inland sea. Pellew, at the close of the war, received the barony of Exmouth, both in recognition of his own services and of those of the navy; and, when the ministry determined to punish the piratical states of Barbary, they naturally availed themselves of Lord Exmouth's services.

Early in 1816 Exmouth was instructed to proceed to the several states of Barbary; to require them to recognise the cession of the Ionian Islands to Britain; to conclude peace with the kingdoms of Sardinia and Naples; and to abolish Christian slavery. The Dey of Algiers readily assented to the two first of these conditions; the Beys of Tripoli and Tunis followed the example of the Dey of Algiers; and in addition consented to refrain in future from treating prisoners of war as slaves. Exmouth thereupon returned to Algiers, and endeavoured to obtain a similar concession from the Dey. The Dey pleaded that Algiers was subject to the Ottoman Porte, and that slavery could not be abolished without the concurrence of the Sultan. He consented, however, to send an ambassador to Constantinople, in a British frigate, for the purpose of obtaining the Sultan's consent to the arrangement. Exmouth accordingly agreed to a suspension of hostilities for three months, and returned to England to report the result of his negotiations.

Exmouth had hardly set sail for England before an outrage was committed by the Algerines which entirely altered the complexion of affairs. Up to this time the Algerines had scrupulously respected the British flag. An establishment had been formed at Bona, on the coast of Algiers, for carrying on the coral fishery; and the operations, which were undertaken by Corsican, Italian, and Neapolitan boats, were conducted under the protection of the British flag. On May 23, the festival of the Ascension, while the crews were preparing to hear mass, a gun was suddenly fired from the castle, and 2,000 Algerine troops

CHAP.

II.

11.

CHAP. unexpectedly appeared and moved upon the fishermen. The whole of the unfortunate men were massacred; the British flag was torn to pieces and trampled under foot; the house of the British vice-consul was pillaged; and the vice-consul himself was detained in the town.

It is uncertain whether this unprovoked attack on some defenceless fishermen was actively encouraged by the Dey's government. But the British Government rightly concluded that, whether it were actively encouraged by the Dey or no, it was necessary to regard it as a direct affront which it was indispensable to avenge. Lord Exmouth was desired to obtain from the Algerines effectual security for their future peaceful conduct; and he was invited to name the force with which he would be willing to undertake the reduction of Algiers. The experience, which the admiral had gained in his previous visit to the Dey, now stood him in good stead. He had noticed the comparatively narrow front which Algiers presented to the sea, and he concluded that a small force would operate in this narrow space as efficiently as a large one. With this information in his possession he demanded only five ships of the line, five frigates, and five bomb vessels. The ministry were alarmed at the moderation of the admiral. There was a tradition at the Admiralty that Nelson had himself affirmed the impossibility of attacking Algiers with less than twenty-five sail of the line; and the Ministry doubted the possibility of Exmouth effecting with a small force what Nelson had declined to undertake without a large one. There was this difference, however, between the opinions of Nelson and Exmouth : Exmouth had made himself personally acquainted with the strength of Algiers; Nelson had only derived his information on the subject from the reports of other persons. Exmouth, from his acquaintance with the locality, was enabled to convince the ministry of the sufficiency of his own estimate. The force which he required was rapidly got

ready, and before the summer of 1816 was over Exmouth set sail for Gibraltar.

Exmouth received at Gibraltar a reinforcement which he had not anticipated. Admiral Capellen, of the Dutch navy, asked leave to join in the dangers and honours of the expedition, and Exmouth readily assented to the gallant Dutchman's request. The reinforcement was not unwelcome. Exmouth, on reaching Gibraltar, learned that the Dey was making extraordinary preparations against the expected attack. Additional works were being rapidly thrown up on both flanks of the town and at the entrance of the mole. Forty thousand men had been brought down from the interior for the construction and defence of the fortifications; and the Dey openly avowed that he was aware of the preparations of the English, and that he was straining every nerve to meet them. The British consul had been arrested; four officers and fourteen men of the Prometheus' had been also thrown into captivity; and the Dey, by these measures, had indicated his resolution to resist the British demands, and his conviction that he was strong enough to do so.

