6 NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER 



coast of North and South America, and to procure arms. The 

 plan was chimeric and was not carried out. 



We next find William Shaler engaged in government employ- 

 ment, apparently occupied in watching the actions of the 

 River Company in the region of the lower Mississippi. While 

 thus engaged, he recorded certain phenomena connected with 

 the New Madrid earthquakes of 1811. He was upon a "broad- 

 horn" boat which was carried some distance upstream by the 

 reflux of the current due to the widespread subsidence of the 

 alluvial plains, caused by the shocks and the movement of 

 the river waters into the depressed areas. His steadiness under 

 disturbance and his aptitude for seeing clearly at such times is 

 well shown in his narrative of the event. 



The most interesting part of William Shaler's life was the 

 period when he was the consul of the United States at Algiers, 

 to which post he was appointed by President Madison in 1815. 

 At that time the Dey was still the "scourge of Christendom." 

 Nothing so well shows the gain in the power of civilization as the 

 fact that a century ago those malignant despots were allowed, 

 as they had been since the Middle Ages, to exact tribute from 

 all the maritime powers of Europe, to ravage their commerce 

 and enslave their citizens captured on the high seas. At this 

 moment there is sitting at Algeciras a convention of the civil- 

 ized states to take action concerning the internal affairs of the 

 last of the Mahometan states on the African shore. Now, as of 

 old, it is not the strength of the petty despotism that limits 

 action, but the rivalries and suspicions of the Western Powers 

 and the fear of trouble with the Mussulman world. 



When William Shaler went to Algiers as consul-general to the 

 Barbary States, in effect as minister of his government, the 

 Dey was still the insolent despot he had been for centuries. 

 It is told that Mr. Shaler at his presentation at court, break- 

 ing through the ancient rule that the representatives of the 

 Christian governments should come barefooted and uncovered 

 before the monarch, made his appearance in jack-boots, with 



