Personal Narrative of Events, From 1799 to 1815

by William Stanhope Lovell

The Bey was a venerable-looking man, of about sixty-five years of age, thin, and of middle stature, with a fine, long, white beard, hard features, but a scowl upon his countenance that showed he could, when he thought proper, play the tiger.

He promised the supplies I requested in ten days, said he wished to be on the best terms with the English, and thanked me for bringing the stone coffin for his son’s tomb; gave me coffee without sugar, and a pipe to smoke, and appeared much amused with my awkward manner of sitting cross-legged like a Turk.

He was surrounded by his principal officers, in full dress, with silver-gilt swords and pistols in their girdles.

The admiral or captain of the port was a handsome, mild, gentlemanly person. The old Bey, the morning of my arrival, had been administering summary justice, for on my going into the market-place I saw three ill-looking Moors hanging by the neck. It is not the fashion in Barbary to place caps over the criminals’ faces before they are executed. Upon inquiring what those three wretches had been doing, the vice-consul gave me the following account:—“A Moorish merchant, with a special passport from the Bey, had permission to travel into the interior to traffic, when he and his party were waylaid on the mountains, robbed, and all, except one, murdered. The person who escaped immediately informed the proper authorities, who reported it to the Bey. A body of troops was instantly sent to the mountains, who arrested all the chiefs of the tribes, and brought them before his Highness. He, looking at them sternly, said, ‘On such a day a merchant from my city, with my passport, was murdered and robbed on the mountains. If in three days from this time you do not bring before me the whole of the offenders, your own heads shall answer for it. Begone!’ In less than forty-eight hours eleven fellows were brought in, and led directly to the palace. The Bey demanded who committed the murder. Three men were pointed out. They did not deny it. ‘Very well,’ said the Bey, ‘take these men, and instantly hang them up in the market-place.’ Three others, who had been most active in plundering, had their right hands cut off, and the remaining five received each from three to five hundred bastinadoes on the soles of their feet.” The third evening, at sunset, the murderers were cut down and buried.

They have a very expeditious way of staunching the blood after amputation. The stumps of the arms are plunged into a kind of boiling pitch, which has the effect of searing the arteries. Over this is placed a dressing and bladder, when the sufferers are turned out.

I used to go occasionally, with our vice-consul and some of my own officers, out shooting. We always found the people tolerably civil—except the boys, who used to abuse and spit at us, calling us, amongst other names, Christian dogs. Now and then we got a shove and a sly stone.

Coming home one evening from an excursion to a small lake, about sixteen miles distant, where we had been for the purpose of shooting flamingos, &c., we got into a serious scrape, owing to a young commissary having taken his servant, a Portuguese boy, with him, who did not understand managing a horse.

We had ridden fast across the country from the lake to get back before the gates of Oran were shut, which they always were at sunset, when, just as we were entering the town and trotting on, we met a party of Turkish and Moorish boys, who tried to frighten our horses by throwing up their loose garments in the animals’ faces, and making a great noise. All our horses stood this, except the one on which the servant boy was mounted, which reared up, and, dashing forward, knocked down with his fore feet one of the young Turks who had been most forward in the mischief. His head was a good deal cut, and bled profusely. We should have said he was very justly served. Not so the Moors and Kabiles. A hue and cry was instantly raised, and we were followed by a mob, demanding the life of the poor Portuguese for having, he being a Christian, drawn the blood of a true follower of the prophet. Pushing on to the vice-consul’s, we jumped off our horses, shoved in the young Portuguese, and locked and barricaded the doors. The Moors and Kabiles surrounded the house, making a great clamour, insisting that the servant should be immediately given up and put to death. Nothing but their fear of the English prevented them breaking into the place. We hoisted our colours on the flagstaff at the consul’s house, when it was considered a fortress, and respected accordingly.

In a city like Oran, where each man is a spy on his neighbour, the news was fortunately not long in reaching the ears of the Bey, who, on the first intimation of the danger that threatened the consul’s residence, sent down a party of troops, with the captain of the port, to restore order, and act as circumstances might require. Some management was necessary to get the captain of the port into the house, as also to keep out the Moors, who, had they laid hold of the boy, would certainly have murdered him.