In 1787, the Russians redeemed at $1,546 a man.
In 1788, a well-informed inhabitant of Algiers assured the Minister Plenipotentiary of the United States at Paris, that no nation had redeemed, since the Spanish treaty, at less than from £250 to £300 sterling, the medium of which is $1,237. Captain O'Brien, at the same date, thinks we must pay $1,800, and mentions a Savoy captain, just redeemed at $4,074.
In 1789, Mr. Logie, the English consul at Algiers, informed a person who wished to ransom one of our common sailors, that he would cost from £450 to £500 sterling, the mean of which is $2,137. In December of the same year, Captain O'Brien thinks our men will now cost $2,290 each, though a Jew merchant believes he could get them for $2,264.
In 1790, July 9th, a Mr. Simpson, of Gibraltar, who, at some particular request, had taken pains to find for what sum our captives could be redeemed, finds that the fourteen will cost $34,79,228, which is $2,485 a man. At the same date, one of them, a Scotch boy, a common mariner, was actually redeemed at 8,000 livres, equal to $1,481, which is within nineteen dollars of the price Simpson states for common men; and the chargé des affaires of the United States at Paris is informed that the whole may be redeemed at that rate, adding fifty per cent. on the captains, which would bring it to $1,571 a man.
It is found then that the prices are 1,200, 1,237, 1,481, 1,546, 1,571, 1,600, 1,800, 2,137, 2,264, 2,485, 2,833, and 2,920 dollars a man, not noticing that of $4,074, because it was for a captain.
In 1786, there were 2,200 captives in Algiers, which, in 1789, had been reduced by death or ransom to 655. Of ours six have died, and one has been ransomed by his friends.
From these facts and opinions, some conjecture may be formed of the terms on which the liberty of our citizens may be obtained.
But should it be thought better to repress force by force, another expedient for their liberation may perhaps offer. Captures made on the enemy may perhaps put us into possession of some of their mariners, and exchange be substituted for ransom. It is not indeed a fixed usage with them to exchange prisoners. It is rather their custom to refuse it. However, such exchanges are sometimes effected, by allowing them more or less of advantage. They have sometimes accepted of two Moors for a Christian, at others they have refused five or six for one. Perhaps Turkish captives may be objects of greater partiality with them, as their government is entirely in the hands of Turks, who are treated in every instance as a superior order of beings. Exchange, too, will be more practicable in our case, as our captives have not been sold to private individuals, but are retained in the hands of the Government.
The liberation of our citizens has an intimate connection with the liberation of our commerce in the Mediterranean, now under the consideration of Congress. The distresses of both proceed from the same cause, and the measures which shall be adopted for the relief of the one, may, very probably, involve the relief of the other.