Part 12 (2/2)
XXI.
THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS.
1816.
Nelson was in the Mediterranean at the beginning of the nineteenth century, as every one knows, but the suppression of the Barbary Corsairs formed no part of his instructions. Twice, indeed, he sent a s.h.i.+p of war to inquire into the complaints of the consuls, but without effect; and then on the glorious Twenty-First of October, 1805, the great admiral fell in the supreme hour of victory. Collingwood made no attempt to deal with the Algerine difficulty, beyond sending a civilian agent and a present of a watch, which the Dey consigned to his cook. The British victories appear to have impressed the pirates'
mind but slightly; and in 1812 we find Mr. A'Court (Lord Heytesbury) condescending to negotiate terms between the Corsairs and our allies the Portuguese, by which the latter obtained immunity from molestation and the release of their countrymen by the payment altogether of over a million of dollars, and an annual tribute of $24,000.
To the United States of America belongs the honour of having first set an example of spirited resistance to the pretensions of the Corsairs. So long as they had been at war with Great Britain, the States were unable to protect their commerce in the Mediterranean; and they were forced to fall in with the prevailing custom and make peace with the robbers on the basis of a bribe over a million of Spanish dollars, and a large annual tribute in money and naval stores. But as soon as the Treaty of Ghent set them free in 1815 they sent a squadron to Algiers, bearing Mr. William Shaler as American consul, and Captains Bainbridge and Stephen Decatur as his a.s.sessors in the impending negotiations. The result was that after only two days a Treaty was concluded on June 30, 1815, by which all money payment was abolished, all captives and property were restored, and the United States were placed on the footing of the most favoured nation. The arguments of the Americans appear to have been more eloquent than British broadsides.
Shamed by this unexpected success, the English Government at length sent Lord Exmouth (formerly Sir Edward Pellew) to obtain favourable terms for some of the minor Mediterranean Powers, and to place the Ionian Islands, as British dependencies, on the same footing as England. Yet he was evidently not authorized to proceed to extreme measures or demand unconditional surrender of existing pretensions. He arranged terms for Naples, which still included tribute and presents.
Sardinia escaped for a sum down. The Ionians were admitted on the English footing. Then Lord Exmouth went on to Tunis and Tripoli, and obtained from the two Beys the promise of the total abolition of Christian slavery.
His proceedings at Tunis were marked by much firmness, and rewarded with commensurate success. He arrived on the 12th of April, 1816, shortly after a Tunisian Corsair, in devastating one of the Sardinian islands, had roused the indignation of Europe. Lord Exmouth demanded nothing less than the total abolition of Christian slavery. ”It happened that at this very time Caroline, Princess of Wales, was enjoying the splendid hospitality of Mahmud Bey in his city palace.
Neither party seemed inclined to yield, and matters a.s.sumed a very threatening aspect. The mediation of the royal guest was invoked in vain; Lord Exmouth was inexorable. The Princess sent the greater part of her baggage to the Goletta, the British merchants hastened to embark on board the vessels of the squadron, the men-of-war were prepared for action, and the Bey did his best to collect all available reinforcements. The excitement in Tunis was immense, and a pacific solution was considered almost impossible. On the 16th Lord Exmouth, accompanied by Mr. Consul-General Oglander and his staff, proceeded to the Bardo Palace. The flagstaff of the British Agency was previously lowered to indicate a resolution to resort to an appeal to arms in case of failure, and the Princess of Wales expected every hour to be arrested as a hostage. The antecedents of the Bey were not precisely calculated to a.s.suage her alarm, but Mahmud sent one of his officers to a.s.sure her that, come what might, he should never dream of violating the Moslem laws of hospitality. While the messenger was still with her, Lord Exmouth entered the room and announced the satisfactory termination of his mission. On the following morning the Bey signed a Treaty whereby in the name of the Regency he abolished Christian slavery throughout his dominions. Among the reasons which induced the Bey to yield to the pressure used by Lord Exmouth was the detention of the Sultan's envoy, bearing the imperial firman and robe of invest.i.ture, at Syracuse. The Neapolitan Government would not allow him to depart until the news of the successful result of the British mission had arrived, and Mahmud felt it impossible to forego the official recognition of his suzerain.”[90]
The wife of George IV. was extremely angry at being interrupted in a delightful course of entertainments, and picnics among the ruins of Carthage and the orange groves, whither she repaired in the Bey's coach and six, escorted by sixty memluks. The Tunisians were, of course, indignant at the Bey's surrender, nor did piracy cease on account of the Treaty. Holland, indeed, repudiated the blackmail in 1819, but Sweden still paid a species of tribute in the form of one hundred and twenty-five cannons in 1827.
Having gained his point at Tunis and Tripoli--a most unexpected triumph--Lord Exmouth came back to Algiers, and endeavoured to negotiate the same concessions there, coolly taking up his position within short range of the batteries. His proposals were indignantly rejected, and he was personally insulted; two of his officers were dragged from their horses by the mob, and marched through the streets with their hands tied behind their backs; the consul, Mr. McDonell, was put under guard, and his wife and other ladies of his family were ignominiously driven into the town from the country house.[91] Lord Exmouth had no instructions for such an emergency; he arranged that amba.s.sadors should be sent from Algiers to London and Constantinople to discuss his proposal; and then regretfully sailed for England. He had hardly returned when news arrived of extensive ma.s.sacres of Italians living under British protection at Bona and Oran by order of the Dey--an order actually issued while the British admiral was at Algiers. Lord Exmouth was immediately instructed to finish his work.
