Chapter I: Foreword

The road cleft by early American ships into the Mediterranean Sea has become a well-traveled one. On errands of commerce, punishment or relief, our skippers have laid an ever-broadening way into the Orient.

Yet who, in the bustle of the present, recalls the pioneer American captains and sailors who once suffered slavery and torture to make the Mediterranean a safe sea for Yankee vessels? Who remembers the Americans who lay for nine years in Turkish prisons? Who recalls General William Eaton, who led a little band of Americans and Greeks on a desperate venture across the North African desert to release the imprisoned crew of the _Philadelphia_ from Turkish bondage, and who, for the first time, raised the United States flag over a fort of the old world?

It is to make this period and its heroic characters live again in the mind of America that this volume has been written. To link the several campaigns against the Turks of Barbary, extending over a period of fifteen years, the author has adopted the method he followed in his book "Boone of the Wilderness," and introduced characters and episodes of fiction. The material is largely derived from original sources.

Permit us, then, without further ado, to present and commend to your interest the young sailor David Forsyth, who is at times the hero of the yarn, but quite as often a spectator and historian of the deeds of the brave men under whom he was privileged to serve. Do not hold his youth against him. Nelson went to sea at twelve; Drake was scarcely more than a boy when he fought on the Spanish Main; and Decatur and many other gallant American officers under whom David served were mere striplings. Youth was foremost on the sea in those days, and it is hoped that its ardent spirit flames in this volume, though a century's dust covers our heroes.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE MAN FROM THE EAST 1

II. CAPTURED BY CORSAIRS 16

III. BARBARY AND THE BUCCANEERS 25

IV. _The Rose of Egypt_ 40

V. MY FIRST VOYAGE 46

VI. MUTINY 56

VII. BETRAYED 64

VIII. AN AMERICAN FRIGATE BECOMES A CORSAIR'S CATTLESHIP 74

IX. LIFE ABOARD _Old Ironsides_ 82

X. A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN THE COURT OF TUNIS 95

XI. THE LOSS OF _The Philadelphia_ 109

XII. WE BLOW UP _The Philadelphia_ 116

XIII. THE AMERICAN EAGLE ENTERS THE AFRICAN DESERT 126

XIV. THE DESERT GIRL 140

XV. REUBEN JAMES SAVES DECATUR'S LIFE 154

XVI. WE CAPTURE THE DESERT CITY OF DERNE 162

XVII. THE TREASURE TOMB 177

XVIII. SOLD INTO SLAVERY 187

XIX. THE ESCAPE 198

XX. HOME SURPRISES 220

POSTSCRIPT. THE END OF THE PIRATES 228

BIBLIOGRAPHY 234

ILLUSTRATIONS

STEPHEN DECATUR, _from a painting by Rembrandt Peale_ _Frontispiece_

PAGE "I'D BLOW EVERY ONE OF THOSE PIRATE NESTS OUT OF THE WATER BEFORE I'D PAY ONE OF THOSE BLOODY BASHAWS A SIXPENCE!" SAID THE COMMODORE 13

WRECKING AND PIRACY HAD BEEN FOLLOWED BY THE COMMUNITIES BORDERING ON THE MEDITERRANEAN SINCE THE EARLIEST DAYS 35

IN LOOK AND IN DEED, WILLIAM EATON WAS A FIGHTER 94

"HOW DARE YOU LIFT YOUR HAND AGAINST A SUBJECT OF MINE," THE BEY OF TUNIS DEMANDED OF EATON 101

I HOPED THAT I MIGHT JOIN A CARAVAN THAT WOULD PASS BY TOKRA--THE TREASURE CITY OF MY DREAMS 105

"WE ARE BOUND ACROSS THIS GLOOMY DESERT TO LIBERATE THREE HUNDRED AMERICANS FROM THE CHAINS OF BARBARISM."--General Eaton 135

THIS WAS THE FIRST TIME AN AMERICAN FLAG HAD BEEN RAISED ON A FORT OF THE OLD WORLD 165

PIRATE PRINCES AND YANKEE JACKS

CHARACTERS OF THE STORY

DAVID FORSYTH, an orphan.

ALEXANDER, his brother.

REV. EZEKIEL ECCLESTON, D.D., Rector of Marley Chapel, Baltimore--David's guardian.

COMMODORE JOSHUA BARNEY, of the United States Navy.

GENERAL WILLIAM EATON, in command of the American expedition by land against Tripoli.

MURAD, an Egyptian.

BLUDSOE, mate of _The Rose of Egypt_.

ANNE, "The Desert Girl."

MUSTAPHA, An Arab boy.

STEPHEN DECATUR, WILLIAM BAINBRIDGE, EDWARD PREBLE, RICHARD SOMERS, REUBEN JAMES, SAMUEL CHILDS, and other officers and men of the United States Navy.

PIRATE PRINCES AND YANKEE JACKS