he breasts of even the worst of
pirates, we cannot tell; but no such clemency was extended to Jim's
father. The Dey positively refused either to give him up or to promise
his personal safety, nor would he listen to a word respecting the
officers and men whom he had seized.

This was the news with which Captain Dashwood left Algiers, and which,
some days later, he delivered to Lord Exmouth, when he met the British
fleet on its way to the city, with the view of bringing the pirates to
their senses.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.

THE COMING STRUGGLE LOOMS ON THE HORIZON.

The barbarians of Barbary had roused the wrath of England to an extreme
pitch in consequence of a deed which did not, indeed, much excel their
wonted atrocities, but which, being on a large scale, and very public,
had attracted unusual attention--all the more that, about the same time,
the European nations, having killed as many of each other as they
thought advisable for _that_ time, were comparatively set free to attend
to so-called minor affairs.

The deed referred to was to the effect that on the 23rd of May 1816 the
crews of the coral fishing-boats at Bona--about 200 miles eastward of
Algiers--landed to attend mass on Ascension Day. They were attacked,
without a shadow of reason or provocation, by Turkish troops, and
massacred in cold blood.

Previous to this Lord Exmouth had been on the Barbary coast making
treaties with these corsairs, in which he had been to some extent
successful. He had obtained the liberation of all Ionian slaves, these
having become, by political arrangement, British subjects; and having
been allowed to make peace for any of the Mediterranean states that
would authorise him to do so--it being well-known that they could do
nothing for themselves,--he arranged terms of peace with the Algerines
for Sardinia and Naples, though part of the treaty was that Naples
should pay a ransom of 100 pounds head for each slave freed by the
pirates, and Sardinia 60 pounds. Thinking it highly probable that he
should ere long have to fight the Algerines, Lord Exmouth had sent
Captain Warde of the `Banterer' to Algiers to take mental plans of the
town and its defences, which that gallant officer did most creditably,
thereby greatly contributing to the success of future operations. By a
curious mistake of the interpreter at Tunis, instead of the desire being
expressed that slavery should be abolished, England was made to _demand_
that this