SIDI MEHEMET ON ALGERINE PIRACY.

Have these Erika considered the consequences of granting their petition? If we cease our cruises against the Christians, how shall we be furnished with the commodities their countries produce, and which are so necessary for us? If we forbear to make slaves of their people, who in this hot climate are to cultivate our lands? Who are to perform the common labors of our city and in our families? We have now above fifty thousand slaves in and near Algiers. This number, if not kept up by fresh supplies, will soon diminish, and be gradually annihilated. If we then cease taking and plundering the infidel ships, and making slaves of the seamen and passengers, our lands will become of no value for want of cultivation; the rents of houses in the city will sink one half; and the revenue of government arising from its share of prizes be totally destroyed! And for what? To gratify the whims of a whimsical sect who would have us not only forbear making more slaves, but even manumit those we have.

But who is to indemnify their masters for the loss? Will the State do it? Is our treasury sufficient? Will the Erika do it? Can they do it? And if we set our slaves free, what is to be done with them? Few of them will return to their countries; they know too well the greater hardships they must there be subject to. They will not embrace our holy religion; they will not adopt our manners; our people will not pollute themselves by intermarrying with them. Must we maintain them as beggars in our streets, or suffer our properties to be the prey of their pillage? For men accustomed to slavery will not work for a livelihood when not compelled.

And what is there so pitiable in their present condition? Were they not slaves in their own countries? Are not Spain, Portugal, France, and the Italian States governed by despots who hold their subjects in slavery without exception? Even England treats its sailors as slaves; for they are, whenever the government pleases, seized, and confined in ships of war; condemned not only to work, but to fight, for small wages or a mere subsistence, not better

than our slaves are allowed by us. Is their condition then made worse by falling into our hands? No; they have only exchanged one slavery for another, and, I may say, a better; for here they are brought into a land where the sun of Islamism gives forth its light, and shines in full splendor; and thus have an opportunity of making themselves acquainted with the true doctrine, and thereby saving their immortal souls. Sending the slaves home, then, would be sending them out of light into darkness.

I repeat the question, what is to be done with them? I have heard it suggested that they may be planted in the wilderness, where there is plenty of land for them to subsist on, and where they may flourish as a Free State. But they are, I doubt, too little disposed to labor without compulsion, as well as too ignorant to establish a good government; and the wild Arabs would soon molest and destroy or again enslave them. While serving us, we take care to provide them with everything, and they are treated with humanity. The laborers in their own country are, as I am well informed, worse fed, lodged, and clothed. The condition of most of them is therefore already mended, and requires no further improvement. Here their lives are in safety. They are not liable to be impressed for soldiers, and forced to cut one another's Christian throats, as in the wars of their own countries. If some of the religion-mad bigots, who now tease us with their silly petitions, have in a fit of blind zeal freed their slaves, it was not generosity, it was not humanity, that moved them to the action. It was from the conscious burthen of a load of sins, and a hope, from the supposed merits of so good a work, to be excused from damnation.

How grossly are they mistaken to suppose slavery to be disallowed by the Alcoran! Are not the two precepts to quote no more -"Masters, treat your slaves with kindness; Slaves, serve your masters with cheerfulness and fidelity," clear proofs to the contrary? Nor can the plundering of Infidels be in that sacred book forbidden; since it is well known from it that God has given the world, and all that it contains, to his faithful Mussulmans, who are to enjoy it of right as fast as they conquer it. Let

us then hear no more of this detestable proposition - the manumission of Christian slaves - the adoption of which would, by depreciating our lands and houses, and thereby depriving so many good citizens of their properties, create universal discontent, and provoke insurrections, to the endangering of government, and producing general confusion. I have, therefore, no doubt but this wise Council will prefer the comfort and happiness of a whole nation of True Believers to the whim of a few Erika, and dismiss their petition.

