Wishing to procure
some medical assistance, they desired to reach Cerigo, an island twenty
miles distant, on which an English vice-consul resided. Fourteen days
elapsed before they could set sail. They bade adieu to these kind
preservers, and in six or eight hours reached Cerigo, where all possible
help was afforded them. Thence they were conveyed by a Russian ship to
Corfu; where they arrived on the 2d of March, 1807, about two months
after their melancholy disaster.
GALLANT EXPLOITS OF COMMODORE DECATUR.
Decatur is one of the most illustrious names in the naval annals of
America. Among the many officers who have borne this name, none was more
celebrated and admired in his life time and none more deeply lamented
at his untimely decease than Commodore Stephen Decatur.
[Illustration: BURNING OF THE PHILADELPHIA.]
His life was a series of heroic actions. But of these perhaps the most
remarkable of all is that which is recorded in the following language of
his biographer--the burning of the frigate Philadelphia.
Decatur had been sent out from the United States, in the Argus, to join
Commodore Preble's squadron before Tripoli.
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