ssession; latterly it belonged to the State of Algiers; but whether it
has yielded to the French or not we have no means of knowing. A French
schooner of eighteen guns seems to blockade the harbour. We show our
colours, and she displays hers, and then resumes her cruise, looking as
if she resumed her blockade. This would infer that the place is not yet
in French hands. However, we have in any event no business with Oran,
whether African or French. Bristol is a more important subject of
consideration, but I cannot learn there are papers on board. One or two
other towns we saw on this dreary coast, otherwise nothing but a hilly
coast covered with shingle and gum cistus.

_November_ 17.--In the morning we are off Algiers, of which Captain
Pigot's complaisance afforded a very satisfactory sight. It is built on
a sloping hill, running down to the sea, and on the water side is
extremely strong; a very strong mole or causeway enlarges the harbour,
by enabling them to include a little rocky island, and mount immense
batteries, with guns of great number and size. It is a wonder, in the
opinion of all judges, that Lord Exmouth's fleet was not altogether cut
to pieces. The place is of little strength to the land; a high turreted
wall of the old fashion is its best defence. When Charles V. attacked
Algiers, he landed in the bay to the east of the town, and marched
behind it. He afterwards reached what is still called the Emperor's
fort, a building more highly situated than any part of the town, and
commanding the wall which surrounds it. The Moors did not destroy this.
When Bourmont landed with the French, unlike Charles V., that general
disembarked to the westward of Algiers, and at the mouth of a small
river; he then marched into the interior, and, fetching a circuit,
presented himself on the northern side of the town. Here the Moors had
laid a simple stratagem for the destruction of the invading army. The
natives had conceived they would rush at once to the fort of the
Emperor, which they therefore mined, and expected to destroy a number of
the enemy by its explosion. This obvious device of war was easily
avoided, and General Bourmont, in possession of the heights, from which
Algiers is commanded, had no difficulty in making himself master of the
place. The French are said now to hold their conquests with difficulty,
owing to a general commotion among the Moorish chiefs, of whom the Bey
was the nominal sovereign. To make war on t