Turkish Abductions

[3] The commander of the group from Salé was a Dutchman known as Murat Reis, who had himself turned to piracy after being taken captive by pirates.

[3] The ships then sailed to Bessastaðir (home of the Danish-Norwegian governor of Iceland) to raid but were unable to make a landing.

[3] It is said they were thwarted by cannon fire from the local fortifications (Bessastaðaskans) and a quickly mustered group of lancers from the Southern Peninsula.

[3] North of Fáskrúðsfjörður, they hit strong winds and decided to turn around and sail along the south coast of Iceland.

[3] They raided the village and Heimaey for three days, capturing 234 people and killing 34,[3] including one of the ministers of the island.

Guttormur Hallsson, a captive from Eastern Region, said in a letter written in Barbary in 1631: "There is a great difference here between masters.

Some captive slaves get good, gentle, or in-between masters, but some unfortunates find themselves with savage, cruel, hardhearted tyrants, who never stop treating them badly, and who force them to labour and toil with scanty clothing and little food, bound in iron fetters, from morning till night.

"[7] Ólafur Egilsson, a minister from Vestmannaeyjar, was set free in Algiers so that he could go and raise money to pay the ransom.

[3] On two occasions, those carrying the ransom to Algiers betrayed the captives, and used the money to purchase goods that they traded back in Europe.

A letter describes the pain: ... to know that those who have been here twice to Algiers with our ransom money have used it instead for trade, to make profit for themselves, and have stolen our liberty, for they never admitted that they could free anyone, or even that they were here to do so.

Instead, they told us to petition our gracious master the King, in the name of God, for our freedom, and then they filled simple minded, poor fellows with fair words and went on their way, one with hides, another with chests of sugar, leaving behind them only the smoke of their lying words[7]The first major ransom was paid nine years after the abductions when 34 Icelanders were brought from Algiers.