Speaking of one such case in 1799, he had said: "My blood boils that I cannot chastise these pirates.

They could not show themselves in the Mediterranean did not our Country permit.

Never let us talk of the cruelty of the African slave trade, while we permit such a horrid war." But he knew, both then and afterwards, that Great Britain, with the great contest on her hands, could not spare the ships which might be crippled in knocking the barbarians' strongholds about their ears, and that no British admiral would be sustained in a course that provoked these pirates to cast aside the fears that restrained them, and to declare war on British commerce, which, as it was, he had difficulty to protect.

He estimated ten ships-of-the-line as the force necessary, in case the batteries at Algiers were to be attacked.

Exmouth, twelve years later, with fuller information, thought and found five to be sufficient.
Nelson's conduct and self-control were sorely tested by the necessity of temporizing with this petty foe, who reckoned securely on the embarrassments of Great Britain.