to our consts.

of demand for the produce of its in- longer eatable at the end of three dustry, and while the poor man every days. By shewing these figs, which where offers his labour without find- he had carried under his robe, Cato ing employment or adequate wages, no inade the ruin of Carthage be decreed; event would bemoredesirable than one how much more powerfully should which should extend the empire of the same argunent persuacle us to recivilization, and afford to our manu- store to existence an empire so near factures, among a new people, markets which are no

nger found in The inngnificent shore of Africa was Europe. A formidable disorder has destined by nature to support at least spread through the whole system of sixty millions of inhabitants; it supour political economy; it is no longer ports at present not more than tive. from a vain commercial rivalry, that Enriched by all the gifts of Heaven, civilized nations dispute the inarkets within reach of all the enjoyinents of the world ; it is, that they may ex- which our arts might diffuse, it ought ist, and that famine may not sweep to be inhabited by one of the happiest away all their artizans, all the work- nations on earth; on the contrary, it is men employed in those numerous the abode only of crime and misery. establishments, which have perhaps We have doubtless no right to combeen imprudently multiplied, but pel our neighbours to adopt our reliwhich could not now be suffered to gion, our opinions, our manners ; fall without our perishing along with but we can ask thein to live and let them. If we wish to avoid disasters live. The mutual wants of all the nawhich make us shudder, and of which tions of the earth cannot allow any we have already felt the approach, we one to make a vast country the abode must make haste to open new and ex- of death. It is unnecessary, besiiles, tensive markets for the produce ot'our to recur to abstract principles of inmanufacturing industry; we must ternational right, that we may decide find nations accustomed to our arts, what Europe would be entitled to do to our enjoyments, to all the pleasures towards the people of Barbary; the and wants of civilization, who will latter have given Christian princes purchase the various commodities with provocations so ample, as fully to auwhich our warehouses are glutted, and thorize their interference. which we must either sell, or perish We are often disposed to consider with hunger.

all the countries that lie south of our No country could correspond better own, as consumed by the burning rays to these wishes of the philanthropist of the sun; those, on the contrary, than Barbary. If this extensive coast, who know Barbary, speak of it as a separated from Europe rather by the land of enchantment; thus it appearexpanse of a large lake than by a sea, cel to an intelligent Italian, whose were subject to any other government work we shall immediately refer to; than that of the ruffians by whom although the circumstances under it is oppressed, it would soon be con- which he was carried thither, were nected with us by a commerce most calculated to excite in him the most varied, most rich, and most profitable. violent prejudices against Africa. M. This beautiful country has more than Pananti, a Tuscan man of letters, who once been the centre of high civiliza- had long resided in England, was tion; it was rich, populous, indus- taken by the Algerines as he was retrious under the Carthaginians, under turning from this last country, and the Romans, under the Vandals, and condemned to slavery. He hal, how. under the Arabs. It holds inter- ever, the good fortune to be liberated course with all the coasts of Europe the next day. much more easily and promptly, than However cruel the lot with which these coasts with the capitals of their he was threatened at Algiers, Pananti own states ; the conveyance of goods was struck with admiration at the would be more economical from Mar- view of the African coast. “ There is seilles and Genoa to Tunis and Al- no country, (says he,) more favoured giers, than to Paris, or even to Turin by Heaven and Nature; the coast of and Milan. Cato presented to the Africa was anciently considered, after Roman senate figs yet fresh, which Egypt, as the most fertile and rich of had been gathered under the walls of the Roman provinces, and as one of Carthage, although this fruit was no the first granaries of the city whicla reigned over the world. The Latin ployed against obstructions of the writers named it the soul of the state, stone; the xenna, of which the Afrithe jewel, speciositus totius terræ floren- cans extract the juice, to stain the tis; and the great men of Rome knew nails of the hands and feet; the Scilla no refinement of luxury and effemina- maritima, the bulbosa, the radicata ; cy equal to that of possessing palaces the dwarf palm tree, the dates of and country seats along this smiling which are very small; the Saccharum shore.

cylindricum, the Agrostis pungens, and, “The climate of Barbary is mild and in the arid valleys, the Cistus odorata, healthy, though the air, by its sharp- the Erica arborea, and the superb Cacness, is unfavourable to weak eyes and tus, which supply to sheep a salutary delicate lungs. The course of the pasture, and which embalm the air seasons is generally regular; some- with the sweetest olours ; the laurel times, indeed, the heats are excessive, rose embellishes and animates the but all the days of summer are re- country. When all is scorched by freshed by salutary winds from the the heats of sunner, the hillocks are north. Diseases are rare; the plague covered with rosemary, which purify is not endemic; it is always brought the atmosphere. We meet here and from Constantinople. It has not rag- there little groves of those celebrated ed there for twenty-four years, and white roses, whence the purest essence might be excluded from all Barbary, is distilled. The sugar cane succeeds by the use of the same precautions perfectly in this mild climate; the by which Europe is preserved from it. species called soliman is the loftiest

