excepting two sons, to be arrested, accomplished their destruction in the following manner. He first ordered the three infant children of the Bey to be ripped open in their father's presence, and their hearts taken out and roasted, which he forced the unhappy parent to eat, placing their mangled bodies before his eyes during this horrid repast. Not satisfied with this act of inhumanity, he then ordered two black slaves, who had constantly attended on the Bey, to appear; and then compelled him to impale them alive with his own hands. The stakes on which the bodies of the unhappy sufferers were writhing in agonies, being fixed in the ground, he caused a plate of iron to be made red hot, and placed between them. On this plate he compelled the Bey to sit, fastening one hand to each of the stakes. While in this situation, he ordered a hot iron pot to be placed on his head; and when this became cold, he ordered him to be scalped, giving him at the same time a pipe to smoke. The Bey still surviving these cruelties, he caused an opening to be made in his side, through which he took out his heart and intestines. It was under this operation that the Bey expired. The whole skin of the head was afterwards taken off and stuffed with straw, and sent to the Dey, as a memorial of this barbarous exploit. All these horrible executions took place before the house, in which the wife of the Bey was compelled to remain during the whole of the transactions. Having by such deeds of atrocity obtained a name, thus legibly written in characters of blood, this monster was thought worthy, for these sanguinary virtues, to be raised to the throne, of which his subsequent conduct has proved him deserving. Before he was raised to this exalted office he had long been in habits of intimacy with two European families, professing great friendship for them, and frequently dining and drinking at their houses. The European merchants, for such they were, being well acquainted with his character, aimed at nothing more than to secure his friendship by these civilities. They expected no favour from him, and only hoped that he would do them no harm. It was not long after he became Dey, that he sent a message to his two friends, directing them to leave the kingdom. Surprised at this unexpected mandate, against which they well knew it would be useless to remonstrate, they waited on him, to request time that they might settle their affairs. To this he consented, and allowed them six months. Not many days afterwards, he is, however, said, to have sent for them—to have cut off their heads in the palace and to have ordered their families to quit Algiers immediately. Nor was it merely to foreigners that his rapacity and cruelty were confined. During the former Dey's time, a young Algerine, named Hagi Ali, of a rich family, was confined in prison for a debt of about one hundred thousand dollars, which sum he owed to various creditors. On the death of the Dey, these creditors, considering that the young man had been long confined, and that his father had died without leaving him any thing with which to discharge his debts, consented to give him his liberty, that he might look after his father's property, and engage in some business, trusting to his honour and fortune for their future payment. No sooner, however, had the Dey who submitted to Lord Exmouth taken the reins of power, than he refused to ratify what the creditors had voluntarily done. Instead, therefore, of freeing him from prison, he put him in chains, and compelled him to work like a Christian slave. The creditors, thinking that the case of the young man was misunderstood, informed the Dey, that they did not wish to receive one dollar from him: their design being to liberate him, that he might take care of the family and the property. To this the Dey replied, "If you do not wish to receive the hundred thousand dollars from that young man, I wish to receive them myself; and I shall not set him at liberty until he has paid them." When the English expedition left Algiers, the unfortunate young man was still in chains; but whether he has been since liberated, is not known. A change of Deys may have produced a change of measures; and it is well known, that they are monsters of no very protracted lives. Since 1816, when Lord Exmouth visited Algiers, a third Dey had mounted the throne. He with whom his Lordship treated, was taken from his seat of dominion and blood, and thrown from the window of the gallery in which the negociations were carried on, and falling in the court-yard of the palace, was immediately dispatched by the Janisaries. It appears, from the various enormities which the candidates for power commit, as though it were the duty of all probationers to rival each other in cruelty; and as though that monster presented the fairest claim to the throne, who could most conspicuously surpass his predecessors and contemporaries in the infliction of torment. We can scarcely avoid drawing this conclusion, from the specimens of cruelty already given; but, if anything more be necessary, to give it confirmation, it may be found in the following details, which we give in the very words of Salamé. "Here I wish to state, as I was told them, some of the horrid acts of Hagi Ali Pashaw, to shew how both characters (the Dey's and that of his Agá) agreed one with another. At the palace, the government residence in the city of Algiers, the Dey is not allowed to keep any wife. The harem, or the Dey's wives, are always kept in a separate place out of town. But Hagi Ali Pashaw had two women brought privately into the governmentpalace; and he had, besides, five Greek boys, and four black slaves. After some time, when the two unfortunate women be came pregnant, they said that he took the first, opened her belly, took out the child, filled the poor woman with salt, and when she was dead, he took her body, and cut it in pieces, salted it well, and put it into a jar. He took the other, and suspended her by the hair to the top of the room; he wounded all her body with small wounds, and put a basin to receive the blood; and so