
Algiers till the 29th August. The action had been on the 27th, and the
first objects seen on entering the bay were the still smoking wrecks
of the Algerine navy, and then the fleet of Lord Exmouth engaged in
repairing the injuries which it had sustained.

Admiral Penrose was cut to the quick by the slight put upon him, and
he wrote to remonstrate with the Admiralty, but received in reply only
a rebuke for expressing his indignation in a tone that the Admiralty
did not relish.

There is no need to attend Admiral Penrose in his cruises and visits
to the Ionian Islands, but his diary may be quoted relative to an
expedition made early in 1818, in company with Sir Thomas Maitland, to
visit Ali Pasha.

The history of this second Nero, with whom to our disgrace we entered
into alliance, and supplied with cannon and muskets, may be given in
brief.

Ali, surnamed Arslan, the Lion, was an Albanian born about the year
1741. His father, driven from his paternal mansion, placed himself at
the head of some bandits, surrounded the house in which were his
brothers, and burnt them in it alive. The mother of Ali, daughter of a
bey, was of a vindictive and ferocious character, and on the death of
her husband had the formation of the character of Ali in her hands,
and she inspired him with remorselessness, ambition, and subtlety. Ali
assisted the Sultan in the war with Russia, and was rewarded by being
created a pasha of two tails and governor of Tricala, in Thessaly.
Soon by means of intrigue and crime he obtained the pashalics of
Janina and Arta; then he was granted the government of Acharnania,
and, finding himself strong enough to do what he liked, he attacked
neighbouring provinces, and banished or put to death in them all the
Mussulman and Christian inhabitants whose goods he coveted, or who had
given him umbrage. Then he attacked the Christian Suliotes and
massacred them. Previsa and some other Christian towns on the coast
had belonged to the republic of Venice. In 1797 the Queen of the
Adriatic, having been overthrown by Bo