from the original fanting y Chappel, in the passession of the Publiclats.

Johnoon and Mile, ¡bliches » New York

CHAP. V.

BRAVE AMERICANS AT TRIPOLI.

1177 appeared with his vessels before the harbor of Tripoli, where a serious disaster occurred. The frigate Philadelphia, commanded by Captain Bainbridge, while reconnoitering the harbor, struck a rock and was captured by the Tripolitans. Her officers were made prisoners-of-war, and her crew were made slaves. When the news reached Preble at Malta, a plan was devised

for the destruction of the Philadelphia before her captors could make her ready for sea. Lieutenant Decatur, with seventy-four volunteers ardent and gallant young men like himself—sailed from Syracuse in a small vessel called a "ketch," named the Intrepid. She entered the harbor of Tripoli on the evening of the 3d of February, 1804, in the disguise of a vessel in distress, and was moored alongside the Philadelphia. Decatur and his men were concealed below, when suddenly they burst from the hatches like a destructive flame, leaped on board the Philadelphia, and after a desperate fight, killed or drove into the sea her turbaned occupants. Then they set her on fire and escaped by the light, under cover of a heavy cannonade from the

American squadron, and followed by shots from the castle, vessels at anchor in the harbor, and batteries on shore. Yet not one of Decatur's men was harmed. Before a favoring breeze they sailed to Syracuse, where they were greeted with joy by the American squadron there. The scene of the burning vessel was magnificent. As the guns of the Philadelphia were heated, they were discharged, giving a grand feu de joie for the victory.

This bold act alarmed the Bashaw, and subsequent events made him very discreet. In August following, Preble, with his squadron, opened a heavy bombardment upon his town, castle, shore-batteries, and flotilla of gun-boats, no less than four times, between the 3d and the 28th. In one of these engagements Decatur again distinguished himself. In command of a gun-boat, he laid her alongside one of the largest of the Tripolitan vessels, boarded her, and made her a prize. Then he boarded another, when he had a desperate personal encounter with her powerful captain. The struggle was brief but fearful. Decatur killed his antagonist, and the vessel was captured. Finally, on the 28th of August, Preble, with his flag-ship, the Constitution, entered the harbor, when her great guns opened a heavy fire upon the town, the castle, the batteries on shore and the camps of twenty-five thousand land troops, and the flotilla in the harbor. She silenced the Tripolitan guns, sunk a Tunisian vessel-of-war, damaged a Spanish one, severely bruised the enemy's galleys and gun-boats, and then withdrew without a man hurt.

Another attack was made on the 2d of September. On that night—a very dark one-the Intrepid, which had been converted into a floating mine -an immense torpedo-with one hundred barrels of gunpowder below her deck, and a large quantity of shot, shell, and irregular pieces of iron lying over them, went into the harbor under the general direction of Captain Somers, to scatter destruction among the vessels of the enemy. She was towed in by two boats, with brave crews, in which it was expected all would escape, after firing combustibles on board of her. All hearts in the American squadron followed the Intrepid as she disappeared in the gloom. Suddenly a lurid flame, like that from a volcano, shot up from the bosom of the harbor, and lighted with its horrid glare the town, castle, batteries, ships, camps, and surrounding hills. It was followed by an explosion that shook the earth and sea, and flaming masts and sails and fiery bombs rained upon the waters for a moment, when darkness more profound settled upon the The safety-boats were anxiously watched for until the dawn. They never returned, and no man of that perilous expedition was heard of afterward. Their names are inscribed upon a monument erected to the memory of these brave men, and the event, that stands at the western front of the Capitol at Washington city. Hostilities on the Barbary coast now ceased

scene.

CHAP. V.

NORTH AFRICAN POWERS HUMBLED.

1179

for the season. Preble was relieved by Commodore Samuel Barron, and early in 1805 he returned home, and received the homage of the nation's gratitude.

While Barron's ships blockaded Tripoli, an important land movement against that province was undertaken, under the general management of William Eaton, American consul at Tunis. The reigning Bashaw of Tripoli was an usurper, who had murdered his father and taken the seat of power from his brother, Hamet Caramalli. The latter had fled to Egypt. A plan was concerted between him and General Eaton for the restoration of his rights. The latter acted under the sanction of his government. Eaton went to Egypt, and at the beginning of March he left Alexandria, accompanied by Hamet and his followers, some Egyptian soldiers, and seventy United States seamen. They made a march of a thousand miles across the borders of the Libyan desert; and at near the close of April, in conjunction. with two American vessels, they captured the Tripolitan city of Derne, on the borders of the Mediterranean Sea. They had defeated the Tripolitan forces in two battles, and were about to march on the capital when news came that the American consul-general (Tobias Lear) had made a treaty of peace with the terrified Bashaw. So ended the hopes of Hamet, and also the four years' war with Tripoli. But the ruler of Tunis was yet insolent. He was speedily humbled by Commodore Rodgers, Barron's successor, and the power of the United States was respected and feared by the half-barbarians of the north of Africa. Pope Pius the Seventh declared that the Americans had done more for Christendom against the pirates than all the powers of Europe united.

While these events were occurring on the Mediterranean and its borders, our Republic had been growing rapidly in political and moral strength, and by the expansion of its domain. During Mr. Jefferson's first term, one State (Ohio) and two Territories (Indiana and Illinois) had been formed out of the free Northwestern Territory. Ohio was organized as an independent territory in the year 1800, and in the fall of 1802, it was admitted into the Union as a State. At that time there was great excitement in the country west of the Alleghany Mountains, in consequence of a violation of the treaty made with Spain in 1795, by the governor of Louisiana, in closing the port of New Orleans against the commerce of our Republic. There was a proposition before Congress for taking forcible possession of that region, when it was ascertained that by a secret treaty Spain had retroceded Louisiana to France. Negotiations were immediately begun for the purchase of that domain from France, by the United States. Robert R. Livingston, the American minister at the court of the First Consul, found very little diffi