Part 15 (2/2)

At last they found the pirate camp. It was deserted. The robbers had seen the _Greyhound_ and the barges, and had fled to some other hiding place. In the camp, which was protected by several cannon, there were some houses a hundred feet long. There was also an immense cave filled with all kinds of goods taken from plundered vessels.

The sailors burned the houses, and carried the plunder and cannon to their boats. The prize that David himself took away was a monkey, which he had captured after a fierce struggle.

As the sailors were returning to their boats, they heard a great noise in the thicket behind them, and thought that the pirates had come back to attack them. David Farragut made a speech to his men. He urged them to stand their ground and fight bravely. Imagine their surprise and amus.e.m.e.nt at finding their foes to be thousands of land crabs, making their way through the briars!

This was only one of many encounters that the Mosquito Fleet had with the pirates. Through all the time, the American sailors suffered much from yellow fever and exposure. David Farragut afterward said: ”I never owned a bed during my cruise in the West Indies, but lay down to rest wherever I found the most comfortable berth.”

The pirates were finally driven from the seas. Their boats were burned or captured, and their camps destroyed.

While on this cruise, David got leave of absence to visit his sister in New Orleans. She was the only one of the family still living at the old home. It was hard for her to recognize in the stranger the boy who had left home so long before.

When young Farragut was on his way to the north and within sight of Was.h.i.+ngton, he was taken ill with yellow fever. He had nursed many a poor sailor, and had hitherto escaped the disease.

After a short time spent in a Was.h.i.+ngton hospital, he was able to return home. Soon afterward, he was married in Norfolk, Virginia, to Susan Marchant. But it was nearly two years before he was entirely well, and strong enough to resume his duties in the navy. In the meanwhile, he and his bride spent much time with the family of Captain Porter.

VI.--FROM LIEUTENANT TO CAPTAIN.

In August, 1825, David Farragut at last received his commission as lieutenant. He was ordered on board the s.h.i.+p _Brandywine_, the vessel which was to have the honor of taking the Marquis de Lafayette to France.

This great Frenchman had always been a warm friend of the United States.

Fifty years before, he had taken a leading part in the Revolutionary War, and had been one of General Was.h.i.+ngton's most trusted officers.

After the Revolution, he had returned to his home in sunny France. He had always loved America, and in his old age he felt that he would like to visit again the great nation which he had helped to establish. So in 1824, though old and gray, he had come back to America as the honored guest of the nation.

From one end of the land to the other, his tour had been one grand ovation. And now that he was to return home, the good s.h.i.+p _Brandywine_ was detailed to carry him safely across the Atlantic.

[Ill.u.s.tration: LAFAYETTE.]

The voyage was an uneventful one for Lieutenant Farragut. After landing Lafayette in France, the _Brandywine_ cruised about the sh.o.r.es of England and in the waters of the Mediterranean for about a year.

On his return to America, Lieutenant Farragut found that his wife was in very poor health, and he obtained leave of absence from the navy, in order that he might take her to a famous doctor in New Haven, Connecticut.

During his stay in that city, he regularly attended the lectures at Yale College, for David Farragut never wasted an opportunity for self-improvement. When his wife was better, they returned to Norfolk, where he was placed in charge of the receiving s.h.i.+p in the navy yard.

Most of the boys on the s.h.i.+p were uneducated and did not know one letter from another. Lieutenant Farragut therefore established a school on board. This proved to be of great value to these poor boys.

One boy had run away from home to avoid going to school, and he was determined that he would not study. It was only after many severe punishments that he was conquered. When once started in the right direction, he learned rapidly.

One day, seven years afterward, a fine-looking, well-dressed man stopped David Farragut on the street. On being asked his name, the stranger replied, ”I have grown probably a foot since we parted, but do you not remember the boy who once gave you so much trouble?”

”Oh yes,” said Farragut, ”but I should never have recognized him in you.”

”Nevertheless,” said the stranger, ”I am the same, and am ready to acknowledge you the greatest benefactor and friend I ever had in this world of trouble.”

After leaving the receiving s.h.i.+p, Lieutenant Farragut spent the next ten years in short cruises along the South American coast and about the Gulf of Mexico. During all this time his wife was an invalid, and her health continued to fail until her death in 1840.

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