Every day's delay, then, was increasing the strength of Algiers, and Exmouth consequently decided on leaving Gibraltar without any delay whatever. Head-winds and calms, however, baffled the admiral's intention. The fleet, which left Gibraltar on the 14th of August, notwithstanding the exertions of its commander did not reach Algiers before daybreak on the 27th of August. A calm rested on the surface of the deep. There was not wind enough to move the ships towards the town; and Exmouth seized the opportunity of despatching an officer in a boat to deliver an ultimatum to the Dey. The principal demands which Exmouth had been instructed to make were four: first, the immediate surrender of all Christian slaves without ransom; second, the restitution of the money which had been paid for the ransom of some Sardinian and

CHAP.

.II.

II.

CHAP. Neapolitan captives; third, a solemn declaration from the Dey that he would, in future wars, treat all prisoners according to the usages of European nations; and fourth, the conclusion of peace with the Netherlands on the same terms as those on which it was concluded with the English.

It was nearly two o'clock in the afternoon when the boat which Exmouth had despatched with his demand, was observed returning from the harbour. A signal was flying from her that no answer had been received from the Dey. A light sea-breeze had in the meanwhile sprung up; and the fleet, animated into motion, bore down under a press of sail on the city. Exmouth himself, on board the Queen Charlotte,' led the way towards the mole, and anchored within a pistol-shot of the enemy's batteries. Admiral Capellen, on the 'Melampus,' took up his position off the southern batteries. Admiral Milne, in the Impregnable,' Exmouth's second in command, closed the British line.

A profound silence prevailed on both sides. The Algerines permitted the ships to move into their stations. The British reserved their fire till they could deliver it with full effect. A crowd of spectators watched the ships from the shore; and Exmouth waved his hat to them to move and save themselves from the fire. They had not the prudence to avail themselves of his timely warning. A signal shot was fired by the Algerines from the mole. The Queen Charlotte' replied by delivering her entire broadside. Five hundred men were struck down by the first discharge. In a few minutes the batteries on the mole-head were entirely silenced, and the Queen Charlotte' was enabled to turn her attention to another part of the fortifications.

The battle, which had thus begun at two o'clock in the afternoon, continued till ten o'clock in the evening. By that time half Algiers had been destroyed; the whole

of the Algerine navy had been burned; and, though a few of the enemy's batteries still maintained a casual fire, their principal fortifications were crumbling ruins; the majority of their guns were dismounted. The British and Dutch fleets had done their work, and it was time to withdraw them from the annoyance of a dropping fire. Happily, too, the wind favoured the withdrawal of the allied fleet. In hot countries the wind blows from the sea to the land in the daytime, because the land, heated by the sun's rays, warms and raises the air, producing a vacuum which the cool sea-breeze fills. After sunset, however, the sea retains its heat longer than the earth, and the wind therefore blows from the land to the ocean. Exmouth had calculated on the sea-breeze to assist him in his attack; he had relied on the land-breeze to facilitate his retreat; and the light wind, which had sprung up after sundown, enabled him to withdraw his vessels from the range of the enemy's batteries. Safe from molestation, they could temporarily repair their losses, and prepare, should further action be necessary, for a renewal of the contest.

The work, however, had been already done so completely that no renewal of the contest was possible.

For your atrocities at Bona on defenceless Christians,' wrote Exmouth to the Dey, and for your unbecoming disregard to the demands I made yesterday, the fleet under my orders has given you a signal chastisement by. the total destruction of your navy, storehouses and arsenal, with half your batteries. As England does not war for the destruction of cities, I am unwilling to visit your personal cruelties upon the inoffensive inhabitants of the country, and I therefore offer you the same terms of peace which I conveyed to you yesterday in my sovereign's name: without the acceptance of these terms you can have no peace with England. If you receive this offer as you ought, you will fire three guns; and I shall consider

CHAP.

II.