cans sprang up and leaped
through the port-holes of the frigate. It took them but a few minutes to
clear the deck, when the vessel was fired in several places and the men
safely withdrew. The _Philadelphia_ burned to the water's edge.

Early in August, Commodore Preble bombarded the town of Tripoli from his
mortar boats. During a fight with the gunboats James Decatur, a brother
of Stephen, received the surrender of one he was fighting, and stepped
on the deck to take possession. As he did so, the captain shot him dead.
Stephen had just destroyed a gunboat when he learned of this treacherous
occurrence and dashed after the craft, which he boarded. Recognizing the
captain from his immense size, he attacked him, and, in a desperate
personal encounter, in which he narrowly escaped death himself, killed
the Moor.

THE BOMB KETCH.

The Americans fixed up the _Intrepid_ as a bomb ketch, storing a hundred
barrels of powder and missiles and a hundred and fifty shells on deck.
Under command of Captain Richard Somers, and accompanied by twelve men,
the vessel ran slowly into the harbor one dark night. The intention was
to fire a slow-match and then for the officer and men to withdraw in
boats. Captain Somers was discovered by the enemy, and in some unknown
way the ketch was blown up with all on board, and without doing any
material harm to the shipping and fortifications in the harbor.

Commodore Preble was superseded in November by Commodore Barron, who
arrived with the _President_ and _Constellation_. This gave the
Americans ten vessels, carrying 264 guns. Hostilities were pressed with
so much vigor that the Dey of Tripoli became anxious to make peace
before the terrible fleet from the West destroyed him and his people.
Accordingly, a treaty was signed on the 3d of June by which the
Tripolitans were given $60,000 for the prisoners in their hands, and the
payment of tribute to them was ended.

EXPEDITION OF LEWIS AND CLARK.

In those comparatively modern days the vast region west of the
Mississippi was almost unknown. President Jefferson recommended a
congressional appropriation for the exploration of the country. The
appropriation being made, a party of thirty men left the Mississippi,
May 14, 1804, under command of Captains Meriwether Lewis and William
Clark. Both had had a good deal of experience in the Indian country, and
they ascended the Missouri in a flotilla for 2,600 miles. To the three
streams which form the