yet seen fit to advance its naval force sufficiently to enable its naval commanders to act vindictively against the ferocious, yet contemptible Barbary States. Severe chastisement they most assuredly deserved; but Tripolitans were permitted, a little longer, to shield themselves in fancied security, and vainly to imagine that Americans would no longer spread dismay amongst them.

The second Mediterranean squadron was commanded by the senior Commodore Morris. Lieutenant Decatur exercised a patience which his subsequent vehement, and we may say impetuous courage would lead the reader to suppose he did not then possess. He continued in the navy, under the certain presumption that the government of his country would shortly be convinced of the necessity of more energetic measures against the Mahometan pests that infested a sea over which American commerce was so much expanded, and so much exposed.

In the second squadron, he sailed as 1st Lieut. of the frigate New-York, a ship whose name no longer appears on our navy list. She had become nothing but a hulk, at the commencement of the second war between the American Republic and the United Kingdom of Great Britain, and barely escaped conflagration at Washington, when the British forces, who had a right, by the principles of civilized warfare, to destroy her, but who chose, like the ancient Vandals in devastating Greece and Rome, to demolish and burn some of the finest specimens of art,

and the choicest productions.of science and lite

rature.

Nothing occurred in this squadron of sufficient importance to render a minute detail of its operations necessary; indeed, it would be inconsistent with the design of this work. Decatur was almost incessantly employed in imparting naval instruction to the under-officers, and introducing that correct discipline amongst the seamen, which has since given such perfection to the naval tactics of America. The reader is referred to the preceding chapter for the sentiments and the conduct of Decatur when on board the Essex. The same course was continued by him on board the New-York frigate. When he entered her, he had a crew to discipline, who were mostly strangers to him. But a good seaman sincerely respects and cheerfully obeys a good officer, the moment he meets him; and although long service in the same ship, more strongly cements the bond of union between an officer and a crew, yet wherever Decatur was placed, such is the declaration of one of his own officers," He seemed, as if by magic, to hold a boundless sway over the very hearts of his seamen at first sight."

The very nature of naval service renders it necessary, either from promotions, different expeditions, unexpected danger, and numerous other causes, to remove Post-Captains, Masters commandant, Lieutenants, and perhaps Midshipmen, from the ships in which they had previously exercised command and performed duty, and with the crews of which they had become familiarized. Although it may become

indispensably necessary for the government to pursue this course, that necessity does not in the least diminish the difficulty it often imposes upon officers. It is admitted that an officer can generally enforce obedience to his commands over men whose names and faces are as much unknown to him as those of the enemy he may have to encounter; but that obedience which is solely the result of fear of punishment, is vastly different from that which proceeds from respect and attachment.

During the time that Lieut. Decatur filled the very important station of 1st Lieutenant of the frigate New-York, which was once the flag ship of the American squadron in the Mediterranean, that ship rendezvoused at the island of Malta. It is well known that this is the island so interesting in sacred history, as the place where Paul the Apostle, with 275 others, was wrecked-where he was entertained by the then barbarians-where he shook a deadly and venomous viper from his hand unhurt-where he healed the father of Publius," The chief man of the Island,” and from whence he departed for Syracuse*, another rendezvous for the American squadron seventeen centuries after the visit of St. Paul to that renowned city. Malta also is one of the most interesting islands mentioned in profane history. It was here the Knight-Templars, who claim an antiquity equal to, if not more remote than the "Wisest man of all the East," who built the Temple at Jerusalem. In modern

* Vide "The Acts of the Apostles," Chap. xxvii, and xxviii, and "Universal History."

days, it has been the resort of many of the thousand armed ships" of the vaunting "Queen of the Ocean." In 1803, it was under the dominion of Great Britain; and Sir Alexander Ball, once a favourite officer of Nelson, and also a patron of the noble Bainbridge, Porter, &c. while in slavery, was governor of the island.

This place was the resort of many British naval officers at this period. Elated and flushed with the then recent victories of Copenhagen and the Nile, they felt as if American naval officers were but mere novices in the naval profession. They might possibly have heard of the victory of Truxton in the Constellation over L'Insurgente, and of Little, in the Boston frigate over Le Berceau, and other gallant deeds in the naval warfare with France. But to conquer and to annihilate French fleets, was by them, since the achievements of Duncan, Jervis and Nelson, considered as mere pastime. They had forgotten, perhaps, that their tutelary deity upon the ocean, whe afterwards fell at Trafalgar, declared, that " In this little germ of the American Navy he recognized the future rival of Britain." Exulting in the glory of Nelson, their own, perhaps nothing but a reflection from his, some of them manifested a contempt for American naval officers, at Malta, and were guilty of indignities toward them.

Lieut. Decatur, as ready to resent insults, as to reciprocate civilities, was aroused to a high and manly pitch of indignation at the proud and supercilious demeanour of the British officers. He could not patiently endure to see an officer of any naval

power, even wink disdainfully at the sword and the epaulette he wore as the reward for his previous services. As America and Britain were then at peace, and as the more dignified British officers at Malta were uniformly courteous to those of America, the conduct of a few vaunting Hotspurs in the British navy, will not be minutely detailed, nor the consequences that flowed from it, animadverted upon. Suffice it to say, the determined and highminded DECATUR, supported the dignity of his station, the infant glory of the American navy, and the honour of his country. The controversy eventuated in the premature death of a British officer, and the temporary suspension of Lieut. Decatur's command.

The civil power of the island interposed its salutary authority, to stop the effusion of blood upon what is called the "field of honour;" but which might more properly be called the yawning gulf, whose voracious jaws equally swallow up the noble champions of their country, and the rash children of desperation. Lieut. Decatur was ordered to return to America, as a passenger in the frigate Chesapeake.

Should this subject be dropped here, the reader might be led to suppose that Decatur was degraded. Far otherwise. No sooner was his whole con⚫ duct investigated, than he was appointed to the command of the noble Brig Argus. He immediately returned to the Mediterranean, and went on from victory to victory, until the Genius of Victory herself claimed him as her favourite son.