why she followed a line of life that exposed her to so much danger, and
at last to the certainty of being hanged. She replied, that, "As to
hanging, she thought it no great hardship, for were it not for that,
every cowardly fellow would turn pirate, and so infest the seas; and men
of courage would starve. That if it was put to her choice, she would not
have the punishment less than death, the fear of which kept some
dastardly rogues honest; that many of those who are now cheating the
widows and orphans, and oppressing their poor neighbors who have no
money to obtain justice, would then rob at sea, and the ocean would be
as crowded with rogues as the land: so that no merchants would venture
out, and the trade in a little time would not be worth following."
Being with child at the time of her trial, her execution was delayed;
and it is probable that she would have found favor, but in the mean time
she fell sick and died.
Mary Read was of a strong and robust constitution, capable of enduring
much exertion and fatigue. She was vain and bold in her disposition, but
susceptible of the tenderest emotions, and of the most melting
affections. Her conduct was generally directed by virtuous principles,
while at the same time, she was violent in her attachments. Though she
was inadvertently drawn into that dishonorable mode of life which has
stained her character, and given her a place among the criminals noticed
in this work, yet she possessed a rectitude of principle and of conduct,
far superior to many who have not been exposed to such temptations to
swerve from the path of female virtue and honor.
[Illustration: _Mary Read kills her antagonist._]
THE ALGERINE PIRATES.
_Containing accounts of the cruelties and atrocities of the Barbary
Corsairs, with narratives of the expeditions sent against them, and the
final capture of Algiers by the French in_ 1830.
That former den of pirates, the city of Algiers is situated on the
shores of a pretty deep bay, by which the northern coast of Africa, is
here indented, and may be said to form an irregular triangular figure,
the base line of which abuts on the sea, while the apex is formed by the
Cassaubah, or citadel, which answered the double purpose of a fort to
defend and awe the city, and a palace for the habitation of the Dey and
his court. The hill on which the city is built, slopes rather rapidly
upwards, so that every house is visible from the sea, in consequence of
which it was always sure to suffer severely from a bombardment. The top
of the hill has an elevation of nearly five hundred feet, and exactly at
this point is built the citadel; the whole town lying between it and the
sea. The houses of Algiers have no roofs, but are all terminated by
terraces, which are constantly whitewashed; and as the exterior walls,
the fort, the batteries and the walls are similarly beautified, the
whole city, from a distance, looks not unlike a vast chalk quarry opened
on the side of a hill.
The fortifications towards the sea are of amasing strength, and with the
additions made since Lord Exmouth's attack, may be considered as almost
impregnable. They occupy the entire of a small island, which lies a
short distance in front of the city, to which it is connected at one
end by a magnificent mole of solid masonry, while the other which
commands the entrance of the port, is crowned with a battery, bristling
with cannon of immense calibre, which would instantly sink any vessel
which should now attempt to occupy the station taken by the Queen
Charlotte on that memorable occasion.
On the land side, the defences are by no means of equal strength, as
they were always considered rather as a shelter against an
insurrectionary movement of the natives, than as intended to repulse the
regular attacks of a disciplined army. In fact defences on this side
would be of little use as the city is completely commanded by different
hills, particularly that on which the Emperor's fort is built, and was
obliged instantly to capitulate, as soon as this latter had fallen into
the hands of the French, in 1830.
There are four gates; one opening on the mole, which is thence called
the marine gate, one near the citadel, which is termed the new gate; and
the other two, at the north and south sides of the city, with the
principal street running between them. All these gates are strongly
fortified, and outside the three land gates run the remains of a ditch,
which once surrounded the city, but is now filled up except at these
points. The streets of Algiers are all crooked, and all narrow. The best
are scarcely twelve feet in breadth, and even half of this is occupied
by the projections of the shops, or the props placed to support the
first stories of the houses, which are generally made to advance beyond
the lower, insomuch that in many places a laden mule can scarcely pass.