“ In Barbary, heat, joined to humin and most juicy that is known on earth. dity, gives vigour and magnificence to After all, no fruit of this fertile land the productions of the soil

. Barley equals, in utility to the human race, is the principal harvest, and the chief those of the lotus and the palm-tree." support of man. Wheat, Turkey This magnificent country, this councorn, and a species of large pease call- try so richly gifted by nature, so aded gareneas, likewise abound. The vantageously situated for the benefit Indian fig, which takes root with ex- of Europe, so celebrated in the antreme facility, forms impenetrable nals of civilization, has been abanhedges, by which the gardens and doned for three centuries to thirteen vineyarıls are enclosed. The shoots or fourteen thousand adventurers, enof the vine rise to a great height; listed in another quarter of the globe, they extend from one tree to another, strangers to Africa by their manners, in the form of superb festoons. Plan- their language, and their sentiments, tations of olives are numerous and and detested by its inhabitants, over productive ; there occur also certain whom they exercise a horrible tyran. ihorny shrubs, the fruit of which, as ny. Those pirates who established to taste and size, resembles the olives themselves through the treason of the of Spain. The wild olive grows with- first Horuc Barbarossa, have kept their out culture; the grenade is three ground, to the shame of civilized natines larger than that of Italy ; tions; they have destroyed the arts, the melons arrive at an

the sciences, the agriculture, the combulk; figs abound, as well as oranges, merce, which threw a lustre on the of exquisite taste; chestnut trees are courts of the Moorish sovereigns of not numerous, and the chestnuts are Africa, in an equal degree, as on that small, though good. Oaks rise to a of Grenada. They take advantage of great height; among these may be their usurped sovereignty to arm pidistinguished the Quercus balluta of ratical vessels, with which they threatnaturalists; the natives eat the acorn, en the coasts of Europe, plunder its which resembles in taste the wild ships, and reduce its inhabitants to chestnut. It is found also in the south slavery ; they then employ the treaof Spain, and ought to be introduced sures, grined by robbery, in renderinto Italy. There is also a species of ing the yoke heavier on the head of cypress, the branches of which rise, the unhappy Africans. When the in a pyramid, to a prodigious height. nation which rules over the seas, imHere is commonly found the almond pelled by the most outrageous provotree, the silk-worm-mulberry, the cations, resolved, at last, to crush the Indigofera glaucu of dyers, the ci- pride of the Dey of Algiers, her fleet neraria of marshies, which is em- gave only a barren proof of the na

tional valour ; it burned a city which the arts and to protect agriculture; had taken no share in the crimes of they had daily intercourse with the the administration; then, instead of coasts of Italy and of Spain ; Amalfi, dictating laws to Africa, and breaking Naples, Messina, and lastly, Pisa, the yoke of foreign pirates, she ac- Genoa, and Florence, were enriched knowledged the Dey and his 'Turkish by their frequent traffic with this fine janissaries, as if they formed the legi- country. The Venetian trade-fleet timate government; she confirmed made annually the circuit of the Methe slavery of the Moors and Bereb- diterranean; it touched successively bers, and she left to the nations at all the cities of Sicily, Africa, and which navigate the Mediterranein, Spain ; and its arrival at each of the no other guarantee but that of a trea- capitals of Barbary, became the signal ty, of which it will be impossible to of a fair regularly resorted to, not onenforce the execution.

