Our navy and the Barbary corsairs

Preface

The relations of the United States with the Barbary powers a century ago form an interesting and romantic episode in American history which has never before been presented as a complete story. While the picturesque exploits of Preble and Decatur are familiar, other adventures of American seamen and consuls among the pirates of the Mediterranean have escaped notice, or are barely mentioned in most histories. It has been necessary to explore original records for many of the details. The various events, scattered over a period of about forty years, are here brought together.

In the search for material many have given greatly appreciated assistance. The writer acknowledges especially his indebtedness to the officials of the Navy Department, the Library of Congress, the Boston Public Library, and the Massachusetts Historical Society. He is under particular obligations to Professor Albert Bushnell Hart of Harvard University, to Charles W. Stewart, Esq., Superintendent of Library and Naval War Records, Navy Department, and to Worthington C. Ford, Esq., Chief of Division of Manuscripts, Library of Congress.

GARDNER W. ALLEN.

Boston, January, 1905.

Contents

I. White Slavery in the Barbary States ... 1

II. American Captives in Barbary .... 13

III. First Negotiations 25

Chapter I White Slavery In The Barbary States

Along the northern coast of Africa, between the Mediterranean and the Sahara, stretching from the Atlantic to Egypt, a distance of two thousand miles, lie the Barbary States. They are Morocco, Algeria, Tunis, and Tripoli, with the unimportant Barca on the east, generally included in Tripoli. Of these Algeria, formerly called by the name of its capital Algiers, and now a colony of France, was the most powerful and aggressive in the days of piracy.

Barbary is in the latitude of our Southern States, and is blessed with a mild climate and fertile soil. The coast is high and rocky from the Straits of Gibraltar to Cape Bon ; beyond that it is low, the water is shoal, and reefs extend far off shore. Most of the harbors are very open and exposed to the north. A strong current sets in from the Atlantic and sweeps along the African coast. From September to April frequent and severe gales blow, making naval operations difficult and dangerous, especially for sailingvessels. Off the coast of Tunis and Tripoli and also about Malta and Sicily, the prevailing winds are northerly and northwesterly, and often have the force of hurricanes. In the spring violent easterly gales, called

2 OUR NAVY AND THE BARBARA CORSAIRS

levanters, are common. In the summer the weather is generally mild, but even then gales are not infrequent. 1 These facts have a bearing on the history of this region.

With its advantages of situation and climate, Barbary should have been a civilized and progressive country. Its Mohammedan population, however, consisting of Moors, Arabs, Berbers, Kabyles, and Turks, decided the character of the civilization. There were also many Jews in Barbary. The cities were built with extremely narrow streets, dark, and very dirty. The houses were generally of one story, and the flat terraced roofs approached so closely to each other that long distances could be traversed, passing from roof to roof. A century ago the population of the city of Algiers is believed to have been somewhere between fifty and a hundred thousand ; Tunis was larger and Tripoli smaller.

There had been piracy in the Mediterranean from the earliest times, and for centuries it was pursued by Christians and Moslems alike. The captives were reduced to slavery, and the condition of the Christian slaves in Barbary excited sympathy throughout Europe. In 1199 was founded in Paris the " Order of the Holy Trinity and Redemption of Captives." The members, called Fathers of the Redemption or Mathurins, from the Church of St. Mathurin, devoted their lives to the ransom of captives and the mitigation of their plight. Missions were established and hospitals maintained in Barbary. 2

During the later Middle Ages the relations between the Barbary powers and the Christian nations were

1 Morris, pp. .">. 6. See Appendix I for authorities.

WHITE SLAVERY IN THE BARBART STATES 3

amicable. They traded together and made enlightened treaties. But with the dawn of the sixteenth century appears a change in the conditions, and henceforth a state of chronic warfare between Christians and Moors. Then began the period of activity of the Barbary corsairs which lasted about three hundred years. This was chiefly the result of the conquest of Granada in 1492, which was followed by the exodus of thousands of Moriscos who passed over to Africa and not only greatly swelled the numbers in Barbary, but carried with them a hatred of the Spanish and a thirst for vengeance which early found vent in piratical raids along the Spanish coast. 1