Of public buildings, the most remarkable is the Cassaubah, or citadel,
the situation of which we have already mentioned. It is a huge, heavy
looking brick building, of a square shape, surrounded by high and
massive walls, and defended by fifty pieces of cannon, and some mortars,
so placed as equally to awe the city and country. The apartments set
apart for the habitation of the Dey and the ladies of his harem, are
described as extremely magnificent, and abundantly supplied with marble
pillars, fountains, mirrors, carpets, ottomans, cushions, and other
articles of oriental luxury; but there are others no less valuable and
curious, such as the armory, furnished with weapons of every kind, of
the finest manufacture, and in the greatest abundance, the treasury,
containing not only a profusion of the precious metals, coined or in
ingots, but also diamonds, pearls, rubies, and other precious stones of
great value; and lastly, the store rooms of immense extent, in which
were piled up the richest silk stuffs, velvets, brocades, together with
wool, wax, sugar, iron, lead, sabre-blades, gun barrels, and all the
different productions of the Algerine territories; for the Dey was not
only the first robber but the first merchant in his own dominions.
Next to the Cassaubah, the mole with the marine forts, presented the
handsomest and most imposing pile of buildings. The mole is no less than
one thousand three hundred feet in length, forming a beautiful terrace
walk, supported by arches, beneath which lay splendid magazines, which
the French found filled with spars, hemp, cordage, cables, and all
manner of marine stores. At the extremity of the mole, lay the barracks
of the Janissaries, entrusted with the defence of the marine forts, and
consisting of several small separate chambers, in which they each slept
on sheepskin mats, while in the centre was a handsome coffee-room. The
Bagnios were the buildings, in which Europeans for a long time felt the
most interest, inasmuch as it was in these that the Christian slaves
taken by the corsairs were confined. For many years previous to the
French invasion, however, the number of prisoners had been so trifling,
that many of these terrific buildings had fallen to decay, and
presented, when the French army entered Algiers, little more than piles
of mouldering ruins. The inmates of the Bagnio when taken by the French
were the crews of two French brigs, which a short time before had been
wrecked off Cape Bingut, a few French prisoners of war made during
their advance, and about twenty Greek, and Genoese sailors, who had been
there for two years; in all about one hundred and twenty. They
represented their condition as bad, though by no means so deplorable as
it would have been in former days. The prison was at first so close,
that there was some danger of suffocation, to avoid which the Turks had
made holes in the walls; but as they neglected to supply these with
windows or shutters of any kind, there was no means of excluding wind or
rain, from which consequently they often suffered.
[Illustration: _On board an Algerine corsair._]
We shall only trace these pirates back to about the year 1500, when
Selim, king of Algiers, being invaded by the Spaniards, at last
entreated the assistance of the famous corsair, Oruj Reis, better known
by his European name, Barbarossa, composed of two Italian words,
signifying _red beard_. Nothing could be more agreeable than the number
and hardihood of his naval exploits, had been such an invitation to this
ambitious robber, who elated by for some time considering how he might
best establish his power by land. Accordingly, attended by five thousand
picked men, he entered Algiers, made himself master of the town,
assassinated Selim, and had himself proclaimed king in his stead; and
thus was established that nest of pirates, fresh swarms from which never
ceased to annoy Christian commerce and enslave Christian mariners, until
its late final destruction, by the French expedition in 1830.
