such vehemence that the bay was illuminated to the
distance of two or three leagues. Rendered desperate by the carnage
around him, the new Dey ordered all the French captives who had been
collected into the city to be cruelly murdered, and binding Father
Vacher, the French Resident, hand and foot, had him tied to a mortar and
fired off like a bomb against the French fleet. This wanton piece of
atrocity so exasperated Duguesne, that, laying his fleet as near land as
possible, he continued his cannonade until he had destroyed all their
shipping, fortifications, buildings; in short, almost the whole of the
lower town, and about two-thirds of the upper; when finding nothing else
which a naval force could do, and being unprovided for a land
expedition, he stood out leisurely to sea, leaving the Algerines to
reflect over the sad consequences of their obstinacy. For several years
after this they kept in the old piratical track; and upon the British
consuls making a complaint to the Dey, on occasion of one of his
corsairs having captured a vessel, he openly replied, "It is all very
true, but what would you have? the Algerines are a company of rogues,
and I am their captain."

To such people force was the argument; and in 1700 Capt. Beach, falling
in with seven of their frigates, attacked them, drove them on shore, and
burnt them. Expeditions at various times were sent against them, but
without effecting much; and most of the maritime nations paid them
tribute. But a new power was destined to spring up, from which these
pirates were to receive their first check; that power was the United
States of America.

In 1792 his corsairs, in a single cruise, swept off ten American
vessels, and sent their crews to the Bagnio, so that there were one
hundred and fifteen in slavery.

Negociations were at once set on foot; the Dey's demands had of course
risen in proportion to the number of his prisoners, and the Americans
had not only to pay ransom at a high rate, with presents, marine stores,
and yearly tribute, but to build and present to the Dey, as a
propitiatory offering, a thirty-six gun frigate; so that the whole
expenses fell little short of a million of dollars, in return for which
they obtained liberty for their captives, protection for their merchant
vessels, and the right of free trade with Algiers. The treaty was signed
September 5th, 1795; and from that time, up to 1812, the Dey continued
on tolerable good terms with Congres