The first of the great corsairs were the brothers Horuk and Khair-ed-Din Barbarossa, natives of Lesbos, who had in youth joined a gang of pii*ates in the east Mediterranean. Not finding free scope for his ambition so near the sultan's fleet, Horuk determined to try his fortune on the Barbary coast. He first went to Tunis in 1504, which he made his base. From Tunis and later from other ports he cruised with brilliant though not uninterrupted success, making many captures and collecting a strong fleet. 2

In 1509 a Spanish expedition under Cardinal Ximenes captured Oran, which was held by Spain for two centuries. The Spaniards also took Algiers the next year, but held only the small island, just off shore, from which the city takes its name, and which they fortified. This stronghold, called Penon de Alger, completely controlled the harbor and greatly interfered with the movements of the corsairs. The island was afterwards connected with the city by a causeway. In 1516 Horuk Barbarossa went to Algiers, having been

1 Poole, pp. 7. 8. 2 Ibid. ch. iii.

appealed to by Sheik Salim for assistance in driving the Spanish from the Penon. Instead, he murdered the sheik, set himself up in his place, and soon had control of nearly the whole counti'y. In 1518, while retreating from an overwhelming Spanish force, sent against him from Oran, Horuk was overtaken and killed, desperately fighting at bay. 1 The Spanish might now have seized Algiers and put an end to its piracy once for all, but the opportunity was stupidly neglected. 2

Khair-ed-Din Barbarossa succeeded his brother, and began by putting Algiers under the protection of the sultan at Constantinople, who made him governorgeneral and sent him a guard of two thousand janizaries. In this way he greatly strengthened his power, and finally, about 1530, was able to force the surrender of the Peiion de Alger. Soon after this, he was given command of the Ottoman navy, and in 1534 captured Tunis, adding it to the sultan's dominions. The next year, however, the Emperor Charles V led an expedition for the conquest of Tunis in six hundred ships commanded by Andrea Doria, the Genoese admiral. The Goletta, or port of Tunis, was taken and the city besieged. When Barbarossa came out to meet the emperor, thousands of Christian slaves escaped from the citadel and closed the gates of the city behind him. In the encounter which followed, he was defeated and put to flight. The city was then taken and sacked by the Spanish. Thirty thousand men, women, and children were massacred and ten thousand carried away as slaves. Tunis was held by

1 Poole, eh. iv ; Prescott, Ferdinand and Isabella (Philadelphia, 187.°.), iii, pp. :;i4-:^2,327.

2 Poole, p. 53.

WHITE SLAVERY IN THE BARBARY STATES 5

the Spaniards about five years. Khair-ed-Din departed from Barbary and did not return. 1

In 1541 Charles V led another great armada across the sea, this time against Algiers. Hernando Cortes was one of his captains, and Andrea Doria commanded the fleet. Many non-combatants, including ladies, accompanied the expedition to witness the emperor's triumph. It was late in the season, and Doria, fearful of the gales that sweep the Barbary coast, counseled postponement, but was unheeded. Algiers was held by Hasan Aga with a small force. On the second day after landing, the army, without shelter, was drenched by a heavy rain and the next day a terrific hurricane wrecked the fleet at anchor. Over a hundred and fifty vessels were lost, and the sailors who succeeded in getting ashore were killed by the Arabs. Meanwhile the army was in the greatest distress, the stores not having been landed, and it was now necessary to undertake a three days' march to the bay where Doria had brought the remnant of the fleet. Many perished from starvation and exposure, and thousands were slain, or captured and enslaved. At last the emperor succeeded in reembarking the survivors and returned to Spain after one of the most disastrous defeats in history. 2

The power of the Barbary States was now at its height. Khair-ed-Din was followed by a number of other famous corsairs, but with the decline of the naval supremacy of the Ottomans after their defeat at Lepanto in 1571, they degenerated into a race of

1 Poole, eh. v, viii ; Robertson, Charles V (Philadelphia, lS7-~>), ii, pp. ^:;7-242.

- Poole, ch. xi ; Robertson, ii, pp. 347-352 ; Armstrong-, Charles V (London, 1902), ii, ch. i.

