330 A L G I 
£ 
ranville, at the head of five flout veffels, upwards of ico 
bombs were thrown into the town the firlt day, which did 
terrible execution; while the befieged made fome hundred 
difcharges of their cannon againft them without doing any 
conliderable damage. The following night the bombs 
were again thrown into the town in fuch numbers, that the 
•ley’s palace and other'great edifices were almoft deftroyed; 
fome of their batteries were difmounted, and feveral vef- 
felsfunkin the port. The dey and Turkifh bafhaw, as 
well as the whole foldiery, alarmed at this dreadful havock, 
immediately fued for peace. As a preliminary, the im¬ 
mediate furrender was infifted on of all Chriftian captives 
who had been taken fighting under the French flag; which 
being granted, 142 of them were immediately delivered 
up, with a promife of fending him the remainder as foon 
as they could be got from the different parts of the coun¬ 
try. Accordingly Du Queliie fent his commiflary-gene- 
ra! and one of his engineers into the town; but with ex- 
prefs orders to infill upon the delivery of all the French 
captives without exception, together with the effects they 
had taken from the French; and that Mezomorto their 
then admiral, and Hali Rais one of their captains, fheuld 
be given as hoftages. 
This laft demand having embarrafTed the dey, he af- 
fembled the douwan, and acquainted them with it: when 
Mezomorto, in a violent rage, told the aflembly, that 
the cowardice of thofe who fat at the helm had occasioned 
tile ruin of Algiers; but that, for his part, he would ne¬ 
ver content to deliver up any thing that had been taken 
from the French. He immediately acquainted the foldiery 
with what had palled; which fo exafperated them, that 
they murdered the dey, and chofe Mezomorto in his place. 
This was no fooner done, than he cancelled all the articles 
of peace which had been made, and hoflilities were re¬ 
newed with greater fury than ever. 
The French admiral now kept pouring in fuch volleys 
of bombs, that in lefs than three days the greatefl part of 
the city was reduced to allies; and the fire burnt with 
fuch vehemence, that the ft was enlightened with it for 
more than two leagues round. Mezomorto, unmoved at 
all thefe difafiers, and the vail number of thellain, whofe 
blood ran in rivulets along the llreets ; or rather, grown 
furious and defperate, fought only how to wreak his re¬ 
venge on the enemy; and, not content with caufing all the 
French in the city to be cruelly murdered, ordered their 
conful to be tied hand and foot, and fallened alive to the 
mouth of a mortar, from whence he was (hot away againll 
their navy. By this piece of inhumanity Du Q_uefne was 
fo exafperated, that he did not leave Algiers till he had 
xitterly deftroyed all their fortifications, (hipping, almoft: 
all the lower part, and above two-thirds of the upper 
part, of the city, by which means it became little elfe than 
a heap of ruins. 
The Algerines have alfo at different periods received 
feveral hoflild vifits from the Englilh. About the year 
1620 Sir Robert Manfel was fent out from England with 
(ix men of war and twelve flout (hips hired from the mer¬ 
chants. He arrived at Algiers, but neither negociation 
nor force procured any fubftantial redrefs. Two other 
fleets were afterwards fent againft them, one under lord 
Willoughby, the other under lord Denbigh, both of which 
did fo little, that very few of our hiftorians take any no¬ 
tice of them. The renowned Blake, in the year 1655, 
being in the Mediterranean, proceeded to Algiers, to de¬ 
mand fatisfadlion for the piracies committed on the Eng- 
liflt, and the releafe of all captives belonging to his na¬ 
tion. The dey exprelfed the moll friendly difpolition, and 
promifed every redrefs in his power. It is not to be fup- 
pofed, however, that the natural perfidy of thefe pirates 
W'ould long fuffer them to abide by any treaty; for, not- 
withftanding thefe promifes, they loft no opportunity of 
making prizes of Englifh fhips, whenever they could con¬ 
veniently come at them ; fo that, in the year 1661, the earl 
of Sandwich was fent to Algiers to menace the dey for his 
infraction of the treaty which he had entered into with 
E R S. 
