At the turn of the sixteenth century, Algiers wasn’t a particularly important place. It’s transformation into what it eventually became—the major corsair capital of the Mediterranean—had its start with the ambitions of a pair of pirates: the Barbarossa brothers.
In the early 1500s, Spanish forces were advancing across the Mediterranean coast of Africa, overrunning one town after another. Fearing Muslim attacks on Spanish soil, the Spanish authorities had decided to ‘take the fight to the enemy’ in order to protect the homeland—just as the American authorities did in the early 2000s.
The Spanish advance created blowback (just as the American one did). That blowback took various forms, but one of them involved Algiers and the Barbarossa brothers.
The Spanish never occupied the city of Algiers itself. Instead, they built a fort on an island in the bay just offshore, equipped it with cannons, and maintained a garrison there of several hundred men. This fort—known as the Peñón of Algiers—was a constant menace to the city.
The Barbarossa brothers first became involved with Algiers when the Algiers authorities asked them to liberate the city from the Spanish. Aruch, the elder brother, managed, via a combination of trickery, audaciousness, and murder to make himself master of Algiers (this story is told in a series of posts in May/June of this year here in this blog)—but he never managed to take the Peñón, which remained a constant source of threat..
Aruch Barbarossa’s lordship of the city didn’t last: he was killed by the Spanish in a conflict near Tlemcen.
His younger brother, Hayreddin, managed to succeed where Oruç had failed, and in 1530 (or 1529, there is some debate), having made himself lord of Algiers, he attacked and took the Peñón.
A detailed description of that attack has come down to us: in a book originally published in 1612 titled Topografía e historia general de Argel (Topography and General History of Algiers). (You can see the title page of this book in the illustration at the top of this post.)
The author of the Topografía was, for a very long time, accepted to be Diego de Haëdo, an Inquisitor for the (in)famous Spanish Inquisition, who eventually became Archbishop of Palermo, Sicily. Modern scholarship, however, has pretty clearly demonstrated that the actual author was Antonio de Sosa, a Portuguese cleric who was captive in Algiers for four years (1577-1581). (Antonio de Sosa’s story is told here in this blog in a series of posts in May, 2018, titled The Travails of Friar Antonio.)
The Topografía e historia general de Argel contains several parts. One is titled Epitome de los Reyes de Argel (The History of the Kings of Algiers). De Sosa considered Hayreddin Brabarossa (and his elder brother) to be the first ‘kings’ of Algiers, so he includes their stories.
Part of Hayreddin Barbarossa’s story includes the details of his attack on the Peñón.
Here, then, is Antionio de Sosa’s description of Hayreddin Barbarosssa’s taking of the Peñón of Algiers. (To my knowledge, this passage has never before been translated into English.)
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In 1530, Hayreddin Barbarossa resolved to destroy and raze the Peñón of Algiers, which his older brother Aruch had tried to take in 1516. Hayreddin intended to replace it with a breakwater (which he subsequently did) by connecting the island [on which the Spanish fort was built] to the city by a causeway, in order to provide safety for ships.
At that time, corsairs were forced to haul their ships onto the sand of the beach of a small stream, located about a mile west of Algiers, and the hauling maneuvers had to be carried out by hand, with immense labor from the poor captives. The ships of the Christian merchants, whose trade was of great profit to the Algerines (not to mention the duties they levied on them), had no other shelter than the small cove located outside the Bab Azoun gate, at the place now called La Palma. There, they were constantly in great peril, lacking shelter and battered by all winds.
These various reasons had thus determined Hayreddin Barbarossa to attack the fort.
An unforeseen event prompted him to hasten the execution of his plan.
It happened that two young Moors fled to the Peñón and declared to the governor there that they wished to become Christians. The governor’s name was Martin de Vargas, a brave Spanish knight. He received the fugitives very humanely and lodged them in his home while they were instructed and catechized before being baptized. A few days later, on the Sunday of Easter, at the hour when the captain and the garrison were attending Mass, the young Moors climbed onto the rampart, which was deserted. There, whether through frivolity or malice and treachery, they raised a banner and signaled to the town from the top of a large tower.
A servant of the captain, who was in the castle, saw this and began calling to the garrison loudly, warning them of what was happening. The Governor left Mass with his soldiers, rushed there in great haste, and, without further investigation, had the two culprits hanged from a battlement overlooking the town.
At this spectacle, the Algerians immediately went to Hayreddin Barbarossa and complained of the outrage done to them—without otherwise concerning themselves with the reasons for the execution.
Seeing this as an opportunity to hasten the execution of what had long been decided in his mind, Barbarossa first sought to achieve his ends without bloodshed.
He sent one of his renegades, the alcalde Huali, as a emissary, with orders to inform the Governor that if he surrendered the town without a fight, he would be offered an honorable settlement, one that would satisfy the entire garrison. Otherwise, Hayreddin Barbarossa swore to put everyone to the sword.
Don Martin merely laughed at his threats and replied to Barbarossa that he was astonished that a brave captain like him would advise another to dishonor himself. He begged him to remember that he was dealing with Spaniards whom his empty threats could not frighten.
Barbarossa had anticipated such a response and expected that nothing would come of this diplomatic approach. Accordingly, he had had a battery of cannons hastily erected and armed opposite the Peñón.
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For a continuation of the story of the taking of the Peñón of Algiers, see the next post here in this blog.
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Corsairs and Captives
Narratives from the Age of the Barbary Pirates
The Travels of Reverend Ólafur Egilsson
The story of the Barbary corsair raid on Iceland in 1627