tensive than is the present State of that name.
It included the area from which have been carved the States of
Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Minnesota, Iowa, the Dakotas,
Montana, part of Kansas, Wyoming and Colorado, and the Territory of
Oklahoma, the whole area being 1,171,931 square miles, as against
827,844, which was all the territory occupied previous to 1803.
Peaceable possession was taken on the 20th of December following. The
governorship of the Territory was offered to Lafayette, and declined by
him, but he received a grant of 12,000 acres within its limits.

SLAVE TRADE ABOLISHED.

At the time of the adoption of the Constitution, it was agreed that the
slave trade should be permitted for twenty years. It was abolished,
therefore, in 1808, and the penalty for engaging in it was made
punishable with death. At the time of the purchase of Louisiana, it was
believed that it included Texas, but the United States gave up this
claim in 1819 to Spain in return for the cession of Florida.

It seems incredible, but it was true, that for twenty years we had been
paying a large tribute to Algiers on condition that she would not molest
our commerce. Other nations did the same, because it was more convenient
than keeping a navy in those far-off waters. A treaty with Morocco had
been signed, in 1787, under which we also paid her tribute. The people
of the Barbary States naturally waxed insolent, and when we were slow in
sending our tribute they imposed a heavy penalty, which we meekly paid.

WAR WITH TRIPOLI.

One of the most disgusted men was Captain William Bainbridge, when
obliged to carry the tribute in 1800 to the Dey of Algiers, who informed
him that the Americans were his slaves, and must do as he ordered. The
indignant officer expressed the hope that the next tribute he delivered
would be from the mouths of his cannon. The following year the ruler of
Tripoli became ruffled because we did not send him as much tribute as he
thought he was entitled to, and actually declared war against us.

The flurry of 1798 with France had caused a considerable increase in our
navy, which was furnished with plenty of daring officers, who afterward
made names for themselves. They eagerly welcomed a war of that nature
which of necessity was a naval one. The operations were confined to the
Mediterranean, on whose shore are the Barbary States.

The first real fight took place in August, 1801, between the
_Enterprise_