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

dated August 1810. 73 Despite that, the United States did not send stores until
July 1812. When the Alleghany, the ship that carried stores, arrived at Algiers,
the Dey sent for the bill of the load which Lear provided but “without affixing
the prices.” 74 Did he seek to conceal the exact amount of the cargo? Was he
obeying instructions from Washington? One should always keep in mind the
letter of Madison to O’Brien of 1801 which reserved the right for the United
States to retaliate in a ‘fit occasion.’ In all cases, the marine officials at Algiers,
while unloading, discovered that many stores from the order of 1810 were
missing. 75 According to Lear, in 1810 the marine of Algiers commanded “five
hundred quintals of gunpowder, and twenty-seven large cables, besides a very
large quantity of cordage and other articles” of which “only fifty small barrels
of gunpowder and four cables” were delivered in 1812. Liar justified the
insufficiency in those articles saying: “we did not make enough for our own
use in the United States.” 76 Matters could have stopped here had Lear did not
abuse the Dey again—like his predecessors.
The officials of the marine, to the disappointment of Lear, accidentally
came to know about the existence of other stores, including “gun barrels,”
which Lear said were meant for sale in Morocco and that at a time the
American consul was claiming that they were not making enough of them at
home. About that circumstance, Lear reported:
73 SPPD, 9:128, Extract of a Letter from Mr. Lear, Consul General at Algiers, to the Secretary of State,
July 29, 1812.
74 Ibid., 9:127.
75 Ibid., 9:126-27.
76 Ibid., 9:127.
356