cowering Mussulman, "go tell the Bashaw
of Tripoli, and the people of your country, that in future they may
expect only a tribute of powder and ball from the sailors of the
United States."

Amid the jeers and execrations of the Yankee tars, the crippled
Tripolitan hulk, with her dead and dying, drifted slowly away. When
she reached Tripoli, the anger of the Bashaw was unappeasable. He had
expected his cruiser to return freighted deep with plunder, and
crowded with American slaves. She had returned a dismantled hulk. In
vain her commander showed his wounds to his wrathful master, and told
of the size of his enemy, and the vigor of his resistance. The rage of
the Bashaw demanded a sacrifice, and the luckless Mahomet Sons was led
through the streets of Tripoli tied to a jackass. This in itself was
the deepest degradation possible for a Mussulman, but the Bashaw
supplemented it with five hundred bastinadoes well laid on. This
severe punishment, together with the repeated assertions of the
sailors of the defeated ship, that the dogs of Christians had fired
enchanted shot, so terrified the seafaring people of Tripoli that it
was almost impossible for the Bashaw to muster a ship's crew for a
year after.

[Illustration: Commodore Decatur.]

The battle between the "Enterprise" and the "Tripoli" alone saved the
first year of the war from being entirely puerile. Certain it is that
the distinguished naval officers who accompanied the fleet to the
Mediterranean were so hedged about with political red tape, that they
were powerless to take a step in defence of the honor of their
country. While they were empowered to rescue any American ship that
might be discovered in the grasp of a corsair, they were powerless to
attempt the rescue of the hundreds of Americans held by Bashaw, Bey,
and Dey as slaves. Commodore Dale, indeed, through diplomacy, managed
to free a few of the enslaved Americans. Having blockaded the
harbor of Tripoli with the frigate "President," he captured a Greek
vessel having a score or more of Tripolitan soldiers aboard. He then
sent word to the Bashaw that he would exchange these prisoners for an
equal number of Americans; but the monarch apparently cared little for
his subjects, for he replied that he would not give one American slave
for the whole lot. After much argument, an exchange was made upon the
basis of three Tripolitans to one Yankee.

It is hard, even at this late day, to regard the policy of the Un