Blake. Not being able to obtain any conceflions, he made 
an ineffectual attempt to fet fire to the fhips in the har¬ 
bour; but, leaving Sir John LawTon with a ftrongfquad- 
ron to cruife off the port, fo many of their fhips were 
taken, that they were at laft compelled to enter again into 
a treaty; which, however, like the former one, was not 
long obferved. In the year 1669, a fquadron commanded 
by Sir Thomas Allen, in conjundfion with one from the 
ftates of Holland commanded by Van Ghent, funk and 
deftroyed many (hips belonging to thefe pirates, and ref- 
cued a confiderable number of Chriftian (laves. The next 
year Sir Edw. Spragge was fent with a larger force on the 
fame fervice, when he fo effectually annoyed their (hipping, 
that a peace was concluded to the fatisfaftion of the Eng¬ 
lifh, which they obferved better than the former ones. 
In the year 1749, the Prince Frederic packet-boat, bound 
from I.ifbon to Falmouth, was taken by four Algerine 
cruifers, carried into Algiers, and plundered of effects to 
the amount of 25,000 pounds; and after being detained 
twenty-three days was fuffered to depart. This outrage 
occafioned commodore Keppel (late lord Keppel) to be 
fent out with feven fhips of w'ar. He took on-board cer¬ 
tain prefents for the dey, the forwarding of which had 
been neglected, and which that prince having been long - 
accuftomed to receive, laid claim to by prefcription. 
Mr. Keppel arrived there in Auguft, and had an audience 
of the dey, but could not obtain a reftitution of the 
property. 
In 1775, the king of Spain caufedanother formidable 
armament to be prepared, in order to chaftife the Alge¬ 
rines for the depredations which their corfairs ftill com¬ 
mitted on his fubjeCts. The fleet deftined for this expe¬ 
dition was fitted out at the ports of Carthagena, Cadiz, 
and Barcelona; at the former of which the whole force 
affembled, and thence, after being detained a month by 
contrary winds, failed againft Algiers, arriving in the bay 
the latter end of June. The fleet confided of feven fhips 
of the line of 74 guns each, eight fhips of 40 guns, thir¬ 
ty-two frigates from 20 to 36 guns, and about tw’enty 
fmaller armed veffels of different conftrudtions, with 400 
tranfports, having 19,000 feamen and marines : on-board 
the tranfports were 22,000 foot, and 4,000 horfe, confid¬ 
ing of the bed troops in Spain, an artillery of 400 pieces 
of cannon, with 2,000 men to work the guns. This large 
fleet and army were provided with vaft quantities of (lores 
and provifions. The marine was under the command of 
Don Pedro Caftegon, and the land forces under count 
O’Reilly, a native of Ireland, who had been long in the 
fervice of Spain, and enjoyed the particular favour of the 
fovereign. Such a force feemed to menace the reduction 
of all the piratical ftates of Barbary. Eight days elapfed 
before the troops were landed, and the attack was then 
made in a defukory and injudicious manner; ho regular 
defign or plan of operations appeared to have been fettled 
between the general and admiral, but great dilfenfion and 
animofity prevailed. The deeply-rooted antipathy which 
ftibfifts between the Spaniards and Moors caufed each to 
be eager for aCtion ; but the-firft attack was made upon 
very unequal terms : whilft the Spaniards advanced thro' 
a clofe country, expofed to the full effeCl of the enemy’s 
fire, the Moors lay protected behind trees and enclofures, 
from which no efforts could diflodge them. This deftruc- 
tive conflict was maintained for thirteen hours: at length 
the Spaniards became difpirited, and a precipitate retreat 
enfued. Great number of wounded were left on the field 
of battle to fatiate the vengeance of their barbarous ene¬ 
mies, who put all to death without mercy that fell into 
..their hands. As foon as it was dark, the Spanifh army 
re-embarked in fuch confufion, that, had they been oppofed 
by a fkilful enemy, very few would have regained the 
fhips, and the mod entire defeat would have enlued : but 
the unfkilfulnefs of the Algerines in military operations 
prevented them from improving the opportunity. '1 he 
difgrace and lofs which had befallen the Spanifh arms in 
this attack, had effectually cooled their military ardour; 
