" As the jewels had been repeatedly promised by the
United States, this weak attempt to avoid giving them was quite
consistent with the shabby national position we had taken In the
Mediterranean. It met with the success it deserved. The Bey was much too
shrewd a fellow, especially in the matter of presents, to be imposed
upon by any such Yankee pretences. The jewels were ordered in London,
and, as compensation for this new delay, the demand for a frigate was
renewed. After nearly two years of anxiety, Eaton could write home that
the prospects of peace were good.
His despatches had not passed the Straits when the Pacha of Tripoli sent
for Consul Cathcart, and swore by "Allah and the head of his son," that,
unless the President would give him two hundred and fifty thousand
dollars for a new treaty, and an annual subsidy of twenty thousand, he
would declare war against the United States.
These two years of petty humiliations had exasperated Eaton's bold and
fiery temper. He found some relief in horse-whipping Monsieur Famin, who
had been unceasing in his quiet annoyances, and in writing to the
Government at home despatches of a most undiplomatic warmth and
earnestness.
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