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

etired to the comfort of the house provided by the Dey. 60 Donaldson was so
arrogant, avaricious, and nasty to his interlocutors (Dey, foreign diplomats, and
American captives) that at a moment negotiations reached the brink of rupture.
To his threat of departing from Algiers if the price would not be lowered to his
desire—that far, the Dey’s first proposal had already been cut to less than half--
the Dey who was exacerbated and exhausted, Cathcart recounted:
desired me to embark the Ambassador on board the vessel he came in
the next morning at daylight, and tell him to leave the Regency without
delay, as he would permit no person to remain here to trifle with him as
he had done. 61
But at length an agreement was reached. To Cathcart, his long
experience and understanding of Algerian politics saved the day. The Dey,
however, was of a different opinion; he was conscious that the Americans were
deceitful or “know how to gabber” as he put it, 62 but he reasoned to Cathcart
“should I now reject your terms and send your Ambassador away, your
enemies would rejoice and you would become the laughing stock of all the
Consuls and Franks in Algiers.” 63 This attitude is clearly indicative of a keen
inclination of Algiers for a peace with the United States that’s why, the Dey
accepted to lower the global price for treaty and ransom from $2,247,000 to
$585,000. The agreement included too the payment of “annuity in stores” and
60 For the full account about negotiations see Cathcart, The Captives, pp. 157-95.
61 Cathcart, The Captives, p. 179. The Dey’s initial proposal amounted to $2,247,000; Donaldson
answered by the offer of $543,000 for peace and the ransom of captives. Allegedly, the reason which
incited the Dey to put the bar so high was that the Spanish consul had set him a Spanish newspaper that
calculated U.S. exports to be $28 million. For more se, Michael L. S. Kitzen, Tripoli and the United
States at War: A History of American Relations with the Barbary States, 1785-1805 (North Carolina/
London: McFarland & Company, Inc., 1993), p. 19.
62 Gabber, in Lingua Franca—that mixture of a number of Mediterranean languages—is a distortion of
the Italian word gabbare, meaning to cheat and deceive. Corré, “Glossary of Lingua Franca.”
63 Cathcart, The Captives, p. 184.
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