Robert Lambert Playfair

The Scourge of Christendom: Annals of British Relations with Algiers Prior to the French Conquest Robert Lambert Playfair

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1884 Excerpt: ... CHAPTER XVIL CONSULATE OF HUGH MCDONELL--PEACE WITH AMERICA--LORD EXMOUTH'S MISSION TO AND VICTORY AT ALGIERS-ACTION OF THE CONGRESS OF AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. 1812--1820. Me. Hugh Mcdonell arrived with his family on August 1, 1812. He had begun his career in 1778 as an ensign in the King's Royal Regiment of New York; he rose to be Adjutant-General of the Militia of Upper Canada, and in 1805 he was named Assistant Commissary-General at Gibraltar. He was also charged with the duties of the Portuguese consulate at Algiers, though he never received any official appointment or salary. A change took place in the government of Algiers shortly after his arrival. Omar Pasha, who was named Dey, was a native of Mytilene, a man endowed with good sense, intelligence and dignity of character. In his private life he was most exemplary, having only one wife, with whom he passed much of his leisure time, and he was most strict in following the tenets of his religion, so much so that during his reign every breach of them was treated with inexorable severity. 1815 PEACE CONCLUDED WITH AMERICA. 251 In the following year he was assassinated, and was succeeded by Hadji Mohammed, his Khasnadji. The reign of this Dey only lasted sixteen days; he was deposed and strangled on April 7, 1815, and was succeeded by Omar bin Mohammed, the Agha of Janissaries. A peace was now concluded between Algiers and America, in every respect honourable and advantageous to the United States. Even in the early days of the colonies, while they were yet contending with the savage Indians, many American families had to deplore the loss of their relatives doomed to slavery in the distant Barbary states. Numberless instances are recorded in the literature of the period; one letter says: 'The Turks have so taken ...