The young midshipman was most fortunate in being stationed under that
command, for it was the one place in the world at that moment where
there was any probability of seeing active service. The supremacy of the
British navy which had been established over the fleets of France and
Spain at Trafalgar, and the recent peace which had followed the defeat
and surrender of Buonaparte, had removed any possibility of collision
with a European State. But, as a matter of fact, the naval Powers,
England in particular, had long been waiting an opportunity to settle a
long-standing account in the Mediterranean with a set of potentates
established on the north coast of Africa, who had for years availed
themselves of the dissensions between the Great Powers to carry on a
system of piracy and rapine of the most insolent and atrocious
character. During the naval wars which had lasted with short intervals
for half a century, the fleets of England, France, Spain, and Holland
had been so much occupied in fighting each other that they had been
unable to bestow much attention on the doings of these petty rulers, who
were known collectively as the Barbary States, individually as the Deys
of Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli. All of these owned nominal allegiance to
the Sultan of Turkey at Constantinople when it suited them, but in
reality claimed and exercised complete independence when such was
convenient to any purpose they had in hand.

For half a century at least, the depredations of these barbarians had
made the Mediterranean a sea of great peril for the merchant vessels of
all nations, and even for the fighting ships of the smaller
Mediterranean powers like Naples and Sardinia, whose weakly manned
vessels were often no match for the galleys and feluccas of the Barbary
corsairs. The ruffianly Deys made little attempt to conceal the
piratical nature of their proceedings, and became a perfect scourge not