this
suffering family, and they were set at liberty.

These pirates in old times extended their depredations into the Atlantic
as far as the British Channel. They swarmed in the Mediterranean, not
only belonging to Algiers, but Tunis, and other ports on the coast of
Barbary. Their corsairs making descents on the coasts of those countries
which border on the Mediterranean, pillaging the villages and carrying
off the inhabitants into slavery. The corsairs were vessels of different
descriptions; some large armed ships, and latterly frigates; others were
row gallies and the various craft used by the nations which navigate
that sea, and had been taken by them and added to their marine. Upon the
slaves being landed at Algiers they were marched to the Dey's or
Bashaw's palace, when he selected the number which according to law
belonged to him; and the rest were sold in the slave market to the
highest bidder. A moiety of the plunder, cargoes and vessels taken also
belonged to the Dey. Occasionally, a person by pretending to renounce
his religion, and turning Mahometan would have his sufferings mitigated.

The most desperate attempts were sometimes made to effect an escape from
these ruthless monsters, which occasionally succeeded.

In 1644 William Oakley and four companions escaped from Algiers, in a
most miraculous manner, in a canvas boat. There was at this time an
English clergyman, Mr. Sprat, in captivity, and the wretched slaves had
the privilege of meeting in a cellar, where he would pray with them.
Oakley had got into the good graces of his master, and was allowed his
time by giving his master two dollars a month. He traded in tobacco and
a few trifling articles, so that a strict watch was not kept on his
movements. He conceived the project of making a canvas boat. He says I
now first opened my design to my comrades, informing them, that I had
contrived the model of a boat, which, being formed in pieces, and
afterwards put together, might be the means of our deliverance. They
greedily grasped at the prospect; but cooler reflection pointed out
difficulties innumerable: some of them started objections which they
thought insuperable, and these I endeavored to overrule.

We began our work in the cellar which had served for our devotions,
though it was not the sanctity of the place, but its privacy, that
induced us to this selection. We first provided a piece of wood, twelve
feet long, and, that it might escape observatio