should be promoted over them; thus furnishing "confirmation, strong as proof of holy writ," of the consummate skill and gallantry of Decatur, and of the exalted magnanimity of his brother officers.

Capt. Decatur remained with the squadron of Com. Preble at their rendezvous until the spring of 1804, enjoying with his admiring comrades the high reputation he had acquired. Far, however, from being satisfied with one glorious achievement, he only considered it as the beginning of a life of glory.

The unvarying modesty of all our naval champions has become proverbial. It is not that affected modesty which made Cæsar for a time decline a crown, and then accept of it; but that real dignified modesty which is a concomitant of real and exalted worth. So far from gasconading boasting, they seldom speak of themselves or their achievements; and instead of monopolizing the applause which the world is anxious to bestow upon them, they rather seem solicitous that their comrades should fully participate with them in the fame they have acquired. A literary correspondent of the writer, when requested to furnish some memoranda of one of our most distinguished Post-Captains, thus expresses himself:

"With respect to anecdotes drawn from private communications, as far as my own observation has extended, Capt. *********** is a man of such singular modesty, that in the course of an unreserved acquaintance with him for some years, I do not remember ever having heard him speak, in detail, of any incidents connected with such of his own actions as reflect lustre on

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himself, or are highly interesting to the public." more perfect picture of Capt. Decatur could not be drawn. He always seemed to have forgotten what he had accomplished, and only looked forward to the temple of Fame, through the long and brilliant vista of deeds of immortal renown.

Com. Preble, fully sensible of the deficiency of his squadron in vessels of a smaller class, negotiated with the king of Naples for the loan of two bombards, and six gun-boats. Nelson, when commanding immense squadrons of ships of the line, declared that" Frigates were the eyes of a fleet ;" and gunboats were to Preble, what frigates were to him. This great man and veteran officer had the scantiest means to accomplish a most important end. But as the gallant Henry V. with his little army before Agincourt, "wished not for another man from England," so Preble wished not for another keel, another gun, or another man from America. His noble soul converted his little squadron into a powerful fleet, and surrounded by such officers as Decatur, Somers, Stewart, Lawrence, Morris, Macdonough, Trippe, and others then less known, and perhaps equally gallant, his comrades were magnified into a mighty host.

While Com. Preble was thus preparing to negotiate with the tyrannous and murderous Jussuff at the mouth of his cannon, and to send his ultimatum in powder and ball, Mr. William Eaton, who had previously been a consul from America up the Mediterranean, conceived the daring and romantic pro

ject of restoring Hamet Caramalli to the throne of Tripoli, which had been usurped by the reigning Bashaw. Hamet had relinquished all hopes of regaining a throne which had always been acquired by blood and assassination. Like a philosopher, he had retired to Egypt, where the Beys of that ancient kingdom extended to him their protection and their hospitality. To use his own language, as translated into ours, he-" reposed in the security of peace -had almost ceased to repine for the loss of his throne, and regretted only the lot of his unhappy people, doomed to the yoke of his cruel and tyrannical brother." Novel language this, to be sure, in the mouth of an Ishmaelitish Mahometan! How much his "unhappy people" would have been benefitted by his reign, cannot now be determined; as he is not amongst the "legitimate sovereigns" who have in later times waded through the blood of their own subjects to thrones from which they were driven by the public voice;-thrones which tremble beneath them, and which they maintain only by the strong arm of pow

er.

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Some few Americans, from the American squadron, joined Eaton, and many natives of various tribes, languages and colours, flocked to his standard. motley sort of an army was thus formed, and Eaton placed himself at their head as a General. He repaired to Alexandria, and found the feeble Caramalli, as just mentioned, "reposing in security and peace." Fortunate indeed had it been for him, if he had remained in safety by continuing in obscurity. Few

instances are left us upon record of princes who have been exiled from their thrones and kingdoms, who have enjoyed either of them upon their restoration. The houses of Stuart, Bourbon and Braganza furnish the commentary. The expiring hopes of Caramalli, were brightened up by the ardent and romantic Eaton, as a sudden gust elicits a spark from the faint glimmering light in the socket. He cast a longing eye toward the dangerous throne of Tripoli, more than half a thousand miles distant, between which and himself stretched an immense desert, second only in barrenness and desolation to that of Zahara. But nothing could repress the ardour of Eaton. The idea of an American, taking from the. land where Pharaoh once held the children of Israel in captivity, an exiled prince, and placing him upon the throne of a distant kingdom, had something in it so outrageously captivating, that the enthusiastic mind of the chivalrous Eaton was lost to every other consideration.

The grateful Caramalli, if an Ishmaelite can be grateful, took leave of his Egyptian friends, and placed himself under the banner of Eaton. He entered into a convention with the General, by which he promised immense favours to the Americans, and to make the engagements reciprocal, the General promised to restore him to his throne. This diplomatic arrangement was doubtless mutually satisfactory to the parties, although the American and Tripolitan governments had no hand in this negotiation. Caramalli, his General, and a great assemblage

of incongruous materials, called an army, moved across the deserts; and endured every thing which they might have anticipated from the nature of the country. After passing about six hundred miles, they reached the city of Derne, which they triumphantly entered, and at least found some repose and a supply for their immediate wants.

The reigning Bashaw, in the mean time, had augmented his garrisons to three thousand Turkish troops, and an army of more than twenty thousand Arabs were encamped in the neighbourhood of the strong city of Tripoli. However contemptuously he might smile at the force which surrounded his approaching brother, by land, and however little he cared for the loss of the little city of Derne, a "fearful looking for of judgment" harrowed his guilty soul, when he beheld the whole of Com. Preble's squadron, upon the first week of August, approaching the harbour of Tripoli.

He had seen the gallant Capt. Decatur, in his bay, capture one of his corsairs.-He had seen the same warrior, with the same corsair, destroy his heaviest ship of war, under the very guns of his batteries and castle, surrounded also by his marine force. The name of DECATUR Sounded in his ear, like the knell of his parting glory; and when he saw the broad pendant of PREBLE, waving upon that wonder-working ship the CONSTITUTION, and surrounded by Brigs, Bombards and Gun-boats, he almost despaired. He had the crew of the Philadelphia, and many other Americans, in wretched bondage. Determining to extort an enormous ransom for the