The Algerine Captive

by TYLER, ROYALLCRAIN, CALEB

• ISBN13: 9780375760341
• ISBN10: 0375760342
• Format: Trade Paper
• Copyright: 2002-07-09
• Publisher: Modern Library

Summary

A predecessor of both the nativist humor of Mark Twain and the exotic adventure stories of Washington Irving, Herman Melville, and Richard Dana, Royall Tyler'sThe Algerine Captiveis an entertaining romp through eighteenth-century society, a satiric look at a variety of American types, from the backwoods schoolmaster to the southern gentleman, and a serious expose of the horrors of the slave trade. "In stylistic purity and the clarity with which Tyler investigates and dramatizes American manners," the critic Jack B. Moore has noted,The Algerine Captive"stands alone in our earliest fiction." It is also one of the first attempts by an American novelist to depict the Islamic world, and lays bare a culture clash and diplomatic quagmire not unlike the one that obtains between the United States and Muslim nations today.

Author Biography

<b>Caleb Crain</b> is the author of <i>American Sympathy: Men, Friendship, and Literature in the New Nation</i>. He lives in Brooklyn.

Table of Contents

Biographical Note	v
List of Illustrations	xv
Introduction	xvii
Caleb Crain
A Note on the Text	xxxv
THE ALGERINE CAPTIVE
Dedication	3	(2)
Preface	5	(6)
Volume I
The Author giveth an Account of his gallant Ancestor, Captain John Underhill, his Arrival in Massachusetts, and Persecution by the first Settlers	11	(5)
The Author rescueth from Oblivion a valuable Manuscript Epistle, reflecting great Light on the Judicial Procedings, in the first Settlement of Massachusetts: Apologizeth for the Persecutors of his Ancestor	16	(4)
Captain Underhill seeks Shelter in Dover in New Hampshire: Is chosen Governour by the Settlers: Driven by the pious Zeal of his Persecutors to seek Shelter in Albany: Reception among the Dutch: Exploits in the Indian Wars: Grant of a valuable Tract of Land: The Author anticipates his encountering certain Land Speculators in Hartford: A Taste of the Sentiments of those Gentlemen: Farther account of his Ancestors	20	(2)
The Author's Birth, and a remarkable Dream of his Mother. Observations on foreboding Dreams: The Author reciteth a Dream of Sir Willam Phipps, Governour of Massachusetts, and refereth small Infidels to Mather's Magnalia	22	(2)
The Author is placed at a private School: Parental Motives to a College Education: Their design frustrated by family Misfortune	24	(3)
This Chapter containeth an Eulogy on the Greek Tongue	27	(3)
The Author keepth a country School: The Anticipations, Pleasures and Profits of a Pedagogue	30	(5)
A sure Mode of discovering the Bent of a young Man's Genius	35	(2)
The Author commences the Study of Physic, with a celebrated Physician and Occulist: A Philosophical Detail of the Operation of Couching for the Gutta Serena, by his Preceptor, upon a young Man, born Blind	37	(6)
Anecdotes of the celebrated Doctor Moyes	43	(2)
The Author spouteth Greek, in a Sea Port: Its Reception among the Polite: He attempteth an Ode, in the Stile of the Antients	45	(2)
The Author in imminent Danger of his Life in a Duel	47	(6)
The Author is happy, in the Acquaintance of a Learned Lady	53	(2)
The Author quitteth the Study of Gallantry, for that of Physic: He eulogiseth the Greek Tongue, and complimenteth the Professors of Cambridge, Yale, and Dartmouth; and giveth a gentle Hint to careless Readers	55	(2)
The Author panegyrizes his Preceptor	57	(2)
Doctor Underhill visiteth Boston, and maketh no Remarks	59	(1)
The Author inspects the Museum at Harvard College: Account of the Wonderful Curiosities, Natural and Artificial, he saw there	60	(2)
The Author mounteth his Nag, and setteth out, full Speed, to seek Practice, Fame, and Fortune, as a Country Practitioner	62	(2)
