, a vessel of twelve guns, and a Tripolitan vessel of
fourteen guns. It occurred off Malta, and lasted for two hours, when the
Tripolitan hauled down his flag. Thereupon the Americans left their guns
and were cheering, when the enemy treacherously fired a broadside into
the _Enterprise_. Nothing loth, Lieutenant Sterrett renewed the battle
with such vigor that in a few minutes the flag was lowered a second
time, only to renew the fighting when the enemy saw an advantage.

Thoroughly exasperated, Lieutenant Sterrett now determined to complete
the business. The vessel was raked fore and aft, the mizzen-mast torn
away, the hull knocked to splinters, and fifty men killed and wounded.
Then the American officer caught sight of the captain leaping up and
down on the deck, shrieking and flinging his arms about, as evidence
that he was ready to surrender in earnest. He threw his own flag
overboard, but Lieutenant Sterrett demanded that his arms and ammunition
should follow, the remainder of the masts cut away, and the ship
dismantled. That being done, Sterrett allowed him to rig a jury mast and
told him to carry his compliments to the Dey.

The war against the Tripolitans was very similar to that against the
Spaniards in 1898. The _Enterprise_ had not lost a man, although the
Americans inflicted severe loss on the enemy. In July, 1802, the
_Constellation_, in a fight with nine Tripolitan gunboats, drove five
ashore, the rest escaping by fleeing into the harbor. More than once a
Tripolitan vessel was destroyed, with all on board, without the loss of
a man on our side.

But the war was not to be brought to a close without an American
disaster. In 1803 the fine frigate _Philadelphia_, while chasing a
blockade-runner, ran upon a reef in the harbor of Tripoli, and, being
helpless, a fleet of the enemy's gunboats swarmed around her and
compelled Captain Bainbridge and his crew to surrender. The frigate was
floated off at high tide and the enemy refitted her.

A GALLANT EXPLOIT.

One night in February, 1804, the _Intrepid_, a small vessel under the
command of Lieutenant Stephen Decatur, one of the bravest of American
naval officers, approached the _Philadelphia_, as she lay at anchor,
and, being hailed, replied, through a native whom he had impressed into
service, that he was a merchantman who had lost his anchors. The
Tripolitans allowed the vessel to come alongside without any suspicion
on their part. Suddenly a score of Ameri