ears in the West Indies, had evidently heard of it when he wrote
"Tom Cringle's Log." The capture of Lieutenant Hobson by the pirates,
and his subsequent release, afforded him the idea of the captive of his
hero by the picaroon, while the destruction of Obed's schooner in a
harbour off Cuba, with not a few additional touches, was also taken from
the account of the capture of the _Zaragonaza_.

The piratical cruisers belonging to Algiers had long been the terror of
the merchantmen of all nations. The Algerines not only plundered but
massacred the crews of the vessels they captured, and it was supposed
that many hundreds had fallen into their power. Their crowning act of
atrocity was the murder of the crews of three hundred small vessels
engaged in the coral fishery off Bona, near Algiers, who, being
Christians, had landed to visit a church. At length the British
Government determined to put a stop to their proceedings, and Lord
Exmouth, who had just returned to England, after having compelled the
Dey of Tunis to restore 1792 slaves to freedom, and to sign a treaty for
the abolition of Christian slavery, was appointed to the command of a
fleet which sailed from Plymouth on the 28th of July, 1816, with his
flag flying on board the _Queen Charlotte_, of 100 guns, Captain James
Brisbane. During the passage out, every ship in the fleet was exercised
with the great guns, firing at a target hung from the end of the
fore-topmast studdingsail-boom rigged out for the purpose, so that they
became unusually expert. Lord Exmouth's fleet consisted of only five
line-of-battle ships, with the 50-gun ship _Leander_, four frigates, and
several sloops of war and bomb-vessels. Misled by the charts, which
were altogether defective, Lord Nelson had required ten sail of the
line, and the same number of bomb-vessels, when he proposed to attack
Algiers, but the harbour and fortifications had lately been surveyed by
Captain Warde, who had found the entrance of the harbour much narrower
than had been supposed. The fortifications were, however, formidable in
the extreme, the batteries defending the town bristling with several
tiers of heavy guns, while powerful forts commanded the approaches. On
the mole alone were upwards of 200 guns, and altogether 500 guns, few
being smaller than 24-pounders, defended the piratic city. On reaching
Gibraltar, Lord Exmouth found a Dutch squadron, Vice-Admiral Van de
Cappellon, who entreated leave to co-op