The Author encountereth Folly, Ignorance, Impudence, Imbecility, and Quacks: The Characters of a Learned, a Cheap, a Safe, and a Musical Doctor	64	(3)
Sketch of an Hereditary Doctor, and a Literary Quack: Critical Operation in Surgery	67	(4)
A Medical Consultation	71	(3)
Disappointed in the North, the Author seeketh Treasure in the South	74	(1)
Anecdotes of Doctor Benjamin Franklin, whom the Author visits in Philadelphia	75	(4)
Religious Exercises in a Southern State	79	(3)
Success of the Doctor's southern Expedition: He is in Distress: Contemplates a School: Prefers a Surgeon's Birth, on board a Ship, bound to Africa, Via London	82	(3)
London	85	(2)
The Author passeth by the Lions in the Tower, and the other Insignia of British Royalty, and seeth a greater Curiosity, called thomas Paine, Author of the Rights of Man: Description of his Person, Habit, and Manners: In this Chapter due meed is rendered to a great American Historical Painter, and a prose Monody over our lack of the Fine Arts	87	(2)
Curious Argument, between Thomas Paine and the noted Peter Pindar: Peter setteth a Wit Noose, and catcheth Thomas, in one of his own Logic Traps	89	(2)
Reasonable Conjectures upon the Motives, which induced Thomas Paine to write that little book, called the Age of Reason	91	(2)
The Author sails for the Coast of Africa: Manner of purchasing Negro Slaves	93	(4)
Treatment of the Slaves, on board the Ship	97	(6)
The Author taken Captive by the Algerines	103	(8)
Volume II
The Author is carried into Algiers: Is brought before the Dey: Description of his Person, Court and Guards: Manner of selecting the Tenth Prisoner	111	(4)
The Slave Market	115	(3)
The Author Dreameth Whilst Awake	118	(3)
Account of my Master Abdel Melic: description of his House, Wife, Country House, and Severe Treatment of his Slaves	121	(4)
The Author is encountered by a Renegado: Struggles between Faith, the World, the Flesh, and the Devil	125	(3)
The Author is carried to the sacred College of the Mussulman Priest: The Mortifications and Austerities of the Mahometan Recluse. The Mussulman mode of Proselyting	128	(3)
The Author confereth with a Mollah or Mahometan Priest: Defendeth the Verity of the Christian Creed, and resigns his Body to Slavery, to preserve the Freedom of his Mind	131	(6)
The Language of the Algerines	137	(2)
The Author plans an Escape	139	(3)
The Author present at a Public Spectacle	142	(2)
The Author feels that he is indeed a Slave	144	(2)
The Infirmary	146	(2)
The Author's Practice as a Surgeon and Physician, in the City of Algiers	148	(3)
Visits a sick Lady	151	(3)
Sketch of the History of the Algerines	154	(9)
Description of the City of Algiers	163	(2)
The Government of the Algerines	165	(2)
Revenue	167	(2)
The Dey's Forces	169	(2)
Notices of the Habits, Customs, &c. of the Algerines	171	(2)
Marriages and Funerals	173	(3)
The Religion of the Algerines: Life of the Prophet Mahomet	176	(4)
The Sects of Omar and Ali	180	(2)
The Faith of the Algerines	182	(2)
Why do not the Powers in Europe suppress the Algerine Depredations? is a Question frequently asked in the United States	184	(4)
An Algerine Law Suit	188	(3)
A Mahometan Sermon	191	(3)
Of the Jews	194	(3)
The Arrival of other American Captives	197	(3)
The Author commences Acquaintance with Adonah Ben Benjamin, a Jew	200	(6)
The Author, by Permission of his Master, travels to Medina, the burial Place of the Prophet Mahomet	206	(6)
The Author is blessed with the Sight and Touch of a most holy Mahometan Saint	212	(2)
The Author visits the City of Medina: Description of the Prophet's Tomb, and principal Mosque	214	(2)
The Author Visits Mecca: Description of the Al Kaaba, or House of God	216	(2)
The Author returns to Scandaroon: Finds Adonah's Son sick: His Contrition: Is restored to Health	218	(2)
The Gratitude of a Jew	220	(4)
Conclusion	224	(3)
Notes	227