petty pirates who continued to infest the Mediterranean until their extermination in the nineteenth century. Many of them were European renegades, and they devoted themselves more exclusively to piratical cruising, while the civil government fell into the hands of the Turks. Until 1671 the rulers of Algiers were appointed by the sultan or under his control, but from that time a dey was elected by the janizaries from their own number, and any common soldier was eligible. The dey had despotic power, but was likely at any time to be deposed and assassinated. Few deys died a natural death ; they followed each other in rapid succession, and it was a long story of anarchy and bloodshed. In Tunis after 1705 the ruler, called bey, was elected by the soldiery. Tripoli became partially independent of the sultan in 1714 and was ruled by a pasha. Morocco was, and still continues to be, a sovereign power governed by a sherif or emperor, now usually called sultan, who is an absolute monarch. The Morocco pirates generally cruised in the Atlantic, and Sallee was their chief port, but, owing to its shallow harbor, their vessels were built small and light, so that their operations were on a smaller scale. They became unusually active toward the end of the eighteenth century. 1

In 1609 the final expulsion of the Moriscos from Spain greatly recruited the strength of the Barbary States. The corsairs not only scoured the sea, but often raided the coasts of Italy, Spain, and the various Mediterranean islands, sometimes advancing considerable distances inland, robbing houses and villages and carrying off the inhabitants into slavery. As late as 1798 an expedition from Tunis landed on an island 1 Poole, eh. xv ; also pp. 22, 262, note.

WHITE SLAVERY IN THE BARBARY STATES 7

off the coast of Sardinia and kidnapped nearly a thousand people, mostly women and children. Many of the pirates of the seventeenth century grew immensely and rapidly rich upon the plunder thus seized and the ransom of their captives. 1 With increasing boldness they extended their piracies into the ocean and along the European coast as far as the North Sea and even to Iceland. They ravaged the shores of England and Ireland, and seizing unsuspecting inhabitants bore them away into captivity. 2 Later, when better protection was afforded on the coast, that is after 1636, " those pirates still continued to take prizes in the ocean ; and carrying their English captives to France, drove them in chains overland to Marseille, to ship them thence, with greater safety, for slaves to Algiers." 3

England sent expeditions against Algiers in 1620 and against Sallee in 1637, which succeeded in liberating a number of slaves, and in 1655 Cromwell sent a fleet under Admiral Blake which chastised both Algiers and Tunis. The Algerines made several treaties with England, but quickly broke them. In 1661 the Dutch Admiral de Ruyter succeeded in releasing several hundred captives ; and in 1682 and the followingyear the French under Duquesne bombarded Algiers, inflicting severe punishment. 4

After this there were various demonstrations from time to time, but no serious attempt was made to subdue the pirates until 1775, when another great naval and military armament for the reduction of Algiers was fitted out in Spain under the command of Count

8 Carte, History of England (London, 1747), iv, 4 Sunnier, pp. :»G-4G.

O'Reilly. This expedition is of interest to us from the fact that Joshua Barney, later a gallant figure in our naval annals, took part in it. At that time a boy of sixteen, he was returning from the Mediterranean in command of a ship bound for Baltimore. On putting into Alicante he was impressed into the Spanish service with many other foreign shipmasters whose vessels were required as transports for the thirty thousand soldiers. The fleet of nearly four hundred vessels was commanded by Admiral de Castijon. Owing to mismanagement, disagreement between O'Reilly and Castijon and lack of support on the part of the navy, the expedition ended in defeat and disaster. 1

Besides these warlike measures the redemption of slaves was procured with money raised by missions, contributions, and collections. Individuals and families sometimes impoverished themselves to ransom friends and relatives. The slaves sometimes attempted to escape, but generally without success, and when discovered were cruelly punished. Many remarkable escapes, however, are recorded. Among the captives at different times were some famous men, such as Cervantes, Vincent de Paul, and Arago the French astronomer. Cervantes made repeated attempts to escape and was finally ransomed. 2

In the sixteenth century the vessels of the corsairs were called galleys, galleots, or brigantines, according to the size, the latter being the smallest, with twelve or fourteen banks of oars, each oar handled by one man. The typical galley was about one hundred and fifty feet long with fifty-four benches or banks, twenty-seven oars on a side, each pulled by from four to six

1 Memoir of Commodore Joshua Barney (Boston, 1832), pp. 23-25.

WHITE SLAVERY IN THE BARBARY STATES 9

men. The galleots were small galleys. The large galleys carried two hundred and seventy or more rowers, who with the officers, crew, and soldiers made a total of about four hundred. They were rigged with two masts and lateen sails which were spread when running before the wind. The galley slaves who manned the oars were chained to the benches day and night, perhaps for six months at a time. On the bridge between the two rows of benches stood two boatswains with long whips, with which they scourged the bare backs of the rowers. During a long chase these wretches would be compelled to pull ten, twelve, or even twenty hours at a stretch. When one fell from exhaustion he was directly pitched overboard. This slavery might last many years, or for life. This description applies to Christian galleys as well as to those of the corsairs of Barbary. The latter were manned by Christian slaves, the former by Moorish slaves or Christian convicts. Birth and rank gave no immunity ; a Knight of Malta might be chained alongside any vile scoundrel in the galley of an Algerine admiral, who, if captured, would be forced to man the oar of the victor. 1

