vessel had reached her objective point, there was a blinding 1 8 0 4 flash, a terrific explosion, and into the air went masts, sails, rigging, and many shells, some of which burst in their flight. In the town were confused cries and the beating of drums, then the batteries ceased their fire and all was silence and darkness. Just what had happened can never be known. Perhaps the explosion was caused by a shot from the enemy, perhaps by an accident, perhaps Somers himself fired the magazine rather than to fall into the enemy's hands. Captain Bainbridge, who saw some of the shattered bodies, believed that the explosion was premature and that the enemy suffered no damage. On the tenth of September, Commodore Samuel Barron Preble Gives arrived with the "President" and the "Constellation" Way to Barron Medal presented to Edward Preble by Congress and assumed command. At first, Preble had not been popular with officers and men, but his ability had been quickly recognized and his departure was generally regretted. His squadron has justly been called the "training school for the struggle with the British navy a few years later; Preble was a great teacher, and they were worthy pupils." When Barron was sent out, the news of Preble's exploits had not reached the United States; upon his arrival, he was received with great 1 8 0 3 distinction. Congress gave him a gold medal and a vote 1 8 4 of thanks, the first instance of the kind under the consti Eaton's Fruitful Suggestion May 26 June 6 Eaton's Little Army tution. Barron did not display the activity that Preble had shown with a much weaker squadron. For this, the winter season and the state of Barron's health were in part responsible. In May, 1805, he turned the squadron over to Captain Rodgers who remained in command until peace was made. William Eaton was a resourceful and energetic Connecticut Yankee who had served in the continental army and had subsequently been graduated by Dartmouth college. When the war with Tripoli began, he was consul at Tunis where he became acquainted with Hamet Karamanli, rightful pasha of Tripoli but dispossessed by his brother, Yusuf. Eaton early suggested to Secretary Madison that the United States should espouse Hamet's cause. From time to time, he renewed the suggestion and endeavored to interest United States naval officers in the plan. The naval officers gave him little encouragement, probably because he had offended them by his caustic comments on Bainbridge's humiliating voyage to Constantinople. Early in 1803, the dey ordered him to leave his dominions and Eaton returned to the United States. In 1804, he was appointed navy agent and placed under the orders of Commodore Barron to whom the secretary of the navy wrote: "With respect to the ex-pasha of Tripoli, we have no objection to your availing yourself of his coöperation with you against Tripoli. In such an event you will, it is believed, find Mr. Eaton extremely useful to you. After various vicissitudes, Hamet had retired to Egypt, and, when Eaton, who had gained Barron's consent to the undertaking, arrived at Alexandria in the brig "Argus," Captain Isaac Hull, the exile had joined the rebellious Mamelukes, then besieged at Minieh one hundred and fifty miles or more up the Nile from Cairo. Eaton persuaded the Egyptian viceroy to grant Hamet a letter of amnesty and, after many strange happenings, the pretender was brought to Alexandria. There, the intrigues of the French consul, who represented that the Americans 1 8 0 5 were British spies, caused the Turkish officials to refuse leave to embark. Eaton, therefore, resolved to march overland to Dernah. A camp was formed west of Alexandria and the international army was organized at Arab's Tower, still further west. The army numbered in all about four hundred men, including Eaton as commander-in-chief, and nine other Americans, Hamet and his suite of ninety men, a party of Arab cavalry under two sheiks, forty Greeks, a German and an English officer. Eaton also had a caravan of camels and a few asses. On the eighth of March, 1805, the little army began its On the March journey of five or six hundred miles across the Libyan desert. For much of the way the route lay through a region inhabited by wild Arabs who never before had seen a Christian. The sea was often in sight, but fresh water was scarce and supplies were difficult to obtain. Time and again, the Arab cavalry deserted only to come back. Time after time, Moslems and Christians were almost ready to cut each other's throats. Only the courage and resolution of Eaton sustained the enterprise. At last, however, with forces swelled by accessions along April 17 the way, the expedition reached the Gulf of Bomba, a little east of Dernah, and there came in touch with the "Argus" and the "Hornet." On the twenty-fifth, the army encamped on a height overlooking Dernah. Hamet had once been governor of this town and a large The Capture part of its population was friendly to him. On the of Dernah twenty-sixth of April, Eaton sent in a summons to surrender, but the bey in command laconically replied: "My head or yours." An attack was made on the following day and, with the assistance of a bombardment from the "Hornet" and the "Argus," the town was captured. Some days later, a Tripolitan army appeared before the town and, on the thirteenth of May, made an assault that was repelled with difficulty. A similar attack was made on the tenth of June and with the same result. Eaton always contended that with proper support he A Treaty of could have driven Yusuf from his dominions, but he did Peace 1805 not have an opportunity to make the attempt. In the preceding June, Colonel Tobias Lear, consul-general at Algiers, had been given authority to negotiate a peace and, late in May, 1805, he appeared off Tripoli. Rendered uneasy by blockades, bombardments, and, above all else, by the progress of his brother, Yusuf consented to abate somewhat his former extravagant demands. A more determined negotiator could probably have secured very favorable terms, but Lear had strongly opposed Eaton's project and was bent on immediate peace. On the fourth of June, a treaty was made, by the terms of which there was to be an exchange of prisoners; as the pasha held a surplus of about two hundred, Lear agreed that the United States should pay him sixty thousand dollars. The United States was also to withdraw its forces from Dernah, give no more supplies to Tripolitans in rebellion, and endeavor to persuade Hamet to withdraw. Yusuf then held in captivity Hamet's wife and children; these he was to restore to the husband and father, but a secret article that Lear never submitted to president or senate provided that the usurper should have four years in which to do so-conduct that was unpardonable in a diplomatic agent. The treaty was subsequently ratified by the United States, but the preponderance of opinion, then and now, has been and is that the conclusion of peace was hasty and ill-judged, that, in view of the force then in the Mediterranean, the payment of a ransom was unjustifiable, and that the American force should have been employed in further attacks upon Tripoli by water and in supporting Eaton and Hamet by land. Hamet and some of his followers were carried to Syracuse; his other followers were left to the tender mercies of Yusuf. A Hands LTHOUGH the territory of Louisiana was secretly Louisiana ceded by Louis XV. to his "dear and beloved Changes cousin, the King of Spain" in 1762, the province remained in French hands for some time thereafter. In March, 1766, Don Antonio Ulloa arrived at New Orleans with a number of officials and two companies of Spanish infantry to take possession of the colony. The inhabitants ardently petitioned Louis XV. not to surrender them to Spain and displayed such a spirit of hostility that the ceremony of transfer was postponed until the arrival of more Spanish troops. Meanwhile, the French inhabitants grew more and more averse to the new authority and formed a conspiracy to expel the Spaniards by force. The French governor endeavored in vain to calm the tumult and Ulloa was forced to sail down the Mississippi. November 1, In the following summer, Count Alexander O'Reilly, the 1768 Irish lieutenant-general of the armies of Spain, arrived with an overwhelming force and the creoles hastened to make their submission. Twelve of the conspirators were arrested, one was killed by his prison guards, five were November 25, executed, and others were confined in the castle at Havana. 1769 Warned by this example, the people silently submitted The Spanish to the Spanish rule. The rule of "Bloody O'Reilly" Régime was capable, that of the mild and humane Unzaga was 1770-1777 soothing; the material prosperity of the colony advanced, and there was a considerable immigration from Spain. In 1777, Don Bernardo de Galvez, the energetic son of |