Excerpts

Preface

One of the first observations, the author of the following sheets made, upon his return to his native country, after an absence of seven years, was the extreme avidity, with which books of mere amusement were purchased and perused by all ranks of his country- men. When he left New England, books of Biography, Travels, Novels, and modern Romances, were confined to our sea ports; or, if known in the country, were read only in the families of Clergymen, Physicians, and Lawyers: while certain funeral discourses, the last words and dying speeches of Bryan Shaheen, and Levi Ames, and some dreary somebody’s Day of Doom, formed the most diverting part of the farmer’s library. On his return from captivity, he found a surprising alteration in the public taste. In our inland towns of consequence, social libraries had been instituted, composed of books, designed to amuse rather than to instruct; and country booksellers, fostering the new born taste of the people, had filled the whole land with modern Travels, and Novels almost as incredible. The diffusion of a taste, for any species of writing, through all ranks, in so short a time, would appear impracticable to a European. The peasant of Europe must first be taught to read, before he can acquire a taste in letters. In New England, the work is half completed. In no other country are there so many people, in proportion to its numbers, who can read and write; and therefore, no sooner was a taste for amusing literature diffused than all orders of country life, with one accord, forsook the sober sermons and Practical Pieties of their fathers, for the gay stories and splendid impieties of the Traveller and the Novelist. The worthy farmer no longer fatigued himself with Bunyan’s Pilgrim up the “hill of difficulty” or through the “slough of despond;” but quaffed wine with Brydone in the hermitage of Vesuvius, or sported with Bruce on the fairy land of Abysinia: while Dolly, the dairy maid, and Jonathan, the hired man, threw aside the ballad of the cruel stepmother, over which they had so often wept in concert, and now amused themselves into so agreeable a terrour, with the haunted houses and hobgobblins of Mrs. Ratcliffe, that they were both afraid to sleep alone.

While this love of literature, however frivolous, is pleasing to the man of letters, there are two things to be deplored. The first is that, while so many books are vended, they are not of our own manufacture. If our wives and daughters will wear gauze and ribbands, it is a pity, they are not wrought in our own looms. The second misfortune is that Novels, being the picture of the times, the New England reader is insensibly taught to admire the levity, and often the vices of the parent country. While the fancy is enchanted, the heart is corrupted. The farmer’s daughter, while she pities the misfortune of some modern heroine, is exposed to the attacks of vice, from which her ignorance would have formed her surest shield. If the English Novel does not inculcate vice, it at least impresses on the young mind an erroneous idea of the world, in which she is to live. It paints the manners, customs, and habits of a strange country; excites a fondness for false splendour; and renders the homespun habits of her own country disgusting.

There are two things wanted, said a friend to the author: that we write our own books of amusement, and that they exhibit our own manners. Why then do you not write the history of your own life? The first part of it, if not highly interesting, would at least display a portrait of New England manners, hitherto unattempted. Your captivity among the Algerines, with some notices of the manners of that ferocious race, so dreaded by commercial powers, and so little known in our country, would be interesting; and I see no advantage the Novel writer can have over you, unless your readers should be of the sentiment of the young lady, mentioned by Addison in his Spectator,6 who, he informs us, borrowed Plutarch’s lives; and, after reading the first volume, with infinite delight, supposing it to be a Novel, threw aside the others with disgust, because a man of letters had inadvertently told her, the work was founded on fact.

Volume I

Chapter I.   
Think of this, good Sirs, But as a thing of custom—’tis no other, Only it spoils the pleasure of the time. Shakespeare. Argument.

The Author giveth an Account of his gallant Ancestor, Captain John Underhill, his Arrival in Massachusetts, and Persecution by the first Settlers.

I derive my birth from one of the first emigrants to New England, being lineally descended from Captain John Underhill, who came into the Massachusetts in the year one thousand six hundred and thirty; of whom honourable mention is made by that elegant, accurate, and interesting historian, the Reverend Jeremy Belknap, in his History of New Hampshire.

My honoured ancestor had early imbibed an ardent love of liberty, civil and religious, by his service as a soldier among the Dutch, in their glorious and successful struggle for freedom, with Philip the second of Spain; when, though quite a youth, he held a commission in the Earl of Leicester’s own troop of guards, who was then sent to the assistance of that brave people, by the renowned Queen Elizabeth of England.

The extravagant passion, which that princess was supposed to entertain for various male favourites, which occasioned the disgrace of one, and the premature death of another, while it has furnished a darling theme to the novelist, and has been wept over in the tragic scene, has never yet received the sober sanction of the historian.

A traditional family anecdote, while it places the affection of the queen for Leicester beyond doubt, may not be unpleasing to the learned reader, and may benefit the English historiographer.

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Excerpted from The Algerine Captive: Or, the Life and Adventures of Doctor Updike Underhill by Royall Tyler
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