These sailor-soldiers made the best fight of any of the troops that sought to save Washington from capture; but during the fight Commodore Barney received a wound that brought his fighting days to an end. Fortunately there was little more fighting to do, and peace reigned over his few remaining years of life.
CHAPTER X
THE MOORISH PIRATES OF THE MEDITERRANEAN
Our Navy Teaches Them a Lesson in Honor
I SUPPOSE all the readers of this book know what a pirate is. For those who may not know, I would say that a pirate is a sea-robber. They are terrible fellows, these pirates, who live by murder and plunder. In old times there were many ship-loads of them upon the seas, who captured every merchant vessel they met with and often killed all on board.
There have been whole nations of pirates, and that as late as a hundred years ago. By looking at an atlas you will see at the north of Africa the nations of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. The people of these nations are called Moors, and they used to be great sea-robbers. They sent out fast vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, and no merchant ship there was safe. Hundreds of such ships were taken and robbed. Their crews were not killed, but they were sold as slaves, which was nearly as terrible.
Would you not think that the powerful nations of Europe would have soon put a stop to this? They could have sent fleets and armies there and conquered the Moors. But instead of that, they paid them to let their ships alone.
Not long after the Revolution these sea-robbers began to make trouble for the United States. The new nation, you should know, had no navy. After it was done fighting with the British, it was so poor that it sold all its ships. But it soon had many merchant ships, sailing to all seas, which were left to take care of themselves the best way they could.