Even the non-resistance of Quakers, animated by a zeal for freedom, contrived to baffle these slave dealers. A ship in the charge of people of this sect became the prey of the Algerines; and the curious story is told with details, unnecessary to mention here, of the effective manner in which the ship was subsequently recaptured by the crew without loss of life. To complete this triumph, the slave pirates were safely landed on their own shores, and allowed to go their way in peace, acknowledging with astonishment and gratitude this new application of the Christian injunction to do good to them that hate you. Charles the Second, learning from the master, on his return, that "he had been taken by the Turks, and redeemed himself without fighting," and that he had subsequently let his enemies go free, rebuked him, saying, with the spirit of a slave dealer, "You have done like a fool, for you might have had a good gain for them." And to the mate he said, "You should have brought the Turks to me." "_I thought it better for them to be in their own country_" was the Quaker's reply.[75] [Footnote 75: Sewell's History of the Quakers, pp. 392-397.] [Illustration] In the current of time other instances occurred. A letter from Algiers, dated August 6, 1772, and preserved in the British Annual Register, furnishes the following story:[76] "A most remarkable escape," it says, "of some Christian prisoners has lately been effected here, which will undoubtedly cause those that have not had that good fortune to be treated with utmost rigor. On the morning of the 27th July, the Dey was informed that all the Christian slaves had escaped the over-night in a galley; this news soon raised him, and, upon inquiry, it was found to have been a preconcerted plan. About ten at night, seventy-four slaves, who had found means to escape from their masters, met in a large square near the gate which opens to the harbor, and, being well armed, they soon forced the guard to submit, and, to prevent their raising the city, confined them all in the powder magazine. They then proceeded to the lower part of the harbor, where they embarked on board a large rowing polacre that was left there for the purpose, and, the tide ebbing out, they fell gently down with it, and passed both the forts. As soon as this was known, three large galleys were ordered out after them, but to no purpose. They returned in three days, with the news of seeing the polacre sail into Barcelona, where the galleys durst not go to attack her." [Footnote 76: Vol. xv. p. 130.] [Illustration]