Page:The History of Slavery and the Slave Trade.djvu/100

 States in 1801; and after a contest highly creditable to the American navy then in its infancy, peace was concluded between the two powers, and 200 captives released from slavery. Both Tunis and Tripoli quietly renounced that practice of Christian slavery, when solicited to do so by Lord Exmouth, in 1816

All the territories which formed part of the Roman Empire in Africa, subsequently fell under the sway of Constantinople, except Morocco. Its fertile soil, almost within cannon-shot of Europe, "on the very verge and hem of civilization," has ever attracted European cupidity, and the patriotic energy of its people has ever repelled Christian domination. Almost all the semi-barbarous states of the world have fallen a prey to European ambition and enterprise; not only dynasties, but races have been extinguished; and yet Morocco is still as free from foreign influence as the surf of the Atlantic that thunders on its sands. At one period, indeed, almost subjugated, it was little more than a Portuguese province, when the Cherifs, a family of mendicant fanatics, claiming to be the lineal descendants of Mohammed, expelled the invaders, and founded the present dynasty. Spain, it is true, still holds two fortresses as penal settlements on the coast; but no Spaniard can ever look over an embrasure on the land-side without being saluted with a long Moorish rifle. It is an actual fact, that the governors of those prison forts receive intelligence of what passes in the interior of Morocco, from Madrid.

As in other parts of Barbary, it was the Moriscos, after their expulsion from Spain, that founded the system of piratical slavery in Morocco. Who has not read of the Sallee rovers in Robinson Crusoe, and the old ballads? Yet, compared with the Algerine, theirs was, after all, a very petty kind of piracy. The harbor of Sallee, the principal port of Morocco, Using only suitable for vessels drawing little water, piracy was carried on h galleys and row-boats, and was formidable only to small unarmed vessels. In 1637, an English fleet, under Admiral Rainborough, took Sallee, and released 290 British captives — "as many as would have cost £10,000." Soon after, the emperor of Morocco sent an ambassador to London, who, on his presentation to Charles I., went to court in procession, taking with him a number of liberated captives dressed in white, and many hawks and Barbary horses splendidly caparisoned. Christian slaves in Morocco were invariably the property of the emperor, and were mostly employed in constructing buildings of tapia — a composition somewhat resembling our concrete. In the latter part of the seventeenth century, during the reign of Muley Ishmael, a cruel tyrant to his own subjects, and who had a mania for building, the captives in Morocco were ill-treated, and compelled to work hard. Yet even then, one Thomas Phelps, who made his escape from Mequinez, tells us that the emperor came frequently amongst the slaves when at work, and would "bolt out encouraging words to them, such as: 'May God send you all safe home to your own countries!'" and any captive was excused from work by the payment of a blanquil — a sum equivalent to four cents — per day. In 1685, the emperor had 800 Christian slaves, 260 of whom were English; many of those, however, were subsequently