while it lasted. Whenever it was raised, out came the Corsairs again. An
occasional bombardment of their port did not cow them and had no permanent
effect. A French official described it as being "like breaking glass
windows with guineas." The Algerines made treaties with some Powers in
consideration of tribute but refused peace to others on any terms; as they
did not desire to shut out all opportunity for their time-honored sport of
piracy.

Congress was slow to take action of any kind. In January, 1791, Maclay
noted that a committee had decided that the Mediterranean trade could not
be preserved without an armed force to protect it, and that a navy should
be established as soon as the Treasury was in a position to bear the
expense. Meanwhile the President began fresh negotiations, which were
attended by singular fatality. Thomas Barclay, who had some diplomatic
experience, was commissioned to go to the Emperor of Morocco. When Barclay
reached Gibraltar, he was taken ill, and, after being removed to Lisbon,
he died. Admiral John Paul Jones was then appointed special commissioner
to arrange for the ransom of the captives. As he had then left the Russian
service and was living in Paris, it was supposed that his services would
be available, but he died before the commission could reach him. The delay
caused by these events was made so much worse by the slow transmission of
intelligence that two years elapsed before a fresh start was made by
placing the conduct of matters in the hands of Colonel David Humphreys,
then Minister to Portugal. Humphreys had gone as far as Gibraltar on his
mission when he learned that a truce had been suddenly arranged between
Portugal and Algiers. This was alarming news, since it meant that the
Algerines could now pass into the Atlantic from which they had been
excluded by Portuguese war-vessels stationed in the strait of Gibraltar.
"I have not slept since the receipt of the news of this the hellish plot,"
wrote Edward Church, the United States consul at Lisbon. Church was