of those barbarians was playing pirate. Their
corsairs roamed up and down the Mediterranean, eagerly hunting for
Christian merchant vessels, that they might kill the crews and divide
the plunder among themselves. Sometimes, by way of variety, they would
throw their captives into dungeons and then notify the governments to
which they belonged that they would be set free upon the payment of a
large sum of money to their captors. If the government did not choose to
pay the ransom, why their captors would give themselves the pleasure of
putting the prisoners to death.

Now, it would have been an easy thing for any one of the Christian
nations interested to send a fleet into the Mediterranean, which,
speaking figuratively, would have wiped those miscreants off the face of
the earth; but such an enterprise would have cost a good deal of money,
so, instead of punishing the wretches as they deserved, the countries
paid them a yearly sum of money on their promise not to disturb vessels
when they ran across them.

So it was that, year after year, we sent a good round gift to those
barbarians. You know our Government is often slow in meeting its
obligations, and it happened now and then we were late in sending our
tribute to the swarthy rulers. When that occurred, the Dey, or Bashaw,
imposed a heavy fine to remind us of the expense of trifling with him.
We meekly bowed our heads, paid it, and tried to be more prompt
afterward. Then, too, the mighty ruler sometimes expressed a wish to
receive naval stores instead of money, and we were happy to oblige him.
Of course, he set his own valuation on what he received, which was
generally about one-half of what they cost our Government, but we made
no complaint.

It came about that the Dey of Tripoli got the idea into his head that we
were not paying him as much as we did his neighbors. In his impatience,
he decided to give us a lesson as badly needed as it was in the case of
France, to which I have alluded. So he declared war against the United
States. It would be interesting to know what ideas the Dey had of the
Republic on the other side of the Atlantic.

One good thing resulted from our flurry with France. A number of good
ships had been added to our navy. Better still, many young officers,
brave, skilful and glowing with patriotic ardor, were serving on those
ships. They eagerly welcomed the chance of winning glory. To them the
war with Tripoli offered the very opportunity for whi