There are still more charges of a villanous character against Omar Pashaw since he ascended the throne. While he was Bnlook, and Beeng-Bashi, he was acquainted with two European families who lived at Algiers, as merchants, and frequently dined and drank at "their houses, and professed great friendship for them, but did not prove it by facts. However, they never expected any thin o> from him, but merely wished to keep him a good friend, for fear of his villanous character, he being known to be a most rapacious and wicked plunderer. "After becoming Dey, he sent a message to these two friends that they must leave the kingdom. Although they were surprised at the news, they went and requested him to give them time, till they could settle their affairs with the people.
He then agreed to allow them six months; but 1 some days after that, he called them, and beheaded them in his palace, and sent a message to their unhappy families to quit Algiers immediately. "What is now to he said to this atrocity? Is this his gratitude for the hospitality which he had experienced from those families? or the reward and acknowledgment of their friendship towards him? Notwithstanding, there are many other horrid facts committed by him, which are too horrid to relate. One more however, we will narrate. "Since Hagi Ali's time, a young Algerine, of a rich family, was confined in prison for a debt of about one hundred thousand dollars, owed to several persons, who, after the death of said Dey, having observed that the young man had been so long time in prison, and that his father had died without leaving him anything to pay his debts, thought proper to set him at liberty to take care of his father's property without requiring anything from him, until he should become able to pay his debts.
But when Omar Pashaw came to the throne, he refused to free the young man from prison; put him in chains, and made him work as one of his slaves. The creditors said, ' we do not wish to receive one dollar from him, we wish to set him free, to take care of the family, and property, &c,' The Dey's answer was, 'you do not wish to receive the one hundred thousand dollars from this young man, I wish to receive them myself, and shall not set him at liberty until he has paid the sum.' "The unfortunate man was still in chains when Lord Exmouth made the treaty of peaee, but of course could not demand his release, not being a Christian.
"To this brief and sickening account of that horrid den, I would just say, what Lord Exmouth left undone in entirely destroying that abominable hell, which he certainly should have done, the French accomplished in 1830." Lord Exmouth doubtless went as far as his instructions from his government required, and whieh has been named in the treaty. But even after he had obtained the slaves, and the rausom money back, should the Dey have been compelled to pay a remuneration to these unfortunate men to their years of servitude and suffering? This demand should have been made and enforced too. And after the treaty had been signed by that inhuman monster, Omar Pashaw, and all the business apparently adjusted, and all the ships had left the bay, still there was the same perfidious wretch upon the throne, whose evident intention it was, after he had collected another fleet, to make reprisals on any merchantmen he could find, whose governments did not possess the means of resistance by a strong naval force.
Had Lord Exmouth completely annihilated the place, so far from having any imputation of injustice cast at him, he would have received plaudits of approbation from every Christian nation on earth. But this, with the taking of the Malakoff and Redan, were reserved for the French. The account of the bombardment of Algiers by Lord Exmouth, which has just been given, was written (by permission of the Admiralty,) by an Arab, who was engaged by the British government as an interpreter for the squadron, during the expedition. His account is very correct and minute. I had frequent opportunities during my stay in the Mediterranean, of conversing with those who were well acquainted with all the particulars of the battle. But there is one item in the Arab's narrative which I do not wholly aoree to, which was the great destruction done to the batteries.