In October, 1896, the French barque _Prosper Corue_ was lying becalmed off Alhucemas, a place fortified by the Spaniards to keep the pirates in check, when several boats full of armed Moors seized the vessel and made the crew prisoners. They then completely pillaged the ship, removing almost everything of any use or value. While the miscreants were thus busily engaged a Spanish merchant steamship, named the _Sevilla_, happened to come along, and was in time to capture one boat and rescue several of the prisoners. The _Sevilla_ then made towards the barque, but the pirates opened fire on the steamer, killing and wounding some of the crew. The Spaniard was compelled to retire, leaving the captain of the barque in the hands of the Moors. Subsequently the barque was picked up in an abandoned condition by the British steamship _Oswin_, and towed into Almeria. An arrangement was afterwards made with the pirates to release the captains of the _Fiducia_ and the Portuguese barque _Rosita Faro_--a much earlier capture--and some members of both crews, in exchange for the Riffians captured by the Spanish steamer _Sevilla_ and a ransom of 3,000 dollars. It was only after prolonged negotiations and a large sum of money that a French warship succeeded in obtaining the freedom of the captain of the _Prosper Corue_ and a few other Frenchmen. For some reason or other, the pirates seemed very much disinclined to part with these prisoners. Only a short time before the attack on the French barque took place, a notice was issued by the British Board of Trade, in which the attention of ship-owners and masters of vessels was called to the dangers attending navigation off the coast of Morocco. The document then proceeded to detail the case of the British schooner _Mayer_, of Gibraltar, which was boarded about 10 miles from the Riff coast by twenty Moors armed with rifles and daggers. As usual, the pirates ransacked the vessel, destroyed the ensign and ship's papers, brutally assaulted the men on board, and then made off in their boat. Scarcely had the foregoing notice been generally circulated than another case of a similar character happened in connection with the Italian schooner _Scatuola_. Again, there is the Spanish cutter _Jacob_. She was running along the Moorish coast one fine summer's evening a few years since, when a boat full of pirates suddenly came alongside, and speedily upset the quietness which had previously reigned on board the _Jacob_. Five of the crew managed to escape in the cutter's boat and were picked up some days later by a passing vessel. Those who remained on board the cutter fared very badly. After the vessel had been pillaged, the rigging and sails destroyed, the men were all securely bound and left to their fate. Fortunately the weather continued fine, and the _Jacob_ drifted towards the Spanish coast, where she was seen and assistance promptly rendered.