le brought on a
war. Our ships were sent to fight against Trip-o-li.

One of the ships fighting against the pirates was called the
"Phil-a-del-phi-a." One day she was chasing a ship of Trip-o-li. The
"Phil-a-del-phi-a" ran on the rocks. The sailors could not get her
off. The pirates came and fought her as she lay on the rocks. They
took her men prisoners. Then they went to work to get her off. After a
long time they got her into deep water. They took her to Tripoli. Our
ships could not go there after her, because there were so many great
cannons on the shore near the ship.

The pirates got the "Philadelphia" ready to go to sea. They loaded her
cannons. They meant to slip out past our ships of war. Then they would
take a great many smaller American ships.

But the Americans laid a plan to burn the "Philadelphia." It was a
very dan-ger-ous thing to try to do. The pirates had ships of war near
the "Philadelphia." They had great guns on the shore. There was no way
to do it in the day-time. It could only be done by stealing into the
Bay of Tripoli at night.

The Americans had taken a little vessel from the pirates. She was of
the kind that is called a ketch. She had sails. She also had long
oars. When there was no wind to sail with, the sailors could row her
with the oars.

This little ketch was sent one night to burn the "Philadelphia." The
captain of this boat was Ste-phen De-ca-tur. He was a young man, and
very brave.

De-ca-tur made his men lie down, so that the pirates would not know
how many men he had on his ketch. Only about ten men were in sight.
The rest were lying hidden on the boat.

They came near to the "Philadelphia." It was about ten o'clock at
night. The pirates called to them. The pilot of the ketch told them
that he was from Mal-ta. He told them that he had come to sell things
to the people of Tripoli. He said that the ketch had lost her anchor.
He asked them to let him tie her to the big ship till morning.

The pirates sent out a rope to them. But when the ketch came nearer,
the pirates saw that they had been fooled. They cried out, "Americans,
Americans!"

Then the Americans lying down took hold of the rope and pulled with
all their might, and drew the ketch close to the ship. They were so
close, that the ship's cannons were over their heads. The pirates
could not fire at them.

The men who had been lying still now rose up. There were eighty of
them. In a minute they were scram-bling up the