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Thomas Dekker's play, IfTbiJ 6e: not a Good Play, tbe: Direl Min
it (1612) [Ewen. p. 3]. Originally a Dutchman from
Dordrecht,
Danser came to Algiers from Marseilles.
where he had established residence, married.
and engaged in the ship-building trade. It is
not clear what caused him to turn renegade
and undertake a corsair career, but within
three years of his arrival he had become the
taifl'e's leading reis and had acquired the surname
of Deli-Reis, "Captain Devil," for his
audacious exploits. Using captured prizes as
models, Danser taught his fellow captains the
management and navigation of round ships
equipped with high decks, banks of sails. and
cannon. He personally accounted for forty
prizes, which were incorporated into the corsair
fleet, and from Danser's time onward the
Algerians replenished their losses equally from
captured ships and from their own shipyard.
Danser also led the Algerians farther
afield than they had ever navigated before.
They passed through the Strait of Gibraltar.
penetrated the Atlantic, and ranged as far
north as Iceland. where a corsair squadron
swept the coast in 1616....
Ironically, Danser. who seems to have
retained his Christian faith at least in secret,
utilized the capture of a Spanish ship carrying
ten Jesuit priests off Valencia as a means of
informing the French Court of Henri IV
secretly of his intention to return to Marseilles,
where he had left his wife and children. The
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French agreed on condition of the safe return
of the Jesuits. which was done. In 1609
Danser was reunited with his family and
restored to full citizenship by the Marseilles
city council. But, once a corsair always a corsair.
whether in the service of Christian France
or Muslim Algiers, and in 1610 Danser presented
to the king and the Marseilles councilors
a bold proposal for an expedition against
Algiers which-given his extraordinary inside
knowledge of the city-would probably have
overthrown the Regency government.
Unfortunately, the French, distrustful of the
loyalty of the former corsair, refused to entertain
his project. [Spencer, pp. 125-6]
The Old Dancer. however, was in fact the CLUUIiJ beLli of
a war between France and Algiers. It seems that
Danser, grateful for generous treatment by the
French government, presented the Due de
Guise, the governor of the province. with two
brass cannons, which, unfortunately for subsequent
events. were on loan to him from the
government of Algiers. Naturally the
Algerians, shocked at Danser's "treason",
demanded the return of the two cannons.
The political crisis moved slowly but sure-
Guise refused to give up his cannons, but it
was events in France, quite unconnected with
Danser, that delayed action. Henry IV was
murdered, the regent Marie de Medici had
troubles to worry about both in the Rhineland
and in Paris. Nothing was done. This was the
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