Ottoman Algeria in Western Diplomatic History with ... - Bibliothèque

O’Brien letter supported the Swedish view and reported also that the Dey had
declined to receive Humphreys after Bassara made an application for it.
According to O’Brien, the Dey answered him “very abruptly that he would not
make the peace with America” and that “when he wanted the Americans for
nearly two years to make the peace they would not give him an answer, which
was treating him and his people with indifference.” 25 Therefore, one is inclined
to say that the Dey could not have charged Bassara with whatsoever after he
rejected his demand for receiving Humphreys.
It is not improbable that the Bacris were behind that unfriendly position
of the Dey and Bassara knew it; so he might have decided to short-circuit his
rivals by intervening directly with his clients the Americans, hence
Skjoldebrand’s above mentioned allegation. Considering how complications
smoothed suddenly two years later after the Swedes transferred American
business from Bassara to Bacri, one may deduce that the Dey’s refusal to
receive the American envoy—even if the latter had already changed his mind
about the visit and departed from Alicante—was but one of those countless
intrigues of the Jews. Dey Hassan Pasha had always been favorable to a peace
treaty with the United States and he had waited too long for that. 26
1. 2. The Algiers-Portugal Truce, 1793
The Jews, however, were not the only plotters to battle for influence and
privileges at Algiers; the most notorious among them remained the British.
25 ASP/FA, 1:416, Captain O’Brien to D, Humphreys, Esq, November, 12, 1793.
26 Ibid., 1:418, Captain O’Brien to the President of United States, November 5, 1793.
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