The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1900-05-08
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Admiral Blake Among the Pirates
Page from the History Of Tunis-
! BY David Ker.
OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES

THERE" said my French com
4 panion, pointing southwark over
the smooth, bright water, as we glided
into the Bay of Tunis under the
splendor of the African sunrise
There is the place where a battle was
fought which you Englishmen ought
all to know by heart"
Admiral Blake's attack on Goletta,
you mean?"
bank juts out, stood the five forts
that defended the place, and the pr
rate ships were moored just behind
them, in that little bay. Not much
sign of all that now, is there?"
Indeed it was not easy to call up
airy thought of battle amid the I'm,
troubled stiffness and repose of that
glorious landscape. Far along the
eastern sky the great purple noun
tains stood out in endless range,
crowned with the two-peaked summit
CT the mighty Hamet-El-Lif.
Through the deep, narrow gorges
that cleft the huge mountain-waIl
every here and there the first rays of
sunrise were just streaming across
the vast expanse of blue, sparkling
sea that stretched away to the north
far as the eye could reach, with a
few tiny white sails dotted over it like
wTeaths of foam.
Along the western shore of the bay
extended a line of low, green hills,
uEon the crest of which a mass of
crumbling masonry marked the spot
where the ancient citadel of Carthage
had fallen before Scipio and his Ro-
mans
Just al the nearer extremity of the
broad yellow sand-bar that spanned
the whole breadth of the deep blue
bay nestled the dainty little town of
Goletta, and on the opposite hillside
lay, like a drift of snow, the countless
white houses, and crumbling walls,
and tall minarets. and clustering palm
trees of imperial Tunis.
Rut despite the perfect peace of the
spot which once witnessed the finest
battle fought there since the fall OF
Carthage, the memory of that days
work will never die while one man OF
Anglo-Saxon blood remains to keeI
alive the instinct of courage and fail
play, and standing up against the
strong in behalf of the weak.
1t is we'll worth while for anyone
however he may hate war and blood
shed in general, to look back and see
- l1-o Aara ao-4ofr
fine spring morning, two centurie:
ago.
1t is the Sd of April, 1853, and the
whole city of Tunis is in an uproar
| Wild faces, livid with fear or blacl
with rage, crowd the narrow, wind
ing, gloomy streets, which echo will
the clamor of countless tongues, thu
tramp of feet, the clatter of horse
boots and the rumble of artillery
wheels.
Hundreds of swarthy figures, swort
in belt and Matchbox on shoulder
are swarming over the decks of thu
nine huge w~ar-galleys which lii
moored close under the forts of Go
letta.
In the forts themselves. crowds o
men are hard at work running GU
leavy guns, piling up cannon-bails
filling p~owder-chests, or laying sand
bugs along the ramparts as an ad
ditional shelter; and all eyes ar
turned watchfully toward the en-
trance of the bay, and the five grea
hne-of-battle ships that are gliding
into it, with the black mouths O
loaded cannon gaping hungril.
through their open ports, and the re-
cross of England-not yet altere'
into the union jack-futtered jaunt
ily at the mizzen.
High on the poop of the English flag
shin stands a tall. handsome man. !
the uniform of a British admiral. Hi
fire face is perfectly calm. but q clos
observer would notice that he wear
The same set, stern look that ii wor
when he held Tauntoutown years ago
against The bravest of Charles LIS cavs
Tiers.
In truth a hard fight against over
whelmiug odds is nothing new TO Rot
ert Blake. the worthy %forerunner {
Rodney and Nelson; and the cause !
which he is TO fight to-day might we
nerve any man TO Go his best. ionde
behind those batteries that frown upo
him from behind the shore, are thol
sands OF Christian capiives-many {
them Eugllshmen like himself
chained. ragged, half-starved. bli
tered by the scorching sun. and seame
with the scars of whip and hrandin
iron. And now. after years of hiGeor
bondage among brutal pirates. whic
have msie the memory OF home All
friends, and the hope of one day return