Bona massacre, of which at that time he had not heard.
The demands, therefore, which he had made with some misgiving were now highly approved, and it was resolved that they should be repeated to the barbarians in the thunder of artillery.
A member of the House of Commons, stirred to indignation by the news from Bona, got up and moved for copies of Lord Exmouth's treaties with Algiers for Naples and Sardinia, and all correspondence connected therewith. He strongly condemned the principle of treating at all with states which presumed to hold their captives up to ransom, as by so doing virtual acknowledgment was made that these pirates had a right to commit their outrages. He was given to understand, he said, that the Dey, pressed by dissatisfied Algerines for limiting their sphere of plunder, had pacified them by assuring them that a wide field of plunder was still left! Treaties of peace made with them by some states had only the effect of turning their piracies into other channels, as was already beginning to be felt by the Roman states. He then described the wretched condition of the slaves. He cited one instance, namely, that out of three hundred slaves fifty had died from bad treatment on the day of their arrival, and seventy more during the first fortnight. The rest were allowed only one pound of black bread