In a piratical career of many centuries, the countless thousands who
have been taken, enslaved, and perished in bondage by these monsters
should long ago have drawn upon them the united vengeance of all
Christendom. Many a youth of family and fortune, of delicate
constitution has been captured and sold in the slave market. His labor
through the long hot days would be to cleanse out the foul bed of some
large empty reservoir, where he would be made to strip, and descending
into the pond, bring up in his arms the black stinking mud, heaped up
and pressed against his bosom; or to labor in drawing huge blocks of
stone to build the mole; or in building and repairing the
fortifications, with numerous other painful and disgusting tasks. The
only food was a scanty supply of black bread, and occasionally a few
decayed olives, or sheep which had died from some disorder. At night
they were crowded into that most horrid of prisons the Bagnio, to sleep
on a little filthy straw, amidst the most noisome stenches. Their limbs
in chains, and often receiving the lash. Occasionally an individual
would be ransomed; when his story would draw tears of pity from all who
heard it. Ladies were frequently taken by these monsters and treated in
the most inhuman manner. And sometimes whole families were enslaved.
Numerous facts, of the most heart-rending description are on record: but
our limits oblige us to be brief.
A Spanish lady, the wife of an officer, with her son, a youth of
fourteen, and her daughter, six years old, were taken in a Spanish
vessel by the Algerines. The barbarians treated her and both her
children with the greatest inhumanity. The eldest they kept in chains;
and the defenceless little one they wantonly treated so ill, that the
unhappy mother was often nearly deprived of her reason at the blows her
infant received from these wretches, who plundered them of every thing.
They kept them many days at sea on hard and scanty fare, covered only
with a few soiled rags; and in this state brought them to Algiers. They
had been long confined in a dreadful dungeon in the Bagnio where the
slaves are kept, when a messenger was sent to the Aga, or Captain of the
Bagnio, for a female slave. It fortunately fell to the lot of the
Spanish lady, but at the instant when she was embracing her son, who was
tearing himself from his mother with haggard and disordered looks, to go
to his imperious drivers; and while in despair she gazed on her little
worn-out infant, she heard herself summoned to attend the guard of the
prison to a family that had sent for a female slave. She obtained
permission to take her little daughter with her. She dreaded being
refused, and sent back to the horrid dungeon she was leaving where no
difference was paid to rank, and slaves of all conditions were huddled
together. She went therefore prepared to accept of anything short of
these sufferings. She was refused, as being in every respect opposite to
the description of the person sent for. At length her entreaties and
tears prevailed; compassion overruled every obstacle; and she, with her
little girl, was accepted. But there remained another difficulty; she
had left her son chained in the midst of that dungeon from which she had
just been rescued. Her kind patrons soon learned the cause of her
distress; but to send for the youth and treat him kindly, or in any way
above that of a common slave, must hazard the demand of so large a
ransom for him and his mother, as would forever preclude the hope of
liberty. He was, however, sent for, and the menial offices they were
both engaged to perform were only nominal. With circumspection the whole
family were sheltered in this manner for three years; when the war with
the Spaniards growing more inveterate, the Algerines demanded the youth
back to the Bagnio, to work in common with the other slaves, in
repairing the damages done to the fortresses by the Spanish cannon. He
was now compelled to go, loaded with heavy stones, through the whole of
the town; and at almost every step he received dreadful blows, not being
able to hasten his pace from the great weight.
Overcome at last with ill usage, the delicacy of his form and
constitution gave way to the excessive labor, and he one morning refused
the orders of his master, or driver, to rise from the straw on which he
was stretched, declaring they might kill him if they chose, for he would
not even try to carry another load of stones. Repeated messages had
been sent from the Venetian consul's, where his mother and sister were
sheltered, to the Aga, to return him; and when the Algerines found that
they had absolutely reduced him so near death, they thought it best to
spare his life for the sake of future ransom. They agreed, therefore, to
let him return to the Christians. His life was for some time despaired
of; but through the kind attention he received, he was rescued from the
threatened dissolution. His recovery was concealed, for fear of his
being demanded back to work; and a few months after, the Spanish peace
of 1784 being concluded, a ransom was accepted by the Algerines for this
suffering family, and they were set at liberty.
