was not the hero of any great sea fights.

This was Robert F. Stockton, who was born in Princeton, and who entered
the navy early in life. He became an excellent officer and a great
fighter. His disposition to do battle showed itself not only in leading
men into action, but in doing a great deal of fighting himself. He
distinguished himself in several naval combats during the war with
Algiers. He commanded the "Spitfire" during this war, and, besides
taking one of the enemy's vessels in an ordinary naval combat, he
captured an Algerine brig, one might almost say, with his own hands.
With as many men as a small boat could carry, he left his vessel, rowed
to this brig, and at the head of his bold sailors boarded her,
vanquished the crew, and carried her off as a prize.

He was afterwards transferred to a larger vessel, and was stationed for
a time at Gibraltar. There was a very bad feeling at that time between
the American naval officers and those of Great Britain. The War of 1812
was over; but the British were not inclined to treat the officers of the
United States Navy with the respect which the latter thought was due to
them. Stockton was not a man to stand still and allow himself to be
treated disrespectfully; and whenever he received anything that seemed
like an insult from a British officer, he was ready to fight that
officer, whoever he might be. It is said that at one time he challenged
all the officers in Gibraltar to meet him in single combat, one after
another, and he actually did engage in duels with several of them.

During the British war and the Algerine war, Stockton distinguished
himself in various ways, both on land and sea. But in 1821 he undertook
a very important enterprise in Africa. Many naval vessels had gone from
the United States to Africa, but none of them on an errand such as this.
Our gallant Jersey captain did not sail to pay tribute, bombard cities,
sink vessels, humble African potentates, or to shed African blood; he
went on an errand of charity and humanity.

He sailed from America in the interests of the Colonization Society, and
his object was to make arrangements on the west coast of Africa for the
establishment of a colony, to be composed of negroes who had been slaves
in the United States, but who had obtained their freedom. There were
many humane people in the United States who believed that the negroes
who had been set free from slavery would be much happier and more likely
to pr