and curious, such as the armory, furnished with weapons of every kind, of the finest manufacture, and in the greatest abundance, the treasury, containing not only a profusion of the precious metals, coined or in ingots, but also diamonds, pearls, rubies, and other precious stones of great value; and lastly, the store rooms of immense extent, in which were piled up the richest silk stuffs, velvets, brocades, together with wool, wax, sugar, iron, lead, sabre-blades, gun barrels, and all the different productions of the Algerine territories; for the Dey was not only the first robber but the first merchant in his own dominions.

Next to the Cassaubah, the mole with the marine forts, presented the handsomest and most imposing pile of buildings.  The mole is no less than one thousand three hundred feet in length, forming a beautiful terrace walk, supported by arches, beneath which lay splendid magazines, which the French found filled with spars, hemp, cordage, cables, and all manner of marine stores.  At the extremity of the mole, lay the barracks of the Janissaries, entrusted with the defence of the marine forts, and consisting of several small separate chambers, in which they each slept on sheepskin mats, while in the centre was a handsome coffee-room.  The Bagnios were the buildings, in which Europeans for a long time felt the most interest, inasmuch as it was in these that the Christian slaves taken by the corsairs were confined.  For many years previous to the French invasion, however, the number of prisoners had been so trifling, that many of these terrific buildings had fallen to decay, and presented, when the French army entered Algiers, little more than piles of mouldering ruins.  The inmates of the Bagnio when taken by the French were the crews of two French brigs, which a short time before had been wrecked off Cape Bingut, a few French prisoners of war made during their advance, and about twenty Greek, and Genoese sailors, who had been there for two years; in all about one hundred and twenty.  They represented their condition as bad, though by no means so deplorable as it would have been in former days.  The prison was at first so close, that there was some danger of suffocation, to avoid which the Turks had made holes in the walls; but as they neglected to supply these with windows or shutters of any kind, there was no means of excluding wind or rain, from which consequently they often suffered.

[Illustration:  On board an Algerine corsair.]

We shall only trace these pirates back to about the year 1500, when Selim, king of Algiers, being invaded by the Spaniards, at last entreated the assistance of the famous corsair, Oruj Reis, better known by his European name, Barbarossa, composed of two Italian words, signifying red beard.  Nothing could be more agreeable than the number and hardihood of his naval exploits, had been such an invitation to this ambitious robber, who elated by for some time considering how he might best establish his power by land.  Accordingly, attended by five thousand picked men, he entered Algiers, made himself master of the town, assassinated Selim, and had himself proclaimed king in his stead; and thus was established that nest of pirates, fresh swarms from which never ceased to annoy Christian commerce and enslave Christian mariners, until its late final destruction, by the French expedition in 1830.