The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 3, November, 1834 — John Shaqi
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 3, November, 1834Various
History
The Southern Literary Messenger, Vol. I., No. 3, November, 1834
Various
American literature -- 19th century -- Periodicals
Urudsch being anxious to have some port in the Western Mediterranean,
to which he could at intervals retire with his booty and prisoners,
offered his assistance to the prince of Algiers, who was endeavoring to
regain his possessions from the Spaniards; and no sooner had he
effected this, than he seized upon the city, murdered his confiding
ally, and declared the country subject to the Porte. On his death,
which soon after happened, his brother Chaireddin assumed the command
and succeeded in expelling the Spaniards from a small island, close to
the city called Algesr or _the island_ which they had for some time
held; he then connected it with the main land by a causeway, and thus
formed the present port of Algiers, which takes its name from the
island. He was afterwards regularly invested by the Porte, with the
title and powers of a Pasha, or viceroy; and obtaining large additions
to his army, composed entirely of foreigners, he reduced the country to
subjection.
This being effected Chaireddin turned his attention to the neighboring
state of Tunis, against which he prepared a powerful armament,
nominally for the purpose of reinstating its exiled prince Alraschid;
under this pretence, he easily gained the capital, which he instantly
declared to form a part of the Turkish empire. Alraschid died a
prisoner in Constantinople; but Muley Hascem, whom Barbarossa had
driven out, applied for assistance to Charles the fifth, which was
readily granted, and that emperor himself commanded the expedition
against Tunis. It appeared before the city on the 19th of July, 1535,
consisting of five hundred vessels, bearing thirty thousand veteran
troops. Barbarossa was not taken unawares, and the conflict was
terrible; the celebrated fortress of the Goletta, which commands the
entrance into the bay of Tunis, was defended with great bravery, by
Sinan a renegade Jew, but it soon fell before the artillery of the
fleet, and Tunis lay exposed. Chaireddin assembled his forces, and gave
battle to the invaders; but he was totally defeated, and the outbreak
of ten thousand christian captives from the prisons of the city,
increased the confusion; the Turkish army fled to Bona, and Tunis was
instantly stormed by the imperial troops. Muley Hascem was restored to
his throne, on terms most favorable to the christians; but in a few
years more, we find the Turkish power again established, and this
country continued to be governed by Pashas, from Constantinople, until
1684, when a certain Hassan-ben-Ali obtained sovereign possession, and
his family have ever since held the crown under the title of Bey,
paying however a tribute to the Sultan.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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