rything of any use or value. While the miscreants were thus
busily engaged a Spanish merchant steamship, named the _Sevilla_,
happened to come along, and was in time to capture one boat and rescue
several of the prisoners. The _Sevilla_ then made towards the barque,
but the pirates opened fire on the steamer, killing and wounding some of
the crew. The Spaniard was compelled to retire, leaving the captain of
the barque in the hands of the Moors. Subsequently the barque was
picked up in an abandoned condition by the British steamship _Oswin_,
and towed into Almeria. An arrangement was afterwards made with the
pirates to release the captains of the _Fiducia_ and the Portuguese
barque _Rosita Faro_--a much earlier capture--and some members of both
crews, in exchange for the Riffians captured by the Spanish steamer
_Sevilla_ and a ransom of 3,000 dollars. It was only after prolonged
negotiations and a large sum of money that a French warship succeeded in
obtaining the freedom of the captain of the _Prosper Corue_ and a few
other Frenchmen. For some reason or other, the pirates seemed very much
disinclined to part with these prisoners. Only a short time before the
attack on the French barque took place, a notice was issued by the
British Board of Trade, in which the attention of ship-owners and
masters of vessels was called to the dangers attending navigation off
the coast of Morocco. The document then proceeded to detail the case of
the British schooner _Mayer_, of Gibraltar, which was boarded about 10
miles from the Riff coast by twenty Moors armed with rifles and daggers.
As usual, the pirates ransacked the vessel, destroyed the ensign and
ship's papers, brutally assaulted the men on board, and then made off in
their boat. Scarcely had the foregoing notice been generally circulated
than another case of a similar character happened in connection with the
Italian schooner _Scatuola_. Again, there is the Spanish cutter
_Jacob_. She was running along the Moorish coast one fine summer's
evening a few years since, when a boat full of pirates suddenly came
alongside, and speedily upset the quietness which had previously reigned
on board the _Jacob_. Five of the crew managed to escape in the cutter's
boat and were picked up some days later by a passing vessel. Those who
remained on board the cutter fared very badly. After the vessel had been
pillaged, the rigging and sails destroyed, the men were all securely
bound and left to their