RASER, JAMES BAILLIE, a Scottish traveler and novelist; born at Reelick, Inverness-shire, June 11, 1783; died there in January, 1856. He was the eldest of four brothers, all of whom found their way to the Orient and earned distinction in one way or another. He was in 1836 sent on a diplomatic mission to Persia, making a remarkable horseback journey through Asia Minor to Teheran. His health having been impaired by his exposures, he retired to his estate in Scotland, where the remainder of his life was passed. He is said to have displayed great skill in water-colors. He also made some valuable astronomical observations during his journeyings in Asia. Among his numerous books of travels are Journal of a Tour Through Part of the Snowy Range of the Himalaya Mountains (1820); Narrative of a Journey Into Khorassan (1825); A Winter Journey from Constantinople to Teheran (1838); Travels in Koordistan and Mesopotamia (1840). He also wrote for "The Edinburgh Cabinet Library" The History of Mesopotamia and Assyria; and a History of Persia (1847.

The London Athenæum says his account of a winter journey from Constantinople to Teheran "can hardly be surpassed in lively delineations and rapid but graphic sketches."

A PERSIAN TOWN.

Viewed from a commanding situation, the appearance of a Persian town is most uninteresting; the houses, all of mud, differ in no respect from the earth in color, and, from the irregularity of their construction, resemble inequalities on its surface rather than human dwellings. The houses, even of the great, seldom exceed one story; and the lofty walls which shroud them from view, without a window to enliven them, have a most monotonous effect. There are few domes or minarets, and still fewer of those that exist are either splendid or elegant. There are no public buildings but the mosques and medresses; and these are often as mean as the rest, or perfectly excluded from view by ruins. The general coup d'ail presents a succession of flat roofs and long walls of mud, thickly interspersed with ruins; and the only relief to its monotony is found in the gardens adorned with chinar, poplars, and cypresses, with which the towns and villages are often surrounded and intermingled.

Mr. Fraser wrote The Kuzzilbash, a Tale of Khorassan (1828). The word Kuzzilbash means simply Red-head," and is used to designate a soldier; in 1830 he published a continuation of this novel under the title The Persian Adventurer.

MEETING OF WARRIORS IN THE DESERT.

By the time I reached the banks of this stream the sun had set, and it was necessary to seek some retreat where I might pass the night and refresh myself and my horse without fear of discovery. Ascending the river-bed, therefore, with this intention, I soon found a recess where

I could repose myself, surrounded by green pasture in which my horse might feed. Permitting him to pasture at will until dark, after a moderate meal, I commended myself to Allah and lay down to rest.

The loud neighing of my horse awoke me with a start, as the first light of dawn broke in the east. Quickly springing on my feet, and grasping my spear and scimitar, which lay under my head, I looked around for the cause of alarm. Nor did it long remain doubtful; for at the distance of scarce two hundred yards, I saw a single horseman advancing. Fitting an arrow to my bow, I placed myself upon guard, and examined him narrowly as he approached. He was a man of goodly stature and powerful frame; his countenance, hard, strongly marked, and furnished with a thick, black beard, bore testimony of exposure to many a blast, but it still preserved a prepossessing expression of good humor and benevolence. His turban, which was formed of a cashmere shawl, sorely gashed and torn, and twisted here and there with small steel chains, according to the fashion of the time, was wound round a red cloth cap that rose in four peaks high above the head. His oemah or riding coat, of crimson cloth, much stained and faded, opening at the bosom showed the links of a coat-of-mail which he wore below; a yellow shawl formed his girdle; his huge shulwars, or riding trousers, of thick fawn-colored Kerman woolen stuff, fell in folds over the large, red leather boots in which his legs were cased; by his side hung a crooked scimitar in a black leather scabbard, and from the holsters of his saddle peeped out the butt-ends of a pair of pistols - weapons of which I then knew not the use, any more than the matchlock which was slung at his back. He was mounted on a powerful but jaded horse, and appeared to have already traveled far.

When the striking figure had approached within thirty yards, I called out in the Turkish language, commonly used in the country: "Whosoever thou art, come no nearer on thy peril, or I shall salute thee with this arrow from my bow!" Why, boy," returned the stranger in a deep manly voice, and speaking in the same tongue, “thou art