nations, but actually selected for their skill, experience and physical qualities. If she finds it necessary to increase the number of her vessels, they will be built with all the improve ments of modern naval architecture, and constructed after our own admirable models, for the express purpose of deciding forever the question of superiority. Wo then to the American who shall have relaxed his discipline, or suffered his skill to decline for want of exercise; for we confidently predict that the next struggle on the land and the ocean, will be more hard than the last-and the one after that, still harder. Three Punic wars decided forever the struggle between the greatest commercial state, and the most renowned of the ancient republics, and it will probably not take less to settle the great question, between the greatest commercial state, and the greatest republic of modern times.

ACCOUNT OF RAIS HAMMIDA,

THE LATE ALGERINE ADMIRAL:

Communicated principally by an American gentleman, who resided several years at Algiers, and was well acquainted with Rais Hammida.

RAIS HAMMIDA, the admiral of Algiers, who fell gallantly defending his ship, in the late action with commodore Decatur, was an Arab, of one of the tribes, or kabyles, of Berebbers, who inhabit the mountains of Atlas, north of the city of Morocco. They live principally in tents, are hardy, nervous, robust, and capable of great abstinence and fatigue. Their language is said to differ entirely from the Arabic, which is the general dialect of Africa, and is supposed to be derived from the ancient Carthaginian. Mr. James Grey Jackson, who travelled among the Berebber kabyles of Ait Imure, and Zemure Sholluh, says that he noticed among them a great many physiognomies that were purely Roman.

The usual occupation of these people is husbandry, and they make vast quantities of honey and wax, which they dis

pose of in the commercial towns. Being active, hardy, acute and enterprising, the young men often come down to the cities to seek their fortunes, where the pride and indolence of the Moors secure them employment. In this pursuit Rais Hammida came to Algiers when quite a boy, and either choice or accident threw him on board an Algerine cruiser, in which he made his first essay on the element whose dangers and hardships seem to give a hardihood and fearlessness to the human mind, that is not generated in any other sphere of life. The particulars of his early career, and the gradual development of his character and talents, are not known to us, for in Algiers they have neither newspapers nor chronicles to acquaint the people with passing events, and preserve the memory of gallant actions. The fashionable doctrine of the east, is that those who can read will find the elements of all human knowledge in the Koran, and the khalif Omar gave a practical illustration of this great precept, when he set on fire the Alexandrian library. Another fashionable axiom is, that the people ought to know nothing of the administration of the government, except through the medium of the single sense of feeling, by which they are from time to time reminded that they have a master. Of this master they are exceedingly fond, and it is inconceivable with what contempt they treat people who have no bashaw, or bey, to tickle them now and then with the bowstring, or fine them for being rich, when they have no business to be so. They resemble those horses, who are said to be proud of their riders, and value themselves, not on their own strength, beauty or swiftness, but solely on account of the dignity they carry on their backs. Men indeed must have something to be proud of, and the sources of that gratification are so various and whimsical, that we sometimes see nations valuing themselves on the glory of a tyrant, whose reputation is acquired at the price of their own blood, and pointing the attention of the stranger to the splendours of a court, the luxuries of which are bought with their daily bread, and daily toils. Two poor slaves were once disputing about

the dignity of their masters, and the preference was at last accorded to the master who whipped the most often, and was of course the greatest man.

The Arabian boy, Rais Hammida, was perhaps about seventeen when he made his first cruise, and soon became distinguished among the lazy Algerines, for his talents and enterprising spirit. By rapid steps he attained to the command of a frigate, and in the year 1801 took a Portuguese frigate of equal or superior force to his own, which had been fitted out expressly to cruise against the Algerines. The Portuguese was boarded and carried without the loss of a single man on the part of the infidels, while that of the Portuguese was upwards of seventy killed and wounded. People easily find excuses for being beaten, as we know by late experience, and the Portuguese alleged that they were taken by surprise, though the affair happened about noonday. It is certain that the Portuguese had been the day before in company with an American frigate bound to Tripoli, and supposing the Algerine to be the same, made no preparation for defence until it was too late. Whether taken by surprise or not, is, however, of little consequence in lessening the glory of Rais Hammida, or the disgrace of his enemies. To be taken by surprise, at such a time and in such a situation, is almost as disgraceful as to be guilty of cowardice, and the boldness of the attempt is not diminished on the part of Rais by these circumstances; because he could not have anticipated the negligence of his enemy. The capture of this vessel affords no ground of triumph to a brave man, however we may consider it; for both the Spanish and Portuguese naval establishments have, for a long time, been on the worst possible footing. Their outfits are altogether deficient, their officers generally without experience, as happened to be the case in the instance we have just mentioned, where the captain of the frigate, as we have been assured by a Portuguese gentleman, was then for the second time in his life at sea, and the men for the most part entirely destitute of a knowledge of even the rudiments of the profes

