When the Portuguese warships withdrew from guarding the Straits of Gibraltar, the Algerine cruisers entered the Atlantic in four ships and swooped down on unsuspecting American vessels. Eleven of our ships were captured by corsairs. Their crews were taken as slaves to Algiers, and, added to those already held in captivity, increased the number to one hundred and fifteen. The Swedish consul warned Colonel Humphreys, our minister to Portugal, that Bassara, a Jew slave-broker at Algiers, through whom the United States was trying to procure the release of the captives, was out of favor with the Dey, and that to succeed the business should be transferred to the Jew Bacri. This was done, and an agreement soon followed. Captain O'Brien was sent to Lisbon to get from Colonel Humphreys the money the United States promised to pay. Humphreys was forced to send O'Brien to London to borrow the funds, but, on account of the unsettled condition of European politics, O'Brien failed in his mission. The Dey, vexed at the delay, threatened to abandon the treaty. Upon this a frigate was offered by the American envoys as an inducement to hold to the treaty, while Bacri himself advanced the necessary gold. The prisoners were then released and sent in Bacri's ship _Fortune_ to Marseilles, where the American consul, Stephen Cathalan, Jr., secured a passage home for them in the Swedish ship _Jupiter_. What I had learned of the insolence of the Barbary rulers had come to me thus far only by hearsay. I was now to see an example of it with my own eyes. While I was thus gathering the details of Alexander's tardy release, the _George Washington_ was proceeding from Morocco to Algiers, Captain Bainbridge having been ordered by our government to deliver presents to the Algerine prince. Before leaving Morocco, Captain Bainbridge, who had heard the story of the assault upon us with amazement and anger, demanded of the Dey of Morocco that he surrender to him the Egyptian, Murad, for the action of our government. Word came back that a search had been made for Murad but that no person such as we described could be found in the city. Punishment for those who had attacked us was also requested, but the oily monarch protested that his officers could find no citizens who had attempted such a raid. Baffled, we went on our way. I looked over the rail towards the frowning castles of Algiers in huge disgust. Yet I was curious to see the town in which Alexander had been enslaved, and Captain Bainbridge, knowing of my relationship to one of the released Americans, provided a way that I might enter the palace as one of his attendants when he went with Consul O'Brien to pay his supposed respects to the Dey.