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CHAPTER V. BATTLE OF STAOUELI AND FALL OF ALGIERS—1830. the year 454 of the Christian era, Genseric, the ruler of Northern Africa, sent an expedition that ravaged the coast of Sicily and Italy, captured Rome, which was given up to sack for fourteen days, and returned to Africa with sixty thousand prisoners. The fleet of Genseric was the precursor of the pirates and corsairs that ravaged the Mediterranean from that time to the present century, and the prisoners that were brought from Rome were the vanguard of that vast array of foreign slaves who toiled under Algerine and other barbaric masters until the French conquest of which we are about to speak. Under the Turkish rulers of Algeria piracy became a well-organized system, and was regarded as legitimate a means of obtaining wealth as in our day we regard the manufacture of woollen or cotton goods, or the shipment of grain or other products to a profitable market. The Moslems considered it entirely proper to hold all Christians in their power as slaves, and they made no distinction between prisoners of war, the crews of captured merchant ships, or unhappy victims of their raids on the European coast and islands. Furthermore, whenever any European state attempted reprisals, it was the custom of the Dey of Algiers to send to the galleys the consul of that country, together with the crew of any merchant ship that might have ventured into his ports for purposes of trade. On many occasions hundreds of these peaceful traders 64