" Saturday, 31st. In the morning, a Neapolitan slave came on board the Queen Charlotte, and told me that his son, a little boy eight years old, was detained by a lady, in the city of Algiers, and that she had made him a Mahometan. I directly reported this to his Lordship, who had also received in telligencc that the Dey had detained still in chains two Spaniards: one of whom was the Vice Consul at Oran, named Don Hequira, and the other a merchant, named Don Sebastina Padrone: — both had been unjustly arrested, put in chains, and doomed to hard work from the time of the revolution at Oran, in the year 1813, against the former Dey of Algiers.0 " His Lordship then directed Capt.
Brisbane to go with me on shore to claim the little boy and the two Spaniards from the Dey. At noon I went on shore with Capt. Brisbane, fur the receipts of the money; and it was the tirst business which we had to do with the Dey previous to any contest respecting the Neapolitan boy, and the two Spaniards. Capt. Brisbane remained at the consul's house, and I went to the Dey's palace, where I found all the sum put up ready in the court yard of the palace. 1 met the treasurer, who asked me in what manner I intended to receive it? He wished to deliver it to me while I was in the palace, and that I would take care of it until it should be embarked.
But I refused, and told him I would count one thousand dollars, replace it in the bag, and put it into a balance, and by that means should receive all the sum by weight, that afterwards he must send the money by his own people down to the mole where our officers would receive it, by counting and putting it into their boats. After considerable controversy, and much shuffling; on the part of the Dey, the money was conveyed to the boats by his own men, and duly received by the officer appointed for this particular department. " Capt. Brisbane notified the Dey that on the morrow at an early hour, boats would be sent for those prisoners that were in town.
Also, a request that those in the country should be brought in without delay. The hypocritical scoundrel then said to Capt. Brisbane, that some of them were many miles in the interior, and that a hasty march would fatigue them * In the year 1813, the Dey of Oran rebelled against the former Dev of Algiers, (Hagi AH Pashaw, of which I shall give a full account in another part of my narrative.) and after having been killed by order of said Dey, two of his sons escaped with their money and some jewels of their own, and went to Malaga; upon which the Dey put the said Spanish vice consul in irons, and made him become responsible for the return of the fugitives, but as he (the Dey,) had received no satisfactory answer from the Spanish government, he availed himself of an occasion over the other Spanish merchant in consequence of a law suit on some mercantile business to put him in chains too, (according to his idea of justice,) and ■ ited them worse than slaves. very much!
He was very humane all at once, fearing now that the march would fatigue them, but when he had them in chains, (some of whom had worn them thirty years.) and made them perform the most laborious and servile work, with miserable food and barbarous treatment, now afraid that their joyful march to emancipation would fatigue them. " When our boats came inside the mole, I wished to receive the slaves from the captain of the port by numbers, but could not, because they began directly to push and throw themselves into the boats by crowds of ten or twenty together, so that it was impossible to count them. Then I told him that we should make an exact list of them in order to know their amount.
It was indeed a most glorious and ever-memorable and merciful act, for England all over Europe to see these poor slaves, when our boats were shoving off from the shore, all at once to take off their hats and exclaim in Italian, " ' Viva il Re'd 'Inglitera, II Padre eterno! e'l ammiraglio Inglese che ci ha liberato da questo secundo inferno!' " [Long live the king of England, the Eternal Father! and the English Admiral who delivered us from this second hell.] " And afterwards they began to prove what they had suffered by beating their breasts and loudly swearing at the Algerines. I spoke with some of these unfortunate people who had been thirty-five years in slavery, and had become so inured to hardship and the most servile slavery, that when told they were free, could scarcely comprehend the term; but soon their hearts began to expand, as the blood of freedom circulated through them.