an ambassador to the Porte, with the customary presents, in the Washington, a small American frigate, at that time lying in the harbor of Algiers.  In vain the consul and captain remonstrated, and represented that they had no authority to send the vessel on such a mission; they were silenced by the assurance that it was a particular honor conferred on them, which the Dey had declined offering to any of the English vessels then in harbor, as he was rather angry with that nation.  The Washington was obliged to be prepared for the service; the corsair flag, bearing the turbaned head of Ali, was run up to her main top, under a salute of seven guns; and in this respectable plight she sailed up the Mediterranean, dropped anchor before the seven towers, where, having landed her cargo, she was permitted to resume her own colors, and was thus the first vessel to hoist the American Union in the Thracian Bosphorus.

[Illustration:  Algerines in the act of firing off the French consul from a mortar at the French fleet.]

In 1812, however, the Dey, finding his funds at a low ebb, and receiving from all quarters reports that a wealthy American commerce was afloat, determined on trying them with a new war.  He was peculiarly unfortunate in the time chosen, as the States, having about a month previously declared war with Great Britain, had, in fact, withdrawn most of the merchant ships from the sea, so that the only prize which fell into the hands of the Dey’s cruizers was a small brig, with a crew of eleven persons.  The time at length came for putting an end to these lawless depredations, and peace having been concluded with England, President Madison, in 1815, despatched an American squadron, under commodores Bainbridge and Decatur, with Mr. Shaler, as envoy, on board, to demand full satisfaction for all injuries done to American subjects, the immediate release of such as were captives, the restitution of their property, with an assurance that no future violence should be offered, and also to negociate the preliminaries of a treaty on terms of perfect equality, no proposal of tribute being at all admissible.  The squadron reached its destination early in June, and, having captured an Algerine frigate and brig-of-war, suddenly appeared before Algiers, at a moment when all the cruizers were at sea, and delivered, for the consideration of the Divan, the terms on which they were commissioned to make peace, together with a letter from the President to the Dey.  Confounded by the sudden and entirely unexpected appearance of this force, the Algerines agreed, on the 30th of June, to the proposals of a treaty, almost without discussion.

It had long been a reproach to Great Britain, the mistress of the sea, that she had tamely suffered a barbarian power to commit such atrocious ravages on the fleets and shores of the minor states along the Mediterranean.  At length a good cause was made for chastising them.