sion. The impressments of these two nations are not like those of England, confined to seamen, but extend to every vagabond of the streets, who is hurried on board and carried to sea, utterly destitute of every habit and qualification of a sailor. It is a fact well known at Cadiz, and supported by the testimony of half the city, that at the battle of Trafal gar, a great portion of the Spanish sailors, as they are called, were sea-sick. It is evident, therefore, that victories over such enemies are no ground for extraordinary exultation; and we should not have thought of giving Rais Hammida credit for this affair, if greater, than he had not assumed such triumphs as a foundation for the most arrogant presumption. Among the Lilliputians Gulliver was a giant; among the natives of Brobdignag, he was a dwarf. Such is the way of the world: the same man may be a giant among dwarfs, and a dwarf among giants, and be relatively great or small according to the size of his rivals or his associates.

In the year 1810, we find Rais Hammida admiral of Algiers; but how he got to be so, history does not tell. In this situation, however, he again signalized his boldness in the presence of his old enemy the Portuguese. In the summer of that year he went into the Atlantic with three frigates, and cruised for some time off the rock of Lisbon, where he took several valuable prizes. The Portuguese, who always kept a force in the bay of Gibraltar,* determined to intercept him on his return through the straits, and on his approach put to sea with a ship of the line and three heavy frigates. The Algerines passed the bay of Gibraltar under easy sail, and when they saw the Portuguese ships coming out, hove to off Europa

* The Arabians call Gibraltar (says Mr. Jackson) Jibbel-traf, that is to say the mountain of the part of El-Garb. The explanation of the name is this: El-Garb signifies the west, and is the westernmost province of the empire of Morocco. There is a tradition among the Arabs, that the rock of Gibraltar and cape Trafalgar, which they call Traf-al-Garb, were formerly parts of and united to the province of El-Garb, which extended across, thus shutting up the Mediterranean, whose waters flowed into the Atlantic through a subterranean passage.

Point with a view to offer them battle. One of the Portuguese ships, commanded by an Englishman of the name of Thompson, bore down on the Algerines, and gave them a broadside, but was immediately called off by signal from the admiral. The two squadrons lay some time looking at each other, and the Portuguese finally returned to Gibraltar, while the Algerines quietly passed up the Mediterranean, where they cruised some time without molestation, before they returned to Algiers. When the engagement between the two squadrons was supposed to be about to take place, the inhabitants and garrison of Gibraltar, flocked to Europa Point in expectation of the event, and while they admired the boldness of Rais Hammida, in offering battle to a force so greatly superior, expressed their disgust at the conduct of the Portuguese admiral. He was afterwards tried at Lisbon, and it is understood was acquitted with high compliments to his exemplary gallantry in looking at a superior enemy. ›

In the war between Algiers and Tunis, which still continues, Rais Hammida distinguished himself as usual by his boldness and activity. He scoured the coasts of the enemy, blockaded his ports, and occasionally made descents and attacked his smaller towns, by which means he became the terror of the Tunisians. In 1811 he fell in with and captured the Tunisian admiral in a frigate of thirty-two guns, after a sharp action. Rais Hammida, however, did not claim any credit for this victory; because the Tunisian fleet deserted its admiral on the approach of the Algerines; and although Rais forbade the other vessels of his squadron to come near while he engaged alone, yet, as his ship was superior to her opponent, and he considered the presence of the other ships as calculated to discourage resistance, he never plumed himself on this affair. We cannot help wishing that other nations would take example from this mountain Arab, and refrain from the disingenuous artifice of ascribing victories to a single ship, that were gained by a squadron.