With the seventeenth century sail-power came more into use. Larger and heavier square-rigged vessels were built, and longer voyages on the ocean were then undertaken. These vessels were called galleon, polacca, caravel, galleasse, etc., according to size and other characteristics ; the last named was lateen rigged and a cross between the galley and the galleon. 2

William Eaton, United States consul at Tunis, writing of the corsairs in 1799, says : " Their mode of attack is uniformly boarding. For this their ves-

1 Poole, ch. xvi. 2 Ibid. ch. xvii.

sels are peculiarly constructed. Their long lateen yards drop on board the enemy and afford a safe and easy conveyance for the men who man them for this purpose ; but being always crowded with men, they throw them in from all points of the rigging and from all quarters of the decks, having their sabres grasped between their teeth and their loaded pistols in their belts, that they may have the free use of their hands in scaling the gunnels or netting of their enemy. In this mode of attack they are very active and very desperate. . . . Proper defenses against them are high nettings with chains sufficiently strong to prevent their being cut away, buckshot plentifully administered from muskets or blunderbusses, and lances. But it is always best to keep them at a distance, that advantage may be taken of their ignorance at manoeuvring:.

With the decline of the galley there was still occupation for the slaves ; in fact by far the larger number had always been employed on shore. Their lot, while not so wretched as that of the galley slaves, was still bad enough. When captives were brought in, some were reserved by the dey for his own or the government service, while others were taken to the slave market and sold at public auction. The treatment of the slaves depended chiefly upon the disposition of their master ; sometimes they had an easy time, but more commonly it was a hard, rough life. They did every kind of household drudgery and farm work. Next to the loss of freedom, the hardest thing to bear, no doubt, for the proud and sensitive, was the menial position, the contemptuous treatment by a barbarian master and punishment for trivial or uninten-

WHITE SLAVERY IN THE BARBARY STATES 11

tional offense. The government slaves had the heaviest labor, especially quarrying stone and dragging it to the city on trucks. At night they were locked up in the bagnios, or prisons. They had some privileges, however, and a few were allowed to keep taverns frequented by renegades and soldiers, and by this meaus might save enough to purchase their freedom. 1 According to some accounts the treatment of slaves in Barbary was very commonly mild and humane. 2

The attitude of Europe towards the Barbary States was cowardly and dishonorable from first to last. The action of the stronger powers was prompted largely by policy. In order to injure their enemies and to crush the commercial competition of their weak neighbors, they were willing to bribe and subsidize the corsairs, submitting to the indignity and dishonor of being tributary nations and encouraging a system of ruthless piracy and slavery. For two hundred and thirty years England sent consuls to Algiers who were forced to endure every insult and, if showing the least spirit, were recalled at the dictation of the dey and more obsequious substitutes sent with presents and friendly or apologetic letters. As late as the nineteenth century a Danish and a French consul were thrown into prison and made to labor with the slaves because of delay in paying tribute. 3

There were English slaves in Algiers in 181G, when eighteen were liberated by Lord Exmouth ; 4 although these had presumably been captured under the flags of other nations. Even after Exmouth' s bombardment the insolence of the dey continued until the French

1 Poole, ch. xviii.

2 Sumner, pp. 119-129; Shaler, p. 77; Noah, p. 368. 8 Poole, ch. xix. 4 Ibid. p. 299.

conquest of 1830. In 1825 Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, and Naples were still paying annual tribute. 1 In 1817 Tunisian pirates cruised in the English Channel and North Sea and captured vessels from Hamburg and other Hanse towns. 2

1 Shaler, p. 39.

2 Niles's Register, vol. xii, p. 334; vol. xiii, pp. 41, 95, 219.

Chapter II American Captives In Barbary

We have records of American victims of the Barbary pirates during the colonial period. Two ships from Plymouth were seized in 1G25 in the English Channel and taken into Sallee. Several cases from Boston and neighboring- towns are mentioned, some of whom were ransomed and some died in slavery. Among them was Dr. Daniel Mason, a graduate of Harvard College, who sailed from Charlestown in 1678, was taken into Algiers, and never returned. 1

But the real beginning of our troubles came after the peace of 1783, as soon as the pirates of the Mediterranean had learned to recognize the new flag as that of a young, weak power likely to fall an easy prey to their cruisers.

