington_ under his protection. The Sultan gave Captain Bainbridge a
certificate which entitled him to special protection in any part of the
Turkish empire.
With the ambassadors from the Dey of Algiers matters went very
differently. When the messenger was received on board Capudan Pasha's
ship, the admiral snatched from the envoy's hand the Dey's letter, and
then, in a great rage, spat and stamped upon it. He was then told to
inform his master that the admiral meant to spit and trample upon him
when the two met. The Sultan was equally harsh. He told the ambassador
that he would force the Dey to declare war against France within sixty
days, and threatened to punish the ruler if he did not send to him an
immense sum of money. The presents of tigers and other animals were
viewed by him with supreme contempt.
The sight of the American flag, flown for the first time in this
section of the world, created a sensation.
It was said that, seeing the stars in the American flag, the Sultan
decided that since there was represented on his flag one of the
heavenly bodies, his country and ours must have the same religion. The
foreign consuls at Constantinople welcomed Captain Bainbridge and he in
turn entertained them. At one dinner he had on the table food and drink
from all quarters of the globe, representing places at which he had
stopped--Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, and men from each of these
countries sat at his table.
We returned to Algiers with a disgruntled ambassador. The Sultan, while
he treated our commander with great courtesy, found fault with the Dey
of Algiers' gifts and threatened to punish both him and his envoy if
more valuable presents were not forthcoming. All of which delighted us
hugely.
When we drew near to Algiers on our return passage, we wondered what
further indignities would be offered. Captain Bainbridge, having
learned of the Sultan's message to the Dey, knew that a ship would be
required to take a second Algerine mission to Constantinople. Fearing
that the Dey might try to use the _George Washington_ again for this
purpose, and suspecting too that to obtain the money the Sultan
demanded the Algerine prince might attempt to enslave the crew of
the _George Washington_ and hold them for ransom, Captain Bainbridge
decided that he would anchor his ship out of range of the Dey's guns.
Threats and persuasion were used by the Orientals to induce us to come
into the harbor, but Captain Bainbridge squared his jaw and kept the
ship where we had first anchored.
Consul O'Brien now rowed out and told our commander that the Dey wanted
to have a talk with him. The captain, armed with his certificate of
protection from the Sultan, went ashore. The Dey, maddened over the
result of his intercourse with the Sultan, and further enraged at
Captain Bainbridge's cleverness in avoiding his snares, threatened
him with torture and slavery, and seemed about to call upon his armed
janizaries to seize the officer. At this moment Captain Bainbridge
produced the certificate. The tyrant, seeing his master's signature
upon a document that expressed good will to the American, fawned and
apologized.