THE TAKING OF THE PEÑÓN OF ALGIERS – PART 2

Last week, we looked at how Hayreddin Barbarossa—one of the infamous Barbarossa brothers—took the Peñón of Algiers (a fort the Spanish had established on an island just offshore from that city), as told by Antonio de Sosa, an author who was captive in Algiers only fifty years after the event. We ended last week’s post with the Peñón about to be bombarded by cannons from the walls of Algiers.

We take up the story from there.

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When the alcalde Huali, the emissary who had parlayed Don Martin, the Governor of the Peñón, returned with returned with the Governor’s reply that he would not surrender, a furious Barbarossa had a very large and very powerful bronze cannon taken aboard a French galleon that was in the port of Algiers and belonged to a French knight of the Order of Malta named Frajuanas.

With this cannon, and other heavy pieces with which he had long been equipped in anticipation of this attack, he began to bombard the fort, directing a terrible fire day and night, which began on May 6, 1530. He continued for fifteen days without interruption, razing the two towers and the rampart facing the city. At the same time, he ordered a great number of musket shots to be fired, which, due to the short distance separating the combatants (about 300 paces), killed a large part of the two hundred defenders of the fort.

Finally, on Friday, May 21st, the sixteenth day since the beginning of the bombardment, before sunrise, Barbarossa attacked with fourteen galleys manned by select troops, among whom were twelve hundred Turks armed with muskets and many archers.

The Christians in the fort, who were few in number, wounded, and exhausted, could not prevent the Turks from landing at the foot of the breach. They found only Captain Martin de Vargas alive, very seriously wounded, and fifty-three soldiers seriously injured and almost out of action. They also found three women, two of whom were Spanish (one of them still lives today and is the mother-in-law of Caid Rabadan). The other was a Mayorcan woman, who is still alive; she is the mother-in-law of Hadji Morat and the grandmother of the mother of Muley Meluk, who was King of Fez and Morocco.

After his victory, Kheir-ed-Din had the fortress razed and used the materials to complete the port as it still stands today. He employed several thousand Christian captives for this immense work, and had the entire area between the islet and the city connected by a solid causeway.

This construction took two years to complete.

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This ends Antonio de Sosa’s description of the taking of the Peñón of Algiers.

Or, at least, this ends his first version of it. Later on in his Topografía e historia general de Argel, in a section in the third part of the book titled “De los mártires de Argel” (”On the Martyrs of Algiers”), he again takes up the story and completes it.

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In the year of our Lord 1530, on the sixth day of May, Hayreddin Barbarossa set up a battery with many cannons, among which were two large and heavily reinforced ones. One of these was lent to him by a captain and master of a French ship called the Nao de Frajoanes (which was then in Algiers and had come there to trade). In this way, he bombarded the island where the Peñón was located for fifteen continuous days, the battery never ceasing day or night. The Turks also fired many arquebuses and arrows, all of which could not fail to take effect, the fort being as close as it was to the town.

Besides being small and having little space, the Peñón had two very notable shortcomings: it had no more than four small bastions, two facing the city from where they bombarded it, and two more likewise facing the sea, and none strong enough to withstand the fury of the cannons fired upon them. Within the fort there were up to 200 Spaniards, good people and brave soldiers, and as their captain and commander of the force, they had a very honorable and valiant Spanish gentleman, of Castilian birth, named Martín de Vargas.

The bombardment was so fierce and brave, and Barbarossa with his Turks (who numbered more than 1,000, not counting a great many Moors) intensified the battle with such fury and haste that in six days he brought down a large part of that wall, which was between the two bastions facing the land, and the cannons opened fire on the bastions in many places.

The Spaniards did not lose heart, however, for they were greatly encouraged by the noble and valiant Captain Martín de Vargas. Working, especially at night, all with great diligence, to rebuild what had fallen, they fortified themselves in such a way that Barbarossa never dared to attack them with a frontal assault until it was already the twenty-first of May, and fifteen days had passed since the bombardment had begun.

Seeing that the Christians were few, because both the cannons they fired and the muskets they shot killed them every hour, and that the wall and the bastions were already destroyed, he ordered all the captains to put their galleys and ships in order, and before dawn on Friday, that all the corsairs and Turks should embark on them to launch a general assault. There were fourteen galleys, twelve of which had eighteen benches, and the other two had twenty-two. More than 1,200 men embarked on them.

These men, as day broke, approached the island, firing many arquebuses and arrows. Since the Spaniards were unable to prevent them from landing, the attackers disembarked at the foot of the demolished wall. Fighting with great courage and strength, the Christians, now few and all wounded, were finally driven back. Very few of them survived, though the dead sold their lives dearly and handsomely.

Those few who were taken alive, Barbarossa distributed among the most important captains and Turks so that they might share in that remarkable feat and victory. He took only two or three for himself, one of whom was the aforementioned captain of the force, Martín de Vargas, who was badly wounded.

Barbarossa ordered him to be taken to his bagnio [his slave prison], where he kept his captives.

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For Antonio de Sosa’s description of the fate of Captain Martín de Vargas, see the next post here in this blog.