September 25, 1787.-Captain O'Brien furnishes the following statement: 1 of 30 guns, 400 men, 106 feet length, straight keel. February 5, 1788.-Statement by the inhabitants of Algiers, spoken of in the report. 9 vessels from 36 down to 20 guns. 4 or 5 smaller. About this date the Algerines lost two or three vessels, stranded or taken. December, 1789.-Captain O'Brien furnishes the latest statement. 1 ship of 24 guns, received lately from France. In the fall of 1789, they laid the keel of a 40 gun frigate, and they expect two cruisers from the grand seignior. No. 7.-Translation of a Letter from Count D'Estaing to the Hon. Thomas Jefferson, Esq. Paris, May 17, 1784. SIR,-In giving you an account of an opinion of Mr. Massiac, and which absolutely corresponds with my own, I cannot too much observe how great a difference may take place in the course of forty years between the means which he required and those which political circumstances, that I cannot ascertain, may exact. This Secretary of State, afterwards vice-Admiral, had the modesty, when a captain, to propose a means for the reduction of Algiers, less brilliant to himself, but more sure and economical than the one government was about to adopt. They wanted him to undertake a bombardment; he proposed a simple blockade. All the force he requested was a single man-of-war, two strong frigates, and two sloops-of-war. I am convinced, that by blocking up Algiers by cross-anchoring, and with a long tow, that is to say, with several cables spliced to each other, and with iron chains, one might, if necessary, always remain there, and there is no Barbarian power thus confined, which would not sue for peace. During the war before last the English remained, even in winter, at anchor before Morbian, on the coast of Brittany, which is a much more dangerous coast. Expeditious preparation for sailing of the vessels which form the blockade, which should be of a sufficient number to prevent anything from entering or going out, while the rest remain at their stations, the choice of these stations, skilful manuvres, strict watch during the night, every precaution against the element which every seaman ought to be acquainted with; also, against the enemy to prevent the sudden attack of boats, and to repel them in case they should make an attack by boats prepared for the purpose, frequent refreshments for the crews, relieving the men, an unshaken constancy and exactness in service, are the means, which in my opinion, would render the event indubitable. Bombardments are but transitory. It is, if I may so express myself, like breaking glass windows with guineas. None have produced effect against the barbarians. Even an imperfect blockade, were one to have the patience and courage to persist therein, would occasion a perpetual evil, it would be insupportable in the long run. To obtain the end proposed no advantage ought to be lost. If several powers would come to a good understanding, and pursue a plan formed on the principles of humanity; if they were not counteracted by others, it would require but a few years to compel the barbarians to cease being pirates; they would become merchants in spite of themselves. It is needless to observe, that the unsuccessful attempts of Spain, and those under which the republic of Venice, perhaps, hides other views, have increased the strength as well as the self-love of all the barbarians. We are assured that the Algerines have fitted out merchantmen with heavy cannon. This would render it necessary to block the place with two ships, so that one of the two might remain moored near the bar, while the other might prepare to support such of the frigates as should give chase. But their chebecs, even their frigates, and all their vessels, although overcharged with men, are moreover so badly armed and manoeuvred that assistance from without would be most to be feared. Your excellency has told me the only true means of bringing to terms the only people who can take a pleasure in disturbing our commerce. You see, I speak as an American citizen; this title, dear to my heart, the value of which I justly prize, affords me the happy opportunity of offering, still more particularly, the homage, the sincere attachment, and the respect with which I have the honor to be, &c. ESTAING. XIX.-Report on the Algerine Prisoners. December 28, 1790. The Secretary of State, having had under consideration the situation of the citizens of the United States in captivity at Algiers, makes the following report thereupon to the President of the United States: When the House of Representatives, at their late session, were pleased to refer to the Secretary of State, the petition of our citizens in captivity at Algiers, there still existed some expectation that certain measures, which had been employed to effect their redemption, the success of which depended on their secrecy, might prove effectual. Information received during the recess of Congress has so far weakened those expectations, as to make it now a duty to lay before the President of the United States, a full statement of what has been attempted for the relief of these our suffering citizens, as well before, as since he came into office, that he may be enabled to decide what further is to be done. On the 25th of July, 1785, the schooner Maria, Captain Stevens, belonging to a Mr. Foster, of Boston, was taken off Cape St. Vincents, by an Algerine corsair; and, five days afterwards, the ship Dauphin, Captain O'Brien, belonging to Messieurs Irvins of Philadelphia, was taken by another Algerine, about fifty leagues westward of Lisbon. These