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The Americans had been authorized to pay $200 apiece. Failing to purchase back their countrymen, they tried to beg them back.

The American sailors were left in slavery.

Whether this inconceivable action was the result of a "peace policy" or of the theory then prevailing against the building of a fleet, it is equally disgraceful. The diplomats of the period had their fill of endeavours to treat with brigands without any recourse to force. Their next move was more humiliating still. Failing themselves, they turned to a European "Society for the Redemption of Captives," a holy order that made a business of alleviating as far as possible the horrors of this bondage in Turkey. This order informed the Continental Congress that it would be of no use to try to get the prisoners for a reasonable sum if money and letters were continually sent to better their