This week we continue the series of posts on life in Algiers drawn from Relation de la captivité et liberté du sieur Emanuel d’Aranda, (The Relation of the Captivity and Liberation of Emanuel d’Aranda).
This week’s excerpt involves… poison.
The poisoning of people is a very common practice in North Africa. While I was at Algiers, the Algerine corsairs captured a frigate which had been made at Dunkirk. The lines of it pleased all the captains of the galleys, and there was some debate over who should get this ship. But since the Pasha’s portion was one eighth of all slaves and one half of all captured ships, the Pasha’s brother, who was a corsair captain, had the frigate.
The Grand Moro, a famous captain, was much troubled by this, and he publicly proclaimed that he had been injured, for the frigate had been denied him at the price he had offered for it, and the Pasha’s brother ought to have only been able to claim a share of the booty, for he it was he, the Grand Moro, who had originally taken the ship.
When the Pasha’s brother heard of this, he was much incensed and bethought himself how he could be revenged.
He could not challenge the Grand Moro to a duel, for that was not the custom in Algiers, and besides, he was no match for such an enemy. He therefore hid his indignation, and some days afterwards, he invited the Grand Moro with some other captains to dine with him, entertaining them after the best manner he could, the better to cloak his malicious design.
Dinner being ended, and the Grand Moro having returned to his own house, he found himself very much indisposed. He therefore called a slave of his, who was a Surgeon, and said to him, “You must immediately give me some remedy, for I think I am poisoned.”
The Surgeon, a man very expert in his profession, gave the Grand Moro a good draught of milk, and finding that the milk stayed with him, he caused the Grand Moro’s head to be hung downwards, and at last the Milk came out, bringing the poison along with it, and by that means the Grand Moro was cured.
The Pasha’s brother was laughed at by the Turks for his ignorance in preparing the poison after the African way, which is to make the composition so that it shall not do its work till sometime after it is administered.
This slow operation of the poison causes many Spaniards and Italians to renounce the Christian Faith. The reason is that many Turks are addicted to the abominable sins of the flesh, and the married women of North Africa are easily debauched by their slaves. Whence it comes that, having continued in their lewdness sometime, the women say to them, “If you will renounce your religion, I will marry you, and, though you are but a poor slave, I will make you master of this house and all I have.”
These promises are tempting, and most of the slaves, being ordinary seamen and poor in their own country, and consequently obliged to get their livelihood by hard labor, are inveigled by such an opportunity for liberty and wealth, strengthened by the solicitations of a handsome woman, and so they prefer the temporal before eternal happiness [and they convert and become renegados].
Once these arrangements are agreed upon, the women then give their husbands a slow poison, and the husband dies some months later. The widow then marries her renegado slave lover. There is no great inquisition made into these crimes by the magistrates, and there are many who boast of their excellence in that art [of poisoning].
It comes into my mind that I once overheard two French renegados discoursing to this purpose. One of them said to the other, “Do you still visit your wench?”
The other answered, “I have seen her lately, but am weary of her. I have a dose in my chest to send her going into the other world.”
I also observed, while I was a slave at Ali Pegelin’s, that our patron put on a great feast at a country house of his, and for greater pomp, the meat was carried thither by two hundred and fifty slaves (among whom I was one, carrying a dish of nuts) who marched all in a file, there being a certain distance between every twenty, and there was one who carried a basket covered with a piece of silk, wherein I suppose there was some kind of pastry.
The guests were the most famous captains of the greatest ships and the richest galleys. The Pasha also was invited, along with some of his principal favorites. However, twenty of his own slaves brought his meat and drink thither, for he would not trust Pegelin. This was not taken amiss, though. For in Algiers, it is better sometimes to eat with the poor Arabs of North Africa than to be invited to the entertainments of great and important persons.
For those who may be interested…
This excerpt on poisoning can be found in “Relation Eighteen: The use of Poison is very common in Africk,” in the seventeenth century English translation of d’Aranda’s Relation, titled The history of Algiers and it’s slavery with many remarkable particularities of Africk / written by the Sieur Emanuel D’Aranda, sometime a slave there; English’d by John Davies, pp. 162-165.
As usual, I have edited the original seventeenth century text to make it more easily readable.
Corsairs and Captives
Narratives from the Age of the Barbary Pirates
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The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson
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