Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/49

 *cued ones were few in number as compared to those who, abandoned by their cowardly governments, remained as slaves to the haughty Algerines. But cruel and inhuman as they were, the Barbary corsairs were never mere barbarians Nor were the cruelties and inhumanities practiced by them upon their prisoners greater than those inflicted in contemporary times by Christian governments or even by the church itself in the days of the Inquisition. The Saracens held no monopoly of the rack, the fetid dungeon, the torture-chamber, and the stake. But they were Mohammedans, therefore their deeds excited greater indignation. Yet the oft-threatened punishment was not administered. The powers of Europe could in those days no more agree to act in concert than they can at the present time.

WHERE BELIEVERS SLEEP

For more than two hundred years the Algerines exacted tribute money from the greatest nations of the world, and this in spite of the fact that their whole naval force was not equal to that of any one of the fourth-rate powers.

Algiers declared that she was sovereign of all the Mediterranean, and that no nation could navigate that sea in safety until immunity from attack had been purchased. The treaty signed with France in 1788 called for the payment of a