ly by the inhabitants of the coast, but Europeans have to reproach them- by the caravans of the desert. Thus, selves, not only with having allowed all the nations which inhabited the the Corsair states of Barbary to sub- coast of the Mediterranean, derived sist so long, but also with having benefit from that superb basin, which formed them to piracy by their own connects together so many climates, example. The Arabs, indeed, at their and facilitates the exchange of so first establishment on the coasts of many productions reciprocally useful. Africa, were urged on at once by fa- Religious fanaticism, in the first naticism and love of glory; they ap- years of the sixteenth century, occapeared, on every occasion, as the ag- sioned the loss of all these advantages; gressors in their wars with the na- the islanıls had been successively retions of Europe. They wished to ex- conquered by the Christians, and the tend their conquests in all directions; smallest arm of the sea was a sufficient at the same moment, they crossed barrier against the Turks, the Nioors, into Spain, they founded colonies in and the Sultan of Egypt. The atroSicily, in Sardinia, in the Balearic cious vengeance which the Christians islands, and they made frequent de- exercised upon the coasts of the Turkscents on the coast of France and ish empire, for the success of the OsItaly. But the Europeans had then manlis by land,—the ravages of Anano trade, while that of the Arabs was tolia and Greece,-the reward of a very extensive; the former were poor ducat for every head brought in Chrisand barbarous, the latter opulent and tian vessels, promised by the Popes civilized. A nation, rich, commer- and the Venetian governinent, wiihcial, and skilful in all the arts, does out distinction of age or sex, of peanot carry on piracy against one that sants or soldiers, made the sultans of is poor and ignorant, and destitute of Constantinople feel the necessity of a marine. The Arabs abused their acquiring a marine. Mahoinet II. superiority over the Christians, as the began laboriously to form one, and latter, in their turn, abused their su. was content that it should be renderperiority over the Negroes; but when ed formidable by defeats. Yet his they landed on any of the coasts of vessels, in fighting against the ChrisEurope, it was with the intention of tians, had constantly the disadvanforming a lasting settlement; and tage. The example of the Knights wherever they carried their arms, they of St John of Jerusalem taught his introduced, at the same time, a supe- successore, that the school of the imrior civilization.

perial marine must be piratical warAfter all, these hostilities were not fare. of long duration; the empire of the The religious order of St John of Moors became split in Africa, as in Jerusalem had at first opened an hosSpain, among a great number of in- pital for the pilgrims who went to the dependent princes. An illiberal re- Holy Land; they had then been aniligion, and a despotic government, had mated with a military zeal to detend hastened their decline, and they had the holy sepulchs«. When they were ceased to be formidable before Eu- driven from Jerusalem by the Musulropeans attempted to become so. Yet men, and obliged to take refuge in the numerous courts of Fez, of Te- Rhodes, they exchanged the land for tuan, of Tremezen, of Garbo, of the sea service, and arıned gallies to Constantine, continued to encourage form an escort to the piìgrims of the

36

VOL. I.

reer.

Holy Land, and, at the same time, to were eager to arm vessels themselves give chase to the Turks. In the year for this petty warfare, and excellent 1465, the republic of Venice engaged mariners were soon formed under the in a war with the Order, to protect banner of the crescent. The two its commerce with the Musulmen brothers, Horuc and Ariadeno, who against the pillage of the Knights. bore each the surname of Barbarossa, The capture of Rhodes in 1522 con- distinguished themselves in this castrained the latter to take refuge at These brothers, particularly Malta, and once again to change their the second, founded the piratical redestination. They converted the rock, public of Algiers, in imitation of the which served as a retreat to them, in- Order of Malta. They even sancti to the centre of Christian piracy ;- fied piracy by religious fanaticism, and they armed their gallies to chase every they promised to the soldiers who Musulman vessel. They would have combated for the faith, at once the thought it a breach of their religious pillage of the Infidels upon earth, and vows to have pardoned an infidel. a happy eternity in heaven. The Their new abode removed them from supreme power at Algiers, as at Malthe coasts of the Turkish empire, ta, was reserved to the foreign militia, their ancient enemy, and brought who came to serve for the honour of them into the neighbourhood of the religion in both republics; the reignMoorish principalities, which had not ing soldiery was recruited by volunoffended them. But the Moors pro- tary enlistinents in countries of the fessed a reprobated religion, and this same faith, to the exclusion only of was a sufficient motive for war and the country in which it reigned. In hatred. The knights destroyed their both, the militia reserved to itself the commerce, burned their vessels, pil- right of electing its chief; and the laged their fields, and fixed to the Dey, like the Grand Master, was, for oars the unfortunate Musulmen sail- the soldiers, the first among his ors and merchants whom they sur- equals ; for the inhabitants, an absoprised on the sea, or the peasants lute sovereign. Distinctions of birth whom they carried off from the shore. were not known among the Turks, 50 The knights were formed, doubtless, that the proofs of nobility demandel by these expeditions, to the seafar- at Malta could not be required at Aling life; they displayed sometimes giers; yet the Ortes of Algiers were the intrepidity that distinguished composed of freemen, while the Jathem, but more frequently celerity of nissaries of Constantinople, and the manæuvres, and talents for surprise Mamelukes of Egypt, are enfranchisand stratagem.

