in mathematics, and their application to navigation and
nautical astronomy. As proof of the boy's ingenuousness, and the
interest he excited in intelligent observers, it is related that Count
Rochambeau, the son of the General of the Revolution, then residing at
Newport, was particularly attracted to him, and that Bishop Seabury,
on his visitation, marked him as a boy of religious feeling. These are
traits which shape the man; we shall find them reappearing in the
maturity of Perry's life, in his worth, humanity, and refinement.

The boy was but thirteen when his father, in 1798, was called into the
naval service of his country in the spirited effort made by President
Adams to resist the aggressions of France upon the ocean. He took the
command of a small frigate, built under his direction in Rhode Island,
named the General Greene, and carried with him to sea his son Oliver
as a midshipman, at the express solicitation of the youth. The General
Greene was actively employed in the waters of the Gulf of Mexico,
giving all its officers abundant opportunity for practice in the
infant service. The French war flurry after a while blew over, as the
Directory, the mainspring of these aggressions, lost power; peace was
patched up, and Jefferson shortly after inaugurated an unwholesome
pacific policy by a sweeping reduction of the navy, as if it were not
small enough already. In this mutilating operation the elder Perry was
dropped, the younger one fortunately retained.

The navy, however, was soon revived by the demands of the nation to
resist the iniquitous and insulting depredations upon life and
property inflicted by the Barbary powers. The United States had borne
far too patiently with these injuries, though she had the honor of
being in advance of the old powers of Europe in resisting them. The
Mediterranean became the scene of many a chivalrous exploit of our
early officers, a score of whom, headed by Preble, Bainbridge,
Decatur, Somers, and others of that stamp of fiery and indomitable
valor, gained immortal laurels by their deeds of daring in conflict
with the infidel.

The young Perry served as midshipman in the frigate Adams, which
sailed from Newport, in 1802, to join Commodore Morris' command at
Gibraltar. His ship was for some time employed in blockading a
Tripolitan at that port; a tedious but instructive service in
manoeuvring, at the close of which Perry, in consequence of his
accomplishments, was promoted by h