AN AMERICAN IN ALGIERS – PART 8 – Corsairs & Captives

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 focused on the punishments slaves in Algiers were forced to endure.

This week’s excerpt provides some details about the city of Algiers itself and also explains some of the conditions and customs that prevailed there.

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The city of Algiers stands on a bay of the Mediterranean Sea. It is built upon the side of a very high hill, with so great an ascent that the houses rising gradually one above another from the sea shore, forming an amphitheater. The city appears beautiful at a distance when approaching from the sea. A person on first sight of it at a distance would suppose it to be a snow bank. This is caused by the houses being whitewashed on the outside.

The city is of a quadrangular form and is near three miles in circumference, encompassed with two walls about twenty five feet distant from each other. The outward wall is defended by upwards of three hundred brass cannon, and outside that is a deep entrenchment forty feet wide, over which are built bridges at the gates of the city. In the intermediate space between the walls, are magazines for public stores. The mole of the harbor is about five hundred paces in length, extending from the land to a ledge of rocks, where there are three castles with large batteries of brass guns. These castles are known by the names of Fenella, Cordalaras, and Sardenia. On the first is a very excellent light house, from which the castle derives its name, Fenelle, signifying (in Arabic) a light.

This mole was begun and finished in the reign of Hayreddin Barbarossa. He commenced its foundation in the year 1536. At this time, it is reported, he had thirty thousand Christian slaves in his possession. These he obliged to work without intermission for three years, by which time the work was finished; and he had a convenient harbor for the safety of his ships capable of containing between thirty and forty large vessels.

He also built several strong forts and erected a number of batteries on many places that might favor the landing of an enemy. Several of the latter were destroyed in the expedition of Charles V in 1541. All the remaining ones have received great improvements, since, and some new batteries have been erected as occasion required. He also built the castle Fenella.

The city is thought to contain one hundred and twenty thousand inhabitants. The fortifications are extensive and strong. There are said to be fifteen thousand houses, which are all built entirely with stone and lime, and are all flat roofed. They are commonly built round an oblong square, with a paved court in the center. Around this court is a triple range of Galleries, one above another which are supported by pillars.

The principal buildings are the Dey’s palace, a hospital for Christian slaves, and several large mosques. The first, which stands near the center of the city, is very large but not magnificent. The hospital for Christian slaves stands in the principal street of the town. It is somewhat commodious and tolerably well attended. This hospital was erected as a deed of charity by the king of Spain, for the benefit of Christian slaves, in the year ____ and is still maintained by the Spanish government.

When a slave is found so sick that he is incapable of doing any kind of work, they then permit him to go into this hospital, where he is suffered to remain until they suppose he is able to work again. While he remains there, he is very well treated by the Doctors and Priests. They generally allow three or four of the former, and eight or ten of the latter to attend. The Doctors prescribe the medicine, which is to be given to the patient, and the priest’s prepare, and administers it.

While a slave is sick in this place, he is no manner of expense to the Regency, he being maintained with victuals, drink, medicine, and attendance by the Spaniards. It is the duty of a particular taskmaster, to visit the hospital every morning, in order to take a view of the slaves, and to pass his opinion upon them, or any particular one of them, concerning their, or his, ableness to perform the duty assigned the slaves in general. If he finds any one whom he thinks (by his countenance, or any other circumstance,) able to perform any kind of work, the forlorn son of wretchedness, is then driven out from the hospital to perform his task among the rest of his fellow sufferers. The Doctors are not even asked whether they think he is able or not.

Oftentimes these sick slaves are driven out in this-manner to work and are obliged to return to the hospital again within a short time after their departure. They often expire in a few hours after their return. Cruelties of this nature are very common in this horrible place, and the untimely death of a Christian, is nothing more thought of by the inhabitants than the death of one of their domestic animals.

A particular instance of this nature happened on the 30th January, 1796. The unhappy sufferer being an American, I have thought it worthy of remark.

Scipio Jackson, (a black man from New-York) had been for some time brought very low with the cholic, so that his life had been despaired of for several days by the Doctors. He was however now recovering to all appearance, very fas, and was so far recovered as to be able to walk the room.

The day before his untimely death, he had just risen from his bed on the said morning, when the taskmaster, who was known by the name of Salamoone, entered the hospital. On perceiving Scipio walk, he pronounced him able to work, and ordered him to the marine to perform his daily labor. He told the taskmaster that he was not able to walk to the marine, and much less capable of performing his destined labor if he was there. At this, the merciless villain gave him several severe strokes with his stick, saying, “If you are not able, I will make you able!” With that, he drove him to the marine.

The Doctors used their utmost endeavors to dissuade him from it and begged that he Scipio might be allowed to remain a few days longer. All their persuasions and reasoning were to no purpose. The wretch would not listen to anything they said, but drove the poor man before him, to work. Scipio accordingly, with great difficulty, arrived at the marine, where he did his work in the best manner his feeble condition would allow for about half an hour. After that, being exhausted, he fell down upon the ground insensible.

Upon this, he was again sent to the hospital, where he expired at two o’clock in the afternoon, and was in his grave before sunset.

This alone is sufficient to ascertain the depth of the wretchedness of Christians whom fortune has unhappily thrown into the hands of those detestable piratical barbarians.

In former days, the Christian captives when dead, were not allowed to be interred, but were carried about half a mile to the eastward of the city and thrown down the banks into the sea. This manner of disposing of the dead bodies of Christians, was practiced by the Algerines until about the beginning of the seventeenth century. At this time, a Roman Catholic priest, who was making a tour through Barbary, happened to be in Algiers. The plague was raging very severe in the city, and of course a great number of slaves died and were cast into the sea.

This dreadful spectacle moved the heart of this humane priest who, possessing an independent fortune, purchased at an exorbitant price about one acre of land for a burial place for Christians. The day he paid the money for this piece of ground, the plague broke out in his groin, which put an end to his existence in seventeen hours. As a consequence, he was the first to be interred on this piece of land, and perhaps the first Christian that had been buried in the territory of Algiers since it was inhabited by Mahometans, as they formerly cast all of this denomination into the sea.

The author flatters himself that a description of this piece of land will not be acceptable to his readers, and he will therefore presents a short and authentic account of it.

It lies about half a mile westward of the city, where is a piece of low land or meadow. This is dyked in with a mound to prevent the sea from washing in and destroying the produce of the land. The burial ground is between this mound and the sea. Consequently, in a heavy gale of wind, the violence of the waves washes the dead bodies out of their graves and into the ocean. As the place is nothing more than a sandy beach, and the corpses are seldom buried more than one foot under the sand.

According to the records, upwards of 98,000 Christians have already been buried here, and scarcely any marks of a burial ground is to be discovered, more than the great quantities of human bones which are to be seen laying upon the beach. They keep four slaves, whom age has rendered incapable of any other employment, to bury their deceased companions, as it is contrary to the religion of Mahomet for one of that denomination to touch the dead body of a Christian.

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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. 49-55.

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