The expedition against Algiers was followed, in 1637, by another, under the command of Captain Rainsborough, against Sallee, in Morocco. At his approach, the Moors desperately transferred a thousand captives, British subjects, to Tunis and Algiers. "Some Christians, that were slaves ashore, stole away out of the towne, and came swimming aboard."[34] Intestine feud also aided the fleet, and the cause of emancipation speedily triumphed. Two hundred and ninety British captives were surrendered; and a promise was extorted from the government of Sallee to redeem the wretched captives, sold away to Tunis and Algiers. An ambassador from the King of Morocco shortly afterwards visited England, and, on his way through the streets of London, to his audience at court, was attended "by four Barbary horses led along in rich caparisons, and richer saddles, with bridles set with stones; also some hawks; _many of the captives whom he brought over going along afoot clad in white_."[35] [Footnote 34: Osborne's Voyages--Journal of the Sallee Fleet, vol. ii. p. 493. See also Mrs. Macaulay's History of England, vol. ii. chap. 4, p. 219.] [Footnote 35: Strafford's Letter and Despatches, vol. ii. pp. 86, 116, 129.] The importance attached to this achievement may be inferred from the singular joy with which it was hailed in England. Though on a limited scale, it had been a _war of liberation_. The poet, the ecclesiastic, and the statesman now joined in congratulations on its results. It inspired the muse of Waller to a poem called _The Taking of Sallee_, in which the submission of the slaveholding enemy is thus described:-- Hither he sends the chief among his peers, Who in his bark proportioned presents bears, To the renowned for piety and force _Poor captives manumised_, and matchless horse. It satisfied Laud, and filled with exultation the dark mind of Strafford. "Sallee, the town, is taken," said the Archbishop in a letter to the latter, then in Ireland, "and all the captives at Sallee and Morocco delivered; _as many, our merchants say, as, according to the price of the markets, come to ten thousand pounds, at least_."[36] Strafford saw in the popularity of this triumph a fresh opportunity to commend the tyrannical designs of his master, Charles the First. "This action of Sallee," he wrote in reply to the Archbishop, "I assure you is full of honor, and should, methinks, _help much towards the ready cheerful payment of the shipping moneys_."[37] [Footnote 36: Strafford's Letters and Despatches, vol. ii. p. 131.] [Footnote 37: Ibid. p. 138.] [Illustration]