Finally, after fitting out this fourth squadron, at an expense of one
million five hundred and seventy thousand dollars, and with Eaton in
possession of Derne, the Administration paid sixty thousand dollars for
peace and ransom, when Preble, ten months previously, could have
obtained both for one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Thus they
spent two millions to save ninety thousand, and left the principle of
tribute precisely where it was before.
What makes this business still more remarkable is, that the
Administration knew from the reports of our consuls and from the
experience of our captains that the force of the pirates was
insignificant, and that they were wretched sailors and poor shots.
Sterret took a Tripolitan cruiser of fourteen guns after an engagement
of thirty minutes; he killed or wounded fifty of her crew, and did not
lose a man, nor suffer any material damage in his hull or rigging. There
was no one killed on the American side when Decatur burned the
Philadelphia. The Constitution was under the fire of the Tripolitan
batteries for two hours without losing a man, and was equally fortunate
when she ran in a second time and lay within musket-shot of the mole,
exposed to the fire of the enemy for three-quarters of an hour.
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