vessels, with their cargoes and crews, twenty-one persons in number, were carried into Algiers. Congress had some time before commissioned ministers plenipotentiary for entering into treaties of amity and commerce with the Barbary Powers, and to send to them proper agents for preparing such treaties. An agent was accordingly appointed for Algiers, and his instructions prepared, when the Ministers Plenipotentiary received information of these captures. Though the ransom of captives was not among the objects expressed in their commissions, because at their dates the case did not exist, yet they thought it their duty to undertake that ransom, fearing that the captives might be sold and dispersed through the interior and distant countries of Africa, if the previous orders of Congress should be waited for. They therefore added a supplementary instruction to the agent to negotiate their ransom. But, while acting thus without authority, they thought themselves bound to offer a price so moderate as not to be disapproved. They therefore restrained him to two hundred dollars a man; which was something less than had been just before paid for about three hundred French captives, by the Mathurins, a religious order of France, instituted in ancient times for the redemption of Christian captives from the infidel Powers. On the arrival of the agent at Algiers, the dey demanded fifty-nine thousand four hundred and ninety-six dollars for the twenty-one captives, and could be brought to abate but little from that demand. The agent, therefore, returned in 1786, without having effected either. peace or ransom. In the beginning of the next year, 1787, the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris procured an interview with the general of the religious order of Mathurins, before mentioned, to engage him to lend his agency, at the expense of the United States, for the redemption of their captive citizens. He proffered at once all the services he could render, with the liberality and the zeal which distinguish his character. He observed, that he had agents on the spot, constantly employed in seeking out and redeeming the captives of their own country; that these should act for us, as for themselves; that nothing could be accepted for their agency; and that he would only expect that the price of redemption should be ready on our part, so as to cover the engagement into which he should enter. He added, that, by the time all expenses were paid, their last redemption had amounted to near two thousand five hundred livres a man, and that he could by no means flatter us that they could redeem our captives as cheap as their own. The pirates would take advantage of its being out of their ordinary line. Still he was in hopes they would not be much higher. The proposition was then submitted to Congress, that is to say, in February, 1787, and on the 19th of September, in the same year, their Minister Plenipotentiary at Paris received their orders to embrace the offers of the Mathurins. This he immediately notified to the general, observing, however, that he did not desire him to enter into any engagements till a sufficient sum to cover them should be actually deposited in Paris. The general wished that the whole might be kept rigorously secret, as, should the barbarians suspect him to be acting for the United States, they would demand such sums as he could never agree to give, even with our consent, because it would injure his future purchases from them. He said he had information from his agent at Algiers, that our captives received so liberal a daily allowance as to evince that it came from a public source. He reccmmended that this should be discontinued; engaging that he would have an allowance administered to them, much short indeed of what they had hitherto received, but such as was given to his own countrymen, quite sufficient for physical necessities, and more likely to prepare the opinion, that as they were subsisted by his charity, they were to be redeemed by it also. These ideas, suggested to him by the danger of raising his market, were approved by the Minister Plenipotentiary; because, this being the first instance of a redemption by the United States, it would form a precedent, because a high price given by us might induce these pirates to abandon all other nations in pursuit of Americans; whereas, the contrary would take place, could our price of redemption be fixed at the lowest point. To destroy, therefore, every expectation of a redemption by the United States, the bills of the Spanish consul at Algiers, who had made the kind advances before spoken of for the sustenance of our captives, were not answered. On the contrary, a hint was given that these advances had better be discontinued, as it was not known that they would be reimbursed. It was necessary even to go further, and to suffer the captives themselves and their friends to believe for awhile, that no attention was paid to them, no notice taken of their letters. They are still under this impression. It would have been unsafe to trust them with a secret, the disclosure of which might forever prevent their redemption, by raising the demands of the captors to sums which a due regard for our seamen, still in freedom, would forbid us to give. This was the most trying of all circumstances, and drew from them the most afflicting reproaches. It was a twelvemonth afterwards before the money could be deposited in Paris, and the negotiation be actually put into train. In the meantime the general had received information from Algiers of a very considerable change of prices there. Within the |