These pirates in old times extended their depredations into the Atlantic
as far as the British Channel. They swarmed in the Mediterranean, not
only belonging to Algiers, but Tunis, and other ports on the coast of
Barbary. Their corsairs making descents on the coasts of those countries
which border on the Mediterranean, pillaging the villages and carrying
off the inhabitants into slavery. The corsairs were vessels of different
descriptions; some large armed ships, and latterly frigates; others were
row gallies and the various craft used by the nations which navigate
that sea, and had been taken by them and added to their marine. Upon the
slaves being landed at Algiers they were marched to the Dey's or
Bashaw's palace, when he selected the number which according to law
belonged to him; and the rest were sold in the slave market to the
highest bidder. A moiety of the plunder, cargoes and vessels taken also
belonged to the Dey. Occasionally, a person by pretending to renounce
his religion, and turning Mahometan would have his sufferings mitigated.
The most desperate attempts were sometimes made to effect an escape from
these ruthless monsters, which occasionally succeeded.
In 1644 William Oakley and four companions escaped from Algiers, in a
most miraculous manner, in a canvas boat. There was at this time an
English clergyman, Mr. Sprat, in captivity, and the wretched slaves had
the privilege of meeting in a cellar, where he would pray with them.
Oakley had got into the good graces of his master, and was allowed his
time by giving his master two dollars a month. He traded in tobacco and
a few trifling articles, so that a strict watch was not kept on his
movements. He conceived the project of making a canvas boat. He says I
now first opened my design to my comrades, informing them, that I had
contrived the model of a boat, which, being formed in pieces, and
afterwards put together, might be the means of our deliverance. They
greedily grasped at the prospect; but cooler reflection pointed out
difficulties innumerable: some of them started objections which they
thought insuperable, and these I endeavored to overrule.
We began our work in the cellar which had served for our devotions,
though it was not the sanctity of the place, but its privacy, that
induced us to this selection. We first provided a piece of wood, twelve
feet long, and, that it might escape observation, it was cut in two,
being jointed in the middle. Next we procured the timbers of ribs,
which, to avoid the same hazard, were in three pieces each, and jointed
in two places. The flat side of one of the two pieces was laid over the
other, and two holes bored in every joint to receive nails; so that when
united, each joint would make an obtuse angle, and approach towards a
semicircular figure, as we required. We had, in the formation of an
external covering, to avoid hammering and nailing, which would have made
such a noise in the cellar as to attract the notice of the Algerines,
who are insufferably suspicious about their wives and slaves. Therefore,
we provided as much canvas as would cover the boat twice over, and as
much pitch, tar and tallow, as would make it a kind of tarpaulin; as
also earthen pots in which to melt our materials. The two carpenters and
myself were appointed to this service in the cellar. We stopped up all
chinks and crevices, that the fumes of these substances might not betray
us. But we had not been long at work, when the smell of the melting
materials overcame me, and obligated me to go into the streets gasping
for breath, where meeting with the cool air, I swooned away, and broke
my face in the fall. My companions, finding me in this plight, carried
me back, extremely sick and unserviceable. Before long, I heard one of
them complain of sickness, and thus he could proceed no further;
therefore, I saw if we abandoned our project this night, it might not be
resumed, which made me resolve to set the cellar door wide open, while I
stood sentinel to give notice of approaching danger. In this way we
finished the whole, and then carried it to my shop, which was about a
furlong distant.
Every thing was fitted in the cellar, the timbers to the keel, the
canvas to the timbers, and the seats to the whole, and then all were
taken to pieces again. It was a matter of difficulty, however, to get
the pieces conveyed out of the city; but William Adams carried the keel,
and hid it at the bottom of a hedge: the rest was carried away with
similar precautions. As I was carrying a piece of canvas, which we had
bought for a sail, I looked back, and discovered the same spy, who had
formerly given us much trouble, following behind. This gave me no small
concern; but, observing an Englishman washing clothes by the sea side, I
desired his help in washing the canvas. Just as we were engaged with it,
the spy came up, and stood on a rock exactly over our heads, to watch
us. Therefore, to delude him, I took the canvas and spread it before his
face on the top of the rock to dry; he staid his own time, and then
marched off. Still I was jealous of his intentions, which induced me to
carry the canvas, when dry, straight back to the city, an incident that
greatly discouraged my comrades. We also procured a small quantity of
provisions, and two goat skins full of fresh water.
