Oliver Hazard Perry was the descendant of an English Quaker, who came to America about the middle of the seventeenth century to enjoy the free exercise of his religion. He went first to Plymouth where Quakers were disliked; finally he purchased a tract of land in Roger Williams’ Rhode Island colony and settled there. Here his descendants remained and here Oliver Hazard Perry was born in 1785. His father served in the American navy during the Revolution and became so fond of the sea that he continued his voyages as captain of a merchant-vessel. Oliver was sent first to a school near his home. A few years later his parents moved from South Kingston to Newport to give their children the advantage of better schools. The war between England and France was now going on, and it seemed at this time as if America would be drawn into war against France. President Adams, therefore, resolved to establish a navy. Captain Perry was given command of a vessel called the General Greene, the business of which was to defend American merchant-vessels trading with the West Indies. Oliver, now thirteen, begged his father to let him enter the navy. Permission was granted, and Oliver became a midshipman on his father’s vessel. After danger of war with France was over, young Perry still continued in the navy. His next service was in the Mediterranean against the Barbary States. These states,--Tunis, Algiers, Tripoli, and Morocco--on the north coast of Africa, had for hundreds of years made a business of piracy. They captured vessels, and used or sold the stores and sold the crews into slavery. America, like England and other countries, for years bribed them not to molest its vessels. At last the Americans determined, instead of paying tribute, longer, to send a fleet to the Barbary coast and force the pirates to respect the American flag. Oliver Perry was on a ship sent in 1802. The fleet cruised about and did little fighting and his ship was recalled to America in 1803. The most daring deed of the war was performed by a young American lieutenant, Stephen Decatur. An American ship, the Philadelphia, had fallen into the hands of the Barbary pirates and Lieutenant Decatur went into the harbor with a few men in a boat and set fire to the vessel to prevent its being manned by the Tripolitans. The Barbary ruler finally made a treaty of peace with the United States. In the war Perry had had no special opportunity to distinguish himself, but he had proved himself brave and efficient. When the war against England began in 1812, it seemed that American chances for sea victory were small. England, the mistress of the seas, had a large, well-equipped navy; the American fleet was far inferior in numbers and in size. But the Americans had brave seamen who won some brilliant victories. One of the greatest of these was that of the American vessel the Constitution over the English Guerriére.