The history.of A., under the Moslems, offers few episodes ,worthy of notice. The Algerines continued to carry on their piratical war against the powers of Christendom, venturing even to land on the Italian and Spanish coasts. Inland, too, they were con stantly fighting to extend their territories. Before the end of the 16th c., they had sub dued the whole country to the verge of Morocco, with the exception of Oran, which belonged to Spain. The Spaniards were invariably unsuccessful in their attempts at reprisals. Emboldoned by success, the Algerines pushed their piratical expeditions even beyond the straits of Gibraltar. In the year 1600, the Turkish janissaries of Algiers obtained from the Constantinopolitan court the right to choose a dey from among them selves, who should share the power with the pasha appointed by the sultan, and be their commander-in-chief. The result of this divided. authority was internal strife mid confu sion. Nevertheless, the insolence of the Algerines at sea increased. They attacked even the coasts of Provence, compelling Louis XIV. to chastise them thrice; which he did, however, with very little effect. An incident occurred during the first bombardment of Algiers by the French fleet in 1682, which illustrates the reckless ferocity of these corsairs. By way of answer to the cannonading of his enemies, the dey caused the French consul, Vacher, to be shot off from the mouth of a mortar! After the third bombardment, in 1687, the dey scornfully inquired of the French how much money the burning of Algiers had cost their master, and on being told, coolly replied that "he would have done it himself for half the sum, and spared their king the trouble." No more decisive result followed the attack of admiral Blake- in 1655, nor• of the English and Dutch fleets in 160 and 1670; yet the English were the first to form treaties with the Algerines. In 1708. the dey, Ibrahim, made himself master of Oran, and his successor, Baba-Ali, suc ceeded in effecting the virtual emancipation of the country from the dominion of the Porte. He banished the Turkish pasha; craftily persuaded the sultan of Turkey to leave the power solely in his hands: carried on war and concluded peace at his own pleasure, and paid no more tribute.
A. was now ruled by a military oligarchy, at the head of which stood the dey, and after him the powerful Turkish militia, recruited from Constantinople and Smyrna; because their children by native mothers could not enjoy the same privileges as them selves. Besides these, there was a divan, or council of state, chosen from the sixty prin cipal civil functionaries. The internal history of the country henceforth presents noth ing but a bloody series of seraglio revolutions, caused by the lawless janissaries, who per mitted few of the dens to die a natural death. In the year 1775, Spain undertook her last great expedition against A., with 44 ships of war, 340 transports, and 25,000 soldiers. This, however, was as singularly unfortunate as all her previous Ones. Everything went wrong, and the Spaniards had to re-embark as speedily as possible, leaving behind them 1800 wounded, and all their artillery. Thus A. continued to defy the greater Christian powers, and to enforce tribute from the lesser. the French revolution and the time of the empire, its piracies were much diminished in consequence of the pres ence of powerful fleets in the Mediterranean sea; but at the close of the war they were reconunenced as vigorously as ever. This brought down upon "the nation of cor sairs" the vengeance of the Christian powers. The Americans took the lead, attacked the Algerine fleet off Carthagena, on the 20th June, 1815; defeated it, and compelled the dey to acknowledge the inviolability of the American flag. About the same time, the English admiral, lord Exmouth, extorted from the other states of Barbary the recogni tion of an international law respecting the treatment of prisoners. A. alone refused to consent to it; and after a delay of six weeks, the English and Dutch fleets, under the command of lord Exmouth, fiercely bombarded the capital. The batteries of the pirates were soon silenced; and in a few hours the half of the city lay in ruins; its naval force and its magazines being all destroyed. The dey, an ignorant and obstinate barbarian,
still wished to protract the fight, but his soldiery forced him to yield, and a treaty was concluded (1816), by which all Christian slaves were released without ransom (the num ber was 1211), and a promise was given that both piracy and Christian slavery should cease forever. But nothing could keep these'wretches from piracy. As early as 1817, they ventured as far as the North sea, and seized all ships in their course not belonging to any of the powers who sent them tribute or presents, as was done by Sweden, Den mark, Portugal, Spain, Naples, Tuscany, and Sardinia. Nor did even treaties avail to protect European vessels at all times. The Spanish, the Papal, and in particular the German shipping suffered severely; while the dey mocked by his insolent replies the remonstrances addressed to him.
Meanwhile the internal condition of A. continued to present the spectacle of a cruel praetorian despotism. In the year 1817, the power of the jamssaries was greatly weak ened by the skillful tactics of the dey Ali. Upon his death, which was occasioned by the plague in the following year, Hussein was chosen in his stead, under whom the Moslem dominion was terminated by a conflict with France. The causes of this conflict were various. A French trading brig was plundered in Bona in 1818; the dwelling of the French consul was attacked in 1823; Roman ships, sailing under the protection of the French flag, were seized; and even French ships were detained and plundered. But the chief cause of the quarrel was a dispute about the payment of a debt incurred by the French government to two Jewish merchants of Algiers at the time of the expedition to Egypt. This debt was fixed at seven millions of francs; four and a half millions were immediately paid; the rest was reserved until the counter-claims of certain French creditors should be decided in the French law courts. For three years the lawsuit dragged its slow length along, till the dey became impatient—being himself a principal cred itor of the Jewish- Algerinehouse—and angrily demanded payment from the king of France. To his letter DO answer was returned. The feast of Beiram occurring soon after, when it•was customary for the dey to receive all the consuls publicly, he asked the French consul why his master had remained silent. The latter haughtily replied that "a king of France could not condescend to correspond with a dey of Algiers." Upon this, the dey struck him on the face, and fiercely abused his sovereign. In consequence of this insult, a French squadron was sent. to Algiers, which received the consul on board, and blockaded the city, 12th June, 1827. Six days after, the dey caused the French coral-fisheries at Bona to be destroyed. For three years the blockade was listlessly car ried on ; but in April, 1830, during the ministry of Polignac, a warlike manifesto appeared; and a month later, a fleet sailed for the African coast, consisting of 100 ships of war and 357 transports, having on board an army of 37,000 infantry, 4000 cavalry, and a propor tionate number of artillery, under 'the command of It-gen. Bourmont. The landing was effected under trifling opposition. A perpetual skirmishing then took place pre vious to the bombardment of Algiers, which commenced on the 4th July. Next day a capitulation was agreed to. The Turkish soldiers marched out—for such were the conditions—with their families and private possessions, and the French took possession of the place. Fifteen hundred guns, /7 ships of war, and 50,000,000 francs fell into their hands as spoil. The dey retired to port Mahon, with his private property and a train of 118 persons, while the greater number of the Turkish janissaries were conveyed to Asia Minor. The conduct of the French soldiery, however, it must he confessed, tarnished the glory of their conquest. They went about plundering remorselessly the beautiful Tines and gardens in the neighborhood of Algiers, as well as the ancient valuables and works of art; thus exciting a universal spirit of hostility in the natives, who kept up an incessant guerilla warfare outside the capital.