In October, 1784, the American brig Betsey, Captain James Erving, bound to Teneriffe, was captured by a corsair of Morocco and taken into Tangier. The crew were not enslaved, and after being held six months were released with the vessel. The emperor of Morocco expressed a wish for friendly relations with the United States, and gave orders that no other American vessels should be molested until there should be time to hear from Congress on the subject of negotiations for peace. 2 ^

July 25, 1785, the schooner Maria of Boston, Captain Isaac Stevens, bound to Cadiz, was captured off Cape St. Vincent by an Algerine xebec of fourteen guns, and on the 30th of the same month the ship Dauphin of Philadelphia, Captain Richard O'Brien, was taken about fifty leagues west of Lisbon. Both vessels with their crews, numbering twenty-one in all, were carried into Algiers. James L. Cathcart, a seaman on the Maria, says : " I understood the Spanish language, which they all spoke, and was the only person on board who had any knowledge of the Barbary States. . . . We were welcomed on board [the xebec] by the Rais, or Captain, a venerable old Arab, who . . . informed me that they were a cruiser of Algiers, that they had come through the Straits in consequence of their having concluded a peace with Spain and of the arrival of a British consul, Charles Logie, who informed them that they might take all such vessels that had not passports of a particular cut." After much ill treatment and hardship they arrived at Algiers August 4. They were stripped, given filthy rags to wear, and marched through the streets. Later they were taken before the dey, Mohammed by name, and were put to work at various sorts of labor. 1

The captives, soon after their arrival, addressed an appealing letter to the American consul at Cadiz setting forth their condition, stripped of their clothes and treated with barbarity ; and they besought the consul's influence in obtaining for them an allowance for extra supplies and an early ransom. A second letter, written six months later by O'Brien to a commercial house of Lisbon, reports their being well provided for by the French and Spanish consuls. This was in consequence of the intercession in their behalf 1 Blyth, p. 47 ; Nav. Chron. p. 37 ; Cathcart, I, cli. i.

AMERICAN CAPTIVES IN BARBARY 15

of the United States ministers, Jefferson and Carmichael, at the courts of Versailles and Madrid. The captains had their own table and each had a small iron ring on one leg as a badge of slavery. The men worked at various trades and were allowed fifteen ounces of bread daily. 1

After making peace with Spain, Algiers went to war with Portugal, and the latter power kept the Straits of Gibraltar closed against Algerine cruisers, so that American vessels in the Atlantic were safe from the corsairs. Few Americans entered the Mediterranean, and those that did were generally protected by the Dutch, Portuguese, or Spanish cruisers. Sometimes Americans had forged or purchased passes, so that the Algerines could not distinguish them from English vessels, with which they dared not interfere. These passes were given to the vessels of nations having treaties with Algiers. They were inscribed with Arabic characters, and the corsairs tested their genuineness by means of a stick with notches corresponding to engraved figures on the margin of the pass. 2

In 1793 a truce for one year between Portugal and Algiers was suddenly concluded through the influence of the English consul at Algiers, for the express purpose, as it is alleged, of allowing the Algerines to cruise against Americans. In consequence of this, four frigates, three xebecs, and a brig, comprising nearly the whole cruising strength of the Algerine

1 Blyth, pp. 48, 51, 52. Several other captures of Americans at about the same time, some of whom escaped, are reported by Blyth (pp. 42, 41. 59, 62), but apparently on unreliable authority, as they are not accounted for in the returns of captives finally liberated. See also Boston Independent Chronicle, Oct. 20, 1785, April 27, 178G, Oct. 16, 1788 ; Amer. Museum, viii (Phila., 171*0), appendix iv, pp. 4, 28.

