1816	England and the Barbary States	400

wind shifted to the eastward ; and in the evening the ship-sloop Prometheus, Captain William Bateman Dashwood, joined company direct from the port, having on board the wife, daughter, and infant-child of the British consul, Mr. M'Donell. The two former, disguised in midshipmen's clothes, had with great difficulty been brought off ; but, owing to the treachery of Mrs. M'Donell's Jew-nurse, * the infant, while on its way to the boat concealed in a basket, was detained by order of the dey : as were also the surgeon of the Prometheus, three midshipmen, and the remainder of the crews of two boats, consisting in all of 18 persons. " The child, " says Lord Exmouth, " was sent off next morning by the dey ; and, as a solitary instance of his humanity, it ought to be recorded by me." The consul himself was put in irons and confined in a small room on the ground-floor of his house ; nor could the most urgent remonstrances on the part of Captain Dashwood induce the dey to release his prisoners.

Captain Dashwood confirmed all that the admiral had previously learnt about the preparations making by the Algerines to resist the attack ; of which they had received intelligence, chiefly, as was suspected, from the French 40-gun frigate Ciotat, then at anchor in the bay. It appeared, also, that about 40,000 men had been marched down from the interior, and all the janizaries called in from the distant garrisons. The ships, consisting of four frigates, mounting 44 guns each, five large corvettes, mounting from 24 to 30 guns, and between 30 and 40 gun and mortar boats, were all in port. The fortifications of Algiers, for so small a place, were of considerable strength. Upon the various batteries on the north side of the city, including a battery over the north gate, were mounted about 80 pieces of cannon and six or eight enormous mortars ; but the shoalness of the water would scarcely admit a heavy ship to approach within reach of them. Between the north wall of the city and the commencement of the pier which is about 250 yards in length, and connects the town with the lighthouse, were about 20 more guns, the greater part of them similarly circumstanced. At the north projection of the mole stood a semicircular battery, of two tiers of guns, about 44 in all ; and to the southward of that, and nearly in a line with the pier, was the round or lighthouse battery, of three tiers of guns, 48 in all. Then came a long battery, also of three tiers, called the eastern battery, mounting 66 guns. This was flanked by four other batteries, of two tiers each, mounting altogether 60 guns ; and on the south head of the mole were two large guns, represented to be 68-pounders and nearly

* Upon the authority of Mr. Abraham Salamé in his very interesting " Narrative of the Expedition to Algiers," p. 15, note ; but, according to Lord Exmouth, owing to the infant crying in the gateway, although the surgeon had administered something to compose it.

^ back to top ^