In ceasing to be ed slaves. As the Islamite religion blinded by religious fanaticism, we made no virtue of continence, the are astonished at the power of preju- Barbarossas could not bind their soldice which could hold out as the ca- diers by a vow of chastity; neverthereer of honour for the young nobility, less the government opposes their this school of piracy, in which zeal for marriage, and studiously removes the faith afforded an excuse for cruel- their children, the Chiloulis, from all ty, cupidity, and injustice.

share in the government. The reThe example of the Order of Mal- public of Zaporavian Cossacks, which ta was not lost upon the sultans. the Turks say was founded in express They found, in the Grecian islands, imitation of the Order of Malta, went a numerous population, inured to a still farther; it absolutely excluded seafaring life ; despotism had been women from the countries which its yet unable to employ it in forming soldiers inhabited, and whence they the imperial fleets; but Selim and spread to ravage Poland, Russia

, and Solimán encouraged their subjects to all the shores of the Black Sea. arın vessels to attack all the Christians, Thus was instituted the religious as the Knights of Malta attacked all and military order of Algiers, but up, the Musulmen.“ The life of a pirate, on a far broader basis than that of like that of a military partizan, pre- Malta. A great kingdom was subjectsents to bold and enterprising spirits ed to it;

and a numerous population, all the charms of independence. Men considerable revenues, fortresses, seawho would have exerted their very ports distributed over a long extent of utmost activity to avoid being put on coast, rendered it much more formihoard the fleet of the Captain Pacha, dable ; besides, its rise was precisely

rors,

at the era when the mercantile marine follow them into Barbary. But scarceof the Christians had been greatly ex- ly are they arrived in Africa, and attended, while that of the Musulmen tached to an insolent and domineersunk along with their commerce ; the ing militia, when they assume an imprizes of the Algerines became every portant air, take the title of Essendi, day richer, those of the Knights every and have all the pride and arrogance day poorer and less numerous. T'he of soldiers of fortune. However vain two rival military orders fought some- they may be of their power, they times for the honour of religion ; feel no shame of their humble origin; both, however, preferred an encounter on the contrary, they seem proud of with merchant ships, and we have met having risen so high from so low a with a person who was in more than station. A Dey said one day to a consixty engagements in a Christian gal. sul, ‘My father salted tongues at Peley, without recollecting to have once ra, my mother sold them at Constanseen a man wounded on board. tinople; I ought then to know tongues;

We must not look for these details but I never met a worse than thine. in M. Pananti's book. He gaily apo- Although these troops do not annount logises for not having made the re- to more than twelve or thirteen searches which his readers might per- thousand men, they hold in subjechaps expect, on the ground that no- tion five millions of people who abthing was less voluntary than his hor, but obey them. They deal, invoyage to Algiers. The truth is, that deed, with a degraded race, who place in the pages which he has entitled, their glory in humbling themselves, History and Revolutions of Barbury, and who believe a man to be more he accumulates a great number of er- honourable, the more he is a slave.

But he has seen facts; he is “ The government of Algiers is a instructive when he relates them, and military republic, with a despotic we recogruise, even in his narrative, chief. The administration is compofeatures of resemblance between Al sed of the Dey, and of a council or giers and Malta, which he never assembly of the principal officers, thought of, features which must called dowane, which we have turned always be modified by the difference into divan. But the constitution is between the religious fanaticism of now only a name; the whole authorithe Turks and that of the Christians, ty rests with the Dey. It is a mixed and which seem sometimes to make government, and the worst of all one the caricature of the other. mixtures. You see a turbulent elec

“ The Turks of Algiers,” says he, tion with all the symptoms of the

are a foreign militia, come from most restless democracy, a prince inConstantinople to defend the country, vested with the most despotic power, and to preserve it under the patro- an insolent aristocracy, composed of nage and allegiance of the Grand the principal officers of state ; in short, Seignior of the Osmanlis. But this a military government, with all its daring militia has found the power abuses, its violence, and its brutal in its hands, it has refused to obey, ferocity. and has become sovereign. These sol

« The chief of the Algerine governdiers make and unmake the heads of ment, named Dey, is always drawn the government; they occupy all the from the body of Turkish soldiers ; offices of state, they keep the Africans he obtains his post by election within slavery, they oppress them, and out a shadow of hereditary succession. their daring character renders Algiers Each soldier, at the death

of the Dey, a theatre of revolutions, where blood goes to the palace and gives his vote. never ceases to flow.

Whoever is proposed, if he is not Every two years the regency of unanimously chosen, is excluded, and Algiers sends vessels and commission. the operation is continued, till they ers to the Levant to obtain recruits, come to a personage who obtains an and thus fill the blanks which war, unanimous vote. The elected

person disease, and punishments, leave in the must be Dey, whether he will or will militia. They are drawn from the not, because all that happens on earth vilest of the populace of Constanti- has been previously decreed in heaven, nople, and from the greatest malefac- and no mortal is permitted to resist tors. They are so despised the Le- this supreme command. But a sedirant, that 'no Turkish woman will tious fellow may raise his ford

a