There were two schools of thought within the divan: the doves were led by Aga Mahomet, who liked Bruce and realized that challenging the British was not a very safe course of action even if he did suspect that the consul was all bluster and no bellows. The Dey himself, with the backing of the mob, was hawkish. The merchants in the European community at Algiers were also less than helpful, having been manipulated by the embezzler Cruise, and soon Bruce was mired in trouble. In May 1764, Bruce had asked leave to resign and been turned down: he could therefore not be dismissed. In June the Dey pricked Bruce’s pride and gave him the impetus to carry on. The Dey, Bruce was informed, had appointed a slave to act as British consul and had sent a pithy missive to Mr Pitt in which he insisted that Bruce be replaced: ‘Your consul in Algiers is an obstinate person and like a b—; and does not regard your affairs,’ it said.
Bruce dared not walk the streets, and the Foreign Office, preoccupied with rather more important matters, gave him no guidance. In July the situation became worse when the Dey announced that all British shipping would now be subject to pillage and the crews enslaved. Bruce managed to get messages to the other ports in the Mediterranean, warning British merchants not to approach Algiers, but it was too late for one ship. He wrote to Halifax, pleading for instruction:
This morning early, the master of the above-mentioned vessel, and the supercargo, were carried before the Dey, and in order to extort a confession if they had secreted any effects, were bastinadoed over the feet and loins in such a manner that the blood gushed out, and then loaded with heavy chains: The captain, it is thought, cannot recover. I have likewise received from a friend some insinuations, that I am in danger and advice to fly; but as it was not the prospect of pay, or want of fortune, that induced me to accept of this employment, so will I not abandon it from fears or any motives unworthy a gentleman. One brother has this war already had the honour of dying in his Majesty’s service [Robert Wood had told Bruce in a letter to Horace Mann’s consulate at Leghorn that ‘I am sorry to acquaint you that Mr Bruce died of his wounds at Havanna’], two more are still in it, and all I hope is, if any accident befall me, as is hourly probable, his Majesty will be favourable to the survivors of a family that has always served him faithfully.
Still no word came from Whitehall despite repeated letters in which Bruce called for task forces to be dispatched and a decision to be made about the new passavants. A month later, on 15 August, the Dey ordered Bruce to leave on pain of death, no idle threat in a state where the prime minister had been strangled in front of Bruce on the orders of the divan and consuls of less favoured countries were often whipped and made to pull carts through the streets.
Bruce was, however, soon restored to his post. The consul’s bluster combined with Aga Mahomet’s lobbying on his behalf produced a change of heart in the divan. Aga Mahomet was not convinced by Bruce’s threats but he was aware that the city state was vulnerable to attack from the powerful British Navy and convinced the allies of the danger.
After their prayers, the whole of the great officers went to the king, and openly declared to him that the dismissing of me was a matter of too great consequence to be determined without their consent; all of them put him in mind of the constant good behaviour of the English, and of their inability to resist our force, and the impossibility of thinking of peace after I was gone.
In September Bruce received a letter from Halifax commending him on his conduct of the crisis. With better communications, the proud diplomat would undoubtedly have been fired for putting such an important trading route in jeopardy but instead he managed to save his skin – literally – and solve the problem before he could be dismissed. Halifax would allow Bruce to resign as soon as a replacement could be found and the relationship between the two could remain cordial, even affectionate. Halifax went so far as to write the letter himself rather than dictating to a secretary.
I cannot close my letter without giving you the satisfaction of knowing, that the prudent and judicious manner in which you have conducted yourself throughout the whole of the disagreeable circumstances you relate in your several letters, and the measures you took to prevent the ill consequences that might have resulted from them, have met with the king’s gracious approbation; and it is not doubted but you will continue to exert your utmost diligence and abilities for his majesty’s service.
I have not omitted to lay your request before the king [to resign], and shall not fail to provide for your return to England as soon as it can be done consistently with the good of his majesty’s service.
This episode was really the last time Bruce had to act on behalf of the crown. It was almost a year before he left Algiers but, soon after Halifax’s letter of September, Bruce received notice that he would be replaced by Robert Kirke who would answer – unlike Bruce who had been neglected by him – to Captain Cleveland, the ambassador to all the Barbary States. Another treaty would be drawn up but Bruce would not be invited to help formulate it.
Slighted and beginning to believe the rumours that Cruise’s friends and Consul Duncan, the Dey’s representative at St James’s, had succeeded in blackening his name at home, Bruce devoted his days to hunting, training his gun dogs and getting himself properly equipped for the travels upon which it seemed he would now have to embark in a private capacity. He spent many hours interviewing traders and sailors, trying to find out all he could about the Red Sea and, when possible, Abyssinia. He studied his books and wrote to the Foreign Office seeking leave to depart his post, but even his most sycophantic letters received either no reply at all or replies that ignored his requests. By November he was engaged in undignified begging:
But as I hope your lordship thinks, from my attention to late transactions, I am not wholly unworthy of a small vacation, so I know it not to be unprecedented. Mr Dick, consul at Leghorn, received this permission while I was in Italy, though his journey had no other motive than that of pleasure, and I hope mine will not be unprofitable to the arts. There is, in this country, ruinous architecture enough to compose two considerable volumes. If, after obtaining this leave of absence, I could obtain another favour from your lordship, I should beg that I might have the honour to dedicate the first volume to the king, and that, from your lordship’s further goodness, I might have liberty to inscribe the second volume to your lordship.
He must desperately have been seeking leave to depart to have written so uncharacteristic a letter. But by now he was longing for travel and – rich enough to attempt it alone – he was as prepared as he ever would be. Throughout his time in Algiers he had acted in a dignified and resolute manner. It may not have been to the Dey’s liking from a commercial point of view but he could not help but admire the bluff Scotsman who refused to be bribed or intimidated. Thus he gave Bruce letters of introduction to his counterparts around the region which would make his tour of North Africa a great deal easier. Bruce’s friends Strange and Lumisden had also come up trumps: after much searching an artist had been found who would accompany Bruce for a year (he eventually stayed for six). Two others had considered the job but Lumisden had found it hard to persuade someone to ‘depart an easy life’ and embark for unknown shores. Strange wrote to say that Luigi Balugani – a fellow academician at Bologna – would accept the job.
This young man will be able to serve you in your present undertaking. He is certainly the best qualified of any I can find here. He has lived several years in Rome in the house of Conte Ranuzzi of Bologna. This gentleman gives him the best of characters to private life as well as diligence [an excellent recommendation since Bruce had met and liked Ranuzzi in Rome] … Balugani engages to serve you a year at the rate of 35 scudi a month. What he seems most defective in is figures, in which you