the poor woman was kept, bleeding by drops,, shut up in the room, where he visited her every day, and increased the wounds, till she was dead; he then took her body, salted it, and preserved it as he did the first. "After these two unhappy ladies were dispatched in this brutal manner, he took the poor Greek boys one after the other, filled their mouths and noses with cotton, put them under some heavy mattresses, adding a great weight over them, till they were suffocated. He then cut their bodies in pieces, and threw them into the private place. "Heturned with the same horrid design towards the black slaves, one of whom was his confidant and assistant in all his shocking transactions; who, having observed that his master had already killed two of his black brothers, perceived that the turn would last come to him; and thus, when his master went into the bath of the palace, he (the slave) was preparing for him, he shut him up in the inner room, which is always kept extremely warm, made a great deal of fire, more than ordinary, suffocated, and sent him to the devil. "On the next day, the perpetrator came, and apprised the Agá of the Janisaries (the Dey, our friend,) saying, that he was sure his master would have killed him, and that even he was not certain then of his life; but if they killed him, he should die with full satisfaction in having obtained the revenge of his brothers, and of those innocent women and boys; and, at the same time, that he had done a great service to the poor people of Algiers, by killing such a bloody tyrant as Hagi Ali Pashaw;' and then he shewed the salted bodies of the two women, and gave a full account of all the horrible and barbarous deeds of his master. This poor slave was afterwards put to death, by order of the Dey, our friend." OPENING OF A MOUND, AND DISCOVERY OF MR. EDITOR, SKELETONS. Agreeably to your request, I have very materially shortened the lengthened epistle forwarded by me to the Editor, and which appeared in the Brighton Ilerald, of Saturday, the 12th instant, headed" Ancient Barrows on the South Downs," confining my self, in this succinct account, to the simple fact, blended with a few conjectural remarks, and which is much at your service. Is yet unborn, that duly weighs an hour. Or you may die, before you truly live."-YOUNG. Some labourers, while employed, a few days since, in excavating a mound, on the south side of the Round Hill,* belonging to John Colbatch, Esq. consisting of stones and loose earth, discovered, about two feet and a half below the surface, the remains of five human skeletons, and the fragments of some urns, made of earth; to what description of vessels these fragments of ancient pottery belong, whether they are pieces of an amphora (pot), or patera (goblet) or any other vase, I am unable to determine; it should appear, from the pieces being of different patterns (indented), that there were more than one, and, perhaps, they contained "vials of glass full of tears," deposited by the ancients, sometimes inside of their sepulchral urns, denominated by moderns, lachrymatories. Mr. C. has in his possession a part of a skull, which is thicker than I have observed others to be; he has, also, collected some small pieces of different texture, and coloured earth, which we may reasonably suppose to have been originally a part of the integral of those human bodies interred in this ancient catacomb: he has, also, some other fragments, which have evidently passed through the fire, together with some of the smaller bones. The teeth, which I have not seen, Mr. C. informs me, were entire, even the enamel was not destroyed, but when touched they appeared in a state bordering on decay; perhaps exposure to the air may have effected this change. I observed, whilst examining the spot with Mr. C. that the bodies were not at all embedded in the chalk, of which the hill is composed, neither have any implements of war, usually, I believe, found on such occasions, been discovered; but, as the men are going on with the work, other bodies, &c. may yet be brought to light, which have long been hidden from the eye of mortals. The finding of five skeletons, in the vicinity of Brighton, is certainly a fine subject for the antiquary; if treated scientifically, it must be amusing and instructive. As I thought it probable, how *The Round Hill is situated at the north entrance of the town, the cricketing ground lies at its base, and Ditcheling road passes over its summit. ever, that no such person would bend his mind to its consideration, I was induced to prepare the above. When we consult the works of antiquaries, who have made the subject the matter of their deepest research, it is observable, that they disagree in dates, and other minor matter; in one iota, however, they are not at variance, viz. that the contents of those barrows, or tumuli sepulchrales, must have been deposited for centuries !! "In peace, ye shades of our great grandsires rest, Eternal spring, and rising flowers adorn The relics of each venerable urn, Who pious rev'rence to their tutors paid, As parents honour'd, and as gods obey'd."-DRYDEN'S JUVENAL. HISTORICAL FRAGMENT. The church of St. Peter, at Rome, has generally been considered as one of the most magnificent edifices in the world. It was begun by Julian; but left unfinished at the time of his death. His successor, Pope Leo the X. was desirous to complete this superb fabric; but being involved in debt, and finding the apostolic chamber exhausted, he had recourse to the disgraceful, though gainful, traffic of selling indulgences, to raise the sum that was required. In 1517, he, accordingly, gave publicity to his resolution, by offering indulgences throughout Europe, to all who would contribute to the building of St. Peter's. The price of ein was stipulated. The sum of ten shillings was sufficient to procure pardon for every offence, and to release a soul from purgatory. It was against this abominable practice that Luther, though strongly attached to the church of Rome, lifted his voice; and the contest terminated in the establishment of the Reformation. |