In the mean time, I paid my patron my wonted visits, kept up a fair
correspondence, and duly gave him his demands; while I secretly turned
all my goods to ready money as fast as I could, and putting it into a
trunk with a false bottom, I committed it to the charge of Mr. Sprat who
faithfully preserved it for me.
The place which we chose for joining the boat together was a hill about
half a mile from the city, thinking by that means the better to descry
the approach of danger. When the pieces were united, and the canvas
drawn on, four of our number carried the boat down to the sea, where,
stripping ourselves naked, and putting our clothes within, we carried it
as far as we could wade, lest it might be injured by the stones or rocks
near the shore. But we soon discovered that our calculations of lading
were erroneous; for no sooner had we embarked, than the water came in
over the sides, and she was like to sink; so that some new device became
necessary. At last, one whose heart most failed him was willing to be
excluded, and wished rather to hazard the uncertain torments of land,
than the certainty of being drowned at sea. However the boat was still
so deeply laden, that we all concluded that it was impossible to venture
to sea. At length another went ashore, and she held her head stoutly,
and seemed sufficiently capable of our voyage.
Taking a solemn farewell of our two companions left behind, and wishing
them as much happiness as could be hoped for in slavery, and they to us
as long life as could be expected by men going to their graves, we
launched out on the 30th of June 1644, a night ever to be remembered.
Our company consisted of John Anthony, William Adams, John Jephs, John
the carpenter and myself. We now put to sea, without helm, tackle, or
compass. Four of us continually labored at the oars; the employment of
the fifth was baling out the water that leaked through the canvas. We
struggled hard the first night to get out of the reach of our old
masters; but when the day broke, we were still within sight of their
ships in the haven and road-stead. Yet, out boat being small, and lying
close and snug upon the sea, either was not discovered at all, or else
seemed something that was not worth taking up.
On all occasions we found our want of foresight, for now the bread which
had lain soaking in the salt water, was quite spoiled, and the tanned
skins imparted a nauseous quality to the fresh water. So long as bread
was bread, we made no complaints; with careful economy it lasted three
days, but then pale famine, which is the most horrible shape in which
death can be painted, began to stare us in the face. The expedients on
which we fell to assuage our thirst rather inflamed it, and several
things added to our distress. For some time the wind was right against
us; our labour was incessant, for, although much rowing did not carry us
forward, still, cessation of it drove us back; and the season was raging
hot, which rendered our toil insupportable. One small alleviation we had
in the man whose province it was to bale the water out of the boat; he
threw it on our bodies to cool them. However, what with the scorching of
the sun and cooling of the water, our skin was blistered all over. By
day we were stark naked; by night we had on shirts or loose coats; for
we had left our clothing ashore, on purpose to lighten the boat.
One of our number had a pocket dial, which supplied the place of a
compass; and, to say the truth, was not ill befitting such a vessel and
such mariners. By its aid we steered our course by day, while the stars
served as a guide by night; and, if they were obscured, we guessed our
way by the motion of the clouds. In this woful plight we continued four
days and nights. On the fifth day we were at the brink of despair, and
abandoned all hopes of safety. Thence we ceased our labor, and laid
aside our oars; for, either we had no strength left to use them, or were
reluctant to waste the little we had to no purpose. Still we kept
emptying the boat, loth to drown, loth to die, yet knowing no means to
avoid death.
They that act least commonly wish the most; and, when we had forsaken
useful labor, we resorted to fruitless wishes--that we might be taken up
by some ship, if it were but a ship, no matter of what country.