2 Carey, p. 34.

navy, passed through the Straits in search of prey. Eleven American vessels with one hundred and nine officers and men were captured in October and November, 1793, and taken into Algiers. After this the courts of Lisbon and Madrid, for the protection of their trade with the United States, granted convoys to American vessels homeward bound to a certain latitude where they were beyond the reach of the pirates. 1

October 8, 1793, the first of these later captures of Americans were made, — the ships Thomas and Hope and the schooner Despatch, and on the 11th the brigs George, Olive Branch, and Jane were taken, followed the next day by the schooner Jay. On the 18th the ship Minerva, Captain John McShane, of Philadelphia, was captured off Gibraltar by a xebec of twenty guns, and on the 23d the ship President, Captain William Penrose, also of Philadelphia, was taken off Cadiz. The last two victims were the brigs Polly of Newburyport and Minerva of New York, the latter being captured November 23. 2

Letters from McShane and Penrose describe their capture and captivity. The President, within a few hours' sail of Cadiz, fell in with a xebec of sixteen guns under Spanish colors and showed her American flag. When within gunshot the xebec hauled down her Spanish colors and hoisted the Algerine flag. They lowered a boat, boarded the President, and at once proceeded to loot the ship. They threw the crew down and stripped them of all their clothes, fighting savagely among themselves over the booty. The Americans were afterwards given a few dirty rags to put on.

1 Nav. Chron. pp. 40-51 ; Carey, pp. 34, 35 ; Stephens, p. f>S.

2 Nav. Chron. p. 53 ; St. Pap. x, p. 338 ; Stephens, p. (59 ; Foss, pp. 71-75.

AMERICAN CAPTIVES IN BARBARY 17

They were tumbled and kicked into the boat, taken aboard the pirate, and brought before the commander, Rais Mahomet, an infirm old man described as " an emaciated, loathsome figure." Nearly one hundred and fifty Algerines were crowded into this small vessel, which was filthy in the extreme and swarming with vermin. They arrived at Algiers October 30 and were ordered to the Bagnio Baleck. 1

The narrative of John Foss, seaman on the brig Polly of Newburyport, bound for Cadiz, is interesting. October 25, 1793, the Polly was overhauled by a brig flying the British flag. " When she came near enough to make us hear, she hailed us in English, asked from whence we came and were bound, which was immediately answered by Captain Bayley. The man who hailed us was dressed in the Christian habit and he was the only person we could yet see on her deck. By this time the Brig was under our stern ; we then saw several men jump upon her poop to hall aft the main sheet and saw by their dress and their long beard that they were Moors or Algerines. Our feelings at this unwelcome sight are more easily imagined than described. She then hove too under our lee, when we heard a most terrible shouting, clapping of hands, huzzaing, &c, and saw a great number of men rise up with their heads above the gunnel, drest in the Turkish habit like them we saw on the poop. They immediately hoisted out a large launch and about one hundred of the Pirates jumped on board, all armed, some with Scimitres and Pistols, others with pikes, spears, lances, knives, &c. They manned about 20

1 Carey, pp. 37, 39 ; Stephens, pp. 244-24S. See also letters of Captains Newman and Smith of the Thomas and I'olly in Mrs.E. V.Smith's History of Newhuryport (1854), pp. 146, 147.

18 OUR NAVY AND THE BARBAKY CORSAIRS

oars and rowed alongside. As soon as they came on board onr vessel they made signs for us all to go forward, assuring us in several languages that if we did not obey their commands they would immediately massacre us all. They then went below into the cabin, steerage and every place where they could get below deck and broke open all the Trunks and Chests there were on board, and plundered all our bedding, cloathing, books, Charts, Quadrants and every moveable article that did not consist of the Cargo or furniture. They then came on deck and stripped the cloathes off our backs, all except a shirt and pair of drawers." The prisoners were then transferred to the corsair, where they found three of the crew of the ship Hope of New York, which had been captured several days before. 1

They arrived at Algiers November 1, and were landed and " conducted to the Dey's palace by a guard, and as we passed through the streets our ears were stunned with the shouts, clapping of hands, and other acclamations of joy from the inhabitants, thanking God for their great success and victories over so many Christian dogs and unbelievers." The dey at this time was Hasan Pasha, his predecessor, Mohammed, having 1 died in 1791. When brought before him he " told us he had sent several times to our Government, entreating them to negociate with him for a peace and had never received any satisfactory answer from them. And that he was determined never to make a peace with the United States, in his reign, as they had so often neglected his requests and treated him with disdain, adding, ' Now I have got you, you Christian dogs, you shall eat stones.' He then picked out four 1 Foss, pp. 3-9.