The Virginia Gazette

May 30. We have already given an Account of the Miseries which the poor British Slaves suffered in Barbary, under the Emperor Muley Abdallah; but however shocking and inhuman those might appear, they seem tolerable and almost merciful, when compared to the excessive Cruelties they suffered under the Predecessor of Muley Abdallah, as related by Mr. Thomas Pellow of Penryn, a very creditable Witness, who was a Captive in Barbary twenty-three Years.

By him we are informed, they were often harnessed in Carts with Mules and Asses; that their Lodgings at Night were subterraneous Dungeons three Fathoms deep, covered at Top with an Iron Gate, their daily Subsistence nothing but a small Quantity of black Barley Meal, and a little Oil:

That the Emperor one Day passing by a high Wall, on which were many at work, and being displeased that they did not keep Time in their Strokes, as he expected they should, ordered his Guards to go up and throw them all off the Walls, breaking their Legs and Arms, and knocking them on the Head in a miserable Manner:

Another Time he ordered them to bury a Man alive, and beat him down along with the Mortar into the Wall:

That having ordered them to pull down a Part of a City which was too nigh his Seraglio, he used (as a Diversion which he seemed to take a Pleasure in) to order his Guard to drive great Numbers of them under the Walls, which were quite undermined and just ready to fall, that they might be buried in the Ruins; with many other astonishing Acts of Cruelty.