AN AMERICAN IN ALGIERS – PART 13

This week, we continue with yet another excerpt from the captivity narrative of John Foss, the American who, in October, 1793, was captured by Barbary corsairs from Algiers.

Last week’s excerpt dealt with education and Ottoman books.

This week’s deals with the spectacularly unsuccessful expedition against Algiers launched by Charles V, the Spanish Habsburg Emperor, in 1541.

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The Grand Sultan, either out of a sense of the services of Hayreddin, or perhaps being jealous least he should make himself independent, or, more probably, both, to prevent the one, and reward the other, raised Hayreddin Barbarossa to the important position of Bashaw of the Ottoman Empire. To succeed Hayreddin as Bashaw of Algiers, the Sultan appointed a Sardinian renegado, known as Hassan Aga.

This new Bashaw, immediately on taking possession of his new government, began to ravage the coasts of Spain and Italy with greater fury than any of his predecessors had done. These proceedings greatly alarmed Pope Paul III, who exhorted the Emperor Charles V to send a powerful fleet to suppress those piracies. Lest something might be wanting to render this daring enterprise successful, his Holiness published a bull wherein a plenary absolution of sins, and the crown of martyrdom, were promised to all those who fell in battle or were made slaves.

The Emperor therefore set sail at the head of a powerful fleet, which consisted of one hundred and twenty-three large ships, and twenty gallies of different sizes, having on board thirty thousand well-disciplined troops, with an immense quantity of arms and ammunition.

The reduction of Algiers was so apparently inevitable at this time, that many of the young nobility and gentlemen joined this expedition as volunteers. Among these were many knights of Malta, remarkable for their valor against the enemies of Christianity. Many ladies of birth and character attended Charles, and a vast number of the officers and soldiers took their wives and children with them, intending to settle in Barbary after the conquest was accomplished.

About the beginning of October, 1541, they arrived off the harbor at Algiers.

The sight of such a prodigious armament threw the Algerines into the utmost consternation, for their city was surrounded only by a wall, with scarce any outer works, and their whole garrison consisted of only eight hundred Turks, and six thousand Moors, who were chiefly without firearms, and poorly disciplined and accoutered. The rest of their forces were dispersed in different provinces of the kingdom to levy the usual tribute on the Arabs and Moors.

The Spaniards landed their forces without any opposition whatever and immediately built a large fort on a hill about a mile to the eastward of the city, under the cannon of which they encamped.

The city was at this time dependent on one spring for its water, which was one mile from the walls. The Spaniards having diverted its course, the Algerines were reduced to the utmost distress. Hassan received a summons from Charles to surrender, on pain of being put to the sword with all his garrison if he refused. The herald was ordered to extol the vast power of the emperor, both by sea and land, and to exhort him to return to the Christian religion.

To this, Hassan replied that he must be a madman who would pretend to advise an enemy, and that the person advised would act still more madly should he take counsel of such an adviser.

He was, however, upon the point of surrendering the city, when he received intelligence, that reinforcements were in full march towards Algiers from the west. At this, he determined to defend the city to the utmost.

In the meantime, Charles V, being resolved upon a general assault, kept up an unremitting cannonade upon the town, which from the weak defense made by the garrison, he looked upon as already in his possession.

But while the Algerine Divan were deliberating on the most proper means of obtaining an honorable capitulation, a mad prophet, attended by a multitude of people, entered the assembly, and foretold the destruction of the Spaniards before the end of the moon, exhorting the inhabitants to hold out till that time.

This prediction was soon accomplished in a very surprising and unexpected manner.

On October 28, 1541, a dreadful storm of rain, hail and wind, arose from the north, attended with violent shocks of earthquakes, and a dismal and universal darkness both by sea and land—so that the sun, moon, and elements, seemed to combine together for the destruction of the Spaniards.

Eighty-six ships and fifteen gallies were destroyed in that one night, with all their crews, and military stores— say in less than half an hour, the Algerines say—by which the army on shore was deprived of all means of subsistence. Their camp also, which spread itself along the plain, under cover of the cannon of their fort, was laid quite under water by the dreadful torrents which descended from the neighboring hills.

Many of the troops were cut to pieces by the Moors, and Arabs while trying to remove into some better situation. Several gillies, and other vessels, endeavoring to gain some neighboring creeks along the coast, were immediately plundered, and their crews massacred by the inhabitants.

Next morning; Charles, to his utmost astonishment, beheld the sea covered with the fragments of his ships and the bodies of men, horses, and other creatures floating upon the waves. This sight so disheartened him that, abandoning his tents, artillery, and all his heavy baggage to the enemy, he marched at the head of his army in the greatest haste and disorder towards Cape Mallabux, in order to re-embark on board those vessels, which had survived the storm.

Hassan, however, was no idle spectator all this while. He had so carefully watched the movements of the Spaniards. He allowed them just time enough to get to the shore and then sallied out and attacked them with the greatest fury while they were hurrying to board their ships.

The Spaniards, however made an obstinate resistance, and a very bloody carnage continued for about two hours, after which they were overpowered and forced to retreat to their ships, the whole number of which was not capable of carrying one quarter of them. Hassan pursued them to their boats, killed a vast number, and brought away a still greater number of captives; after which he returned in triumph to Algiers.

The Spaniards had scarcely reached their ships, when a second storm attacked them, in which a vast number more of them perished. One vessel in particular, with seven hundred soldiers, and three hundred seamen on board, sunk, in the presence of Charles V, without any possibility of saving one man.

At length, with great difficulty, the survivors reached the harbor at Bujeyah, a small port on the coast of Barbary that lies about thirty-five leagues to the eastward of Algiers and was at this time possessed by Spain. They remained there until November 16, and then set sail for Carthagena, (in Spain), where they arrived on the 25^th.

Upwards of one hundred and twenty ships and gallies were lost in this unfortunate expedition, with above three hundred officers and eight thousand soldiers, besides sailors, exclusive of those destroyed by the enemy on their re-embarkation, or perished in the last storm, or those who were made slaves.

The number of prisoners was so great that some of them were sold by the Algerines, by way of contempt, for an onion per head.

The Spaniards were never able to annoy the Algerines, in any considerable degree, after this time.

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For the next installment of John Foss’s narrative, see the next post here in this blog.

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For those who may be interested…

The above excerpt from John Foss’s narrative comes from A journal, of the captivity and sufferings of John Foss; several years a prisoner at Algiers: together with some account of the treatment of Christian slaves when sick—and observations on the Manners and Customs of the Algerines, second edition, originally published in 1798, pp. 95-101.

As usual, I have lightly edited and abridged the original text to make it more accessible for modern readers.

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For another description of Charle’s V’s failed expedition against Algiers, see the two-part series here in this blog titled The Spanish Armada (not the one you think), posted on May 6 and 13, 2025.