Pirate Princes and Yankee Jacks / Setting forth David Forsyth's Adventures in America's Battles on Sea and Desert with the Buccaneer Princes of Barbary, with an Account of a Search under the Sands of the Sahara Desert for the Treasure-filled Tomb of Ancient Kings

by Daniel Henderson

CHAPTER X A CONNECTICUT YANKEE IN THE COURT OF TUNIS

At Malta, whom should I bump into but commodore Barney! His business in France having been completed, he had taken the notion to see southern Europe before returning to the United States.

He was amazed to see me in the uniform of the United States, yet proud, too, that I had taken matters into my own hands and gone to sea willy-nilly. He told me that the rector had been sent back to his Baltimore charge by his bishop, and that Alexander had begun business in Baltimore as a ship chandler. My story of Murad's treachery brought forth a series of explosions, which, however, were cut short by the arrival of the commodore's friend Captain William Eaton, a military officer from the United States, who had stopped in Malta on his way to take the office of American envoy at the court of Tunis.

The conversation turned towards Captain Eaton's mission to Tunis. "I understand that I have an abominable ruler to deal with," he said, "I shall be doing well if I do nothing more than keep Yankee ships and sailors out of his hands!"

"I wish I were going with you, sir," I said impulsively.

"Can you write? Are you handy at clerical work?" he asked.

"Is he?" burst out the commodore, "why, the boy was brought up to be a minister. When I knew him a quill or a book was never out of his hands!"

"I have authority from Washington to employ a secretary," said the captain. "The lad can accompany me in that office."

Delighted, I turned away to make the necessary arrangements. "If you haven't the knack of fighting as well as of writing, I advise you to decline the position," Captain Eaton called after me, "for I expect to battle with the Bey of Tunis from the hour I arrive!"

"That," I returned, "is the reason I said I'd like to go along! You look like a fighter, sir!"

Captain Eaton was pleased instead of offended at my boldness. The story of his career, as I heard it later from the commodore, proved that the captain was a fighter in deeds as well as in looks. He had a broad forehead, with deep-set eyes and heavy eyebrows. His nose was that of a fighter, and if ever a chin expressed determination, his did.

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

His career, as I heard it later from the lips of the commodore, was fascinating. His father had been a farmer-teacher who raised crops in the summer and taught school in the winter. William, who was born in Woodstock, Connecticut, developed into a lad with a studious yet adventurous spirit. When sixteen he ran away from home and enlisted in the army where he was employed as a waiter by Major Dennie, of the Connecticut troops.