On the 25th of July in the same year his flags.h.i.+p, the _Queen Charlotte_, 108, led a squadron of eighteen men of war, of from ten to one hundred and four guns, and including three seventy-fours, out of Portsmouth harbour. At Gibraltar the Dutch admiral, Baron Van Capellan, begged to be allowed to join in the attack with six vessels, chiefly thirty-sixes, and when the time came he fought his s.h.i.+ps admirably. On the 27th of August they arrived in the roads of Algiers.
The _Prometheus_ had been sent ahead to bring off the consul McDonell and his family. Captain Dashwood succeeded in bringing Mrs. and Miss McDonell on board; but a second boat was less fortunate: the consul's baby took the opportunity of crying just as it was being carried in a basket past the sentinel, by the s.h.i.+p's surgeon, who believed he had quieted it. The whole party were taken before the Dey, who, however, released all but the boat's crew, and, as ”a solitary instance of his humanity,” sent the baby on board. The Consul-General himself remained a prisoner.
No reply being vouchsafed to his flag of truce, Lord Exmouth bore up to the attack, and the _Queen Charlotte_ dropped anchor in the entrance of the Mole, some fifty yards off, and was lashed to a mast which was made fast to the sh.o.r.e. A shot from the Mole, instantly answered from the flags.h.i.+p, opened the battle. ”Then commenced a fire,” wrote the admiral, ”as animated and well-supported as I believe was ever witnessed, from a quarter before three till nine, without intermission, and which did not cease altogether till half-past eleven [P.M.]. The s.h.i.+ps immediately following me were admirably and coolly taking up their stations, with a precision even beyond my most sanguine hope; and never did the British flag receive, on any occasion, more zealous and honourable support.
”The battle was fairly at issue between a handful of Britons, in the n.o.ble cause of Christianity, and a horde of fanatics, a.s.sembled round their city, and enclosed within its fortifications, to obey the dictates of their Despot. The cause of G.o.d and humanity prevailed; and so devoted was every creature in the fleet, that even British women served at the same guns with their husbands, and, during a contest of many hours, never shrank from danger, but animated all around them.”
Some of the men-of-war, especially the _Impregnable_, Rear-Admiral Milne, were hard beset; but about ten o'clock at night the main batteries were silenced, and in a state of ruin, and ”all the s.h.i.+ps in the port, with the exception of the outer frigate [which had been boarded], were in flames, which extended rapidly over the whole a.r.s.enal, storehouses, and gun-boats, exhibiting a spectacle of awful grandeur and interest no pen can describe.”[92] At one o'clock everything in the Marine seemed on fire: two s.h.i.+ps wrapped in flames drifted out of the port. Heavy thunder, lightning, and rain, increased the lurid effect of the scene.
Next morning, says Mr. Shaler, ”the combined fleets are at anchor in the bay, apparently little damaged; every part of the town appeared to have suffered. The Marine batteries are in ruins, and may be occupied without any effort. Lord Exmouth holds the fate of Algiers in his hands.”
Instead, however, of demolis.h.i.+ng the last vestige of the fortifications, and exacting pledges for future good behaviour, the admiral concluded a treaty by which prisoners of war in future should be exchanged and not enslaved; and the whole of the slaves in Algiers, to the number of 1,642 (chiefly Italian, only eighteen English), were at once set at liberty, and the Dey was made to refund the money, amounting to nearly four hundred dollars, which he had that year extorted from the Italian States. Finally, he was made to publicly apologize to the unfortunate McDonell, who had been confined during the siege half naked in the cell for condemned murderers, loaded with chains, fastened to the wall, exposed to the heavy rain, and momentarily expecting his doom. He was now reinstated, and publicly thanked by the admiral.
It was, indeed, satisfactory to have at last administered some salutary discipline to the insolent robbers of Algiers; but it had been well if the lesson had been final. Their fleet was certainly gone: they had but two vessels left. Their fortifications were severely damaged, but these were soon repaired. No doubt it was no small advantage to have demonstrated that their batteries could be turned and silenced; but it would have been better to have taken care that they should never mount another gun. Even the moral effect of the victory seems to have been shortlived, for when, in 1819, in pursuance of certain resolutions expressed at the Congress of Aix-la-Chapelle (1818) the French and English admirals delivered ”identical notes” to the new Dey, that potentate replied after his manner by throwing up earthworks.
As a matter of fact the same course of insolence and violence continued after the Battle of Algiers as before. Free European girls were carried off by the Dey; the British consulate was forced open, and even the women's rooms searched; Mr. McDonell was still victimized; and the diplomacy and a little fancy firing of Sir Harry Neale in 1824 failed to produce the least effect. Mr. McDonell had to be recalled, and the Dey as usual had his own way. Nothing but downright conquest could stop the plague, and that final measure was reserved for another nation than the English.
FOOTNOTES:
[90] Broadley, 85-6.
[91] Playfair, 256.
[92] Lord Exmouth's Despatch, August 26, 1816. See also the American Consul Shaler's Report to his Government, September 13th, quoted by Playfair, 269-72. The bombardment destroyed a large part of Mr.
Shaler's house, and sh.e.l.ls were perpetually whizzing by his ears. His report is full of graphic details, and he was always a true friend of the unlucky McDonell. It is stated that the fleet fired 118 tons of powder, 50,000 shot, nearly 1,000 sh.e.l.ls, &c. The English lost 128 killed and 690 wounded. The admiral was wounded in three places, his telescope broken in his hand, and his coat cut to strips. Nor was the Dey less forward at the post of danger.
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