kee, hurried
ashore with the treaty, arranging to display a white flag in case of its
being signed.

An hour after he left an Algerian man-of-war was seen out to sea, and
the American vessels got ready for action. But before anything was done
the captain of the port came out with a white flag. He brought the
treaty and the prisoners. That ended the trouble with Algiers. When the
ten freed captives reached the deck some knelt down and gave thanks to
God, while others hastened to kiss the American flag.

Then Decatur sailed to Tunis and Tripoli and made their rulers come to
terms. From that day to this no American ship has been troubled by the
corsairs of Barbary.

CHAPTER XX

COMMODORE PERRY OPENS JAPAN TO THE WORLD

AN HEROIC DEED WITHOUT BLOODSHED

THERE are victories of peace as well as of war. Of course, you do not
need to be told that. Everybody knows it. And it often takes as much
courage to win these victories as it does those of war. I am going now
to tell you of one of the greatest victories ever won by an American
naval hero, and without firing a gun.

Not far away from the great empire of China lies the island empire of
Japan. Here the map shows us three or four large islands, but there are
many hundreds of small ones, and in and out among them flow the smiling
blue waters of the great Pacific Ocean.

The people of Japan, like the people of China, for a long time did not
like foreigners and did not want anything to do with them. But that was
the fault of the foreigners themselves. For at first these people were
glad to have strangers come among them, and treated them kindly, and let
missionaries land and try to make Christians of them. But the Christian
teachers were not wise; for they interfered with the government as well
as with the faith of the people.

The Japanese soon grew angry at this. In the end they drove all the
strangers away and killed all the Christian converts they could find.
Then laws were made to keep all foreigners out of the country. They let
a Dutch ship come once a year to bring some foreign goods to the seaport
of Nagasaki, but they treated these Dutch traders as if they were of no
account. And thus it continued in Japan for nearly three hundred years.

The Japanese did not care much for the Dutch goods, but they liked to
hear, now and then, what was going on in the world. Once a year they let
some of the Dutch visit the capital, but these had to crawl up to the
emp