pling them with the heroic dead of ages gone, but the beauties of nature and of art, actually displayed before his eyes, held him in their spell as strongly as they ever held painter or poet. The grandeur or the loveliness of a landscape, the exquisite proportions of a building, the varied attractions of a garden, had power to move him almost to intoxication. So rapt would become his countenance, so oblivious would he be to the flight of time, as he contemplated the objects of his admiration, that less enthusiastic souls often wondered if he were not demented.

CHAPTER XXVI

THE BARBARY PIRATES

ONE of Mr. Jefferson's reasons for going to London was that the ambassador of Tripoli was there ready to negotiate with the United States in reference to certain Americans who had been captured on the sea and carried into Mohammedan bondage.

For Tripoli was a "Barbary pirate" state, which still kept up, on a limited scale, the hoary feud between Cross and Crescent. Christian nations had long since lost their crusading habit, and wars were not being waged any more because of difference of creed. Christians who spent so much of their time fighting fellow Christians were not disposed to harass infidel nations about articles of faith.

But the Mohammedans had not wholly abandoned their ancient ways; hence, in quarters where they were strongest, they continued to do as was done by both Cross and Crescent in the days of the crusades-they spoiled the Egyptians.

The Egyptian who fulfilled the Scripture in the

one case was the Mohammedan; in the other, he was the Christian. Lawful authority in the one case was derived from the Jewish Testament; in the other from the Arab Koran. In both cases the law and gospel is strongly against the Egyptian. Most historians contentedly describe these Mohammedans as "Barbary pirates." In the sense that the crusaders were pirates, or that Drake and Hawkins were pirates, they were pirates. They were not so in any other sense.

From the days of Godfrey, Bohemund, Tancred, and Richard, down to those of Don John of Austria, Christian princes had hurled themselves upon the Mussulman, doing him injury to the full extent of their power. The Mohammedan retaliated whenever he could. At the close of the eighteenth century the lineal descendant of the crusading customs, so far as the followers of Mohammed were concerned, made itself manifest in the capture, by the various "Barbary powers," of all such Christian vessels as were unable to prevent it.

To a religious world which had forgotten all about the hoary pledges to redeem the sepulcher of Christ, and which had no distinct recollection of the wholesale manner in which the Christian West had formerly despoiled the Mohammedan East, this survival of barbaric practises was most irksome and odious. It was what would be classed in historical literature as an anachronism. Therefore,

it could not be too severely condemned. "Barbary pirates" was a name quite good enough for heathen who continued to do in the eighteenth century what had been correct enough in the sixteenth, or even in the seventeenth, but which was now clearly out of date.

But the Mussulman was a great fighter, and, to keep him from continuing the crusading feud, the kings of Europe bought peace from the infidel at a stated price.

To this inglorious end had come the oaths sworn and armies marshaled to break the power of Mohammed, and redeem the grave of Christ.

Now, the infant republic of the United States, not versed in the ways of diplomacy, had paid no tribute to the "Barbary pirates." The consequences ripened early. In the spring of 1785 the American brig Betsy was pounced upon and taken to Morocco. Spain was then our friend, and Spain urgently requested the Sultan of Morocco to release the prisoners without ransom. Even pirates have their ideas of suavity and etiquette; the Sultan had no wish to affront a tribute-paying Christian like Spain. Besides, the United States was, perhaps, ignorant of the rules and had not intended to violate any of the customs of the Mediterranean. Therefore the Sultan handsomely complimented the infant republic with the liberty of the Betsy's crew. No; he would not exact money this time.

Accept these captures with the compliments of the Sultan. But hereafter—!!

This hereafter soon came. Three more crews, not knowing the law, fell into the hands of the infidels, and the three captains wailed, beseeching Mr. Jefferson to get them out.

This matter caused Mr. Jefferson a great deal of labor and annoyance. While in England he had interviews and correspondence with the Tripolitan ambassador, but the difference between the ransom demanded and the sum Mr. Jefferson was authorized to offer was so great that nothing came of the tedious, protracted negotiations.

Mr. Jefferson was profoundly dissatisfied with the relations which existed between Christian Europe and these "Barbary pirates." To behold Great Britain, France, Holland, Spain, Naples, the two Sicilies, Venice, and Portugal bargaining with Mohammedan states for peace at so much per annum was humiliating.

He believed that war-an issue of arms upon principle like that-would not only be justifiable but cheaper in the long run. Therefore, he proposed a plan by which the nuisance could be abated. Let the Christians concerned agree among themselves to furnish pro rata a fleet whose special mission it should be to either compel the Barbary powers to sign treaties of peace without exacting subsidies or to fight them off the seas.