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 u