Thereafter, in the course of the war with England, a daring Yankee privateer, the _Abellino_, Captain Wyer, of Boston, sailed into the Mediterranean and took four prizes, which were sent into Tripoli and Tunis. The rulers of these states promptly delivered the prizes to British cruisers. The war with England having ended, the Yankee navy was in prime condition for attending to these pirates, and just five days after the ratification of the treaty of peace with Great Britain, the United States declared war against them. Two squadrons were fitted out, one at Boston under Commodore William Bainbridge, and the other at New York under Commodore Stephen Decatur. The two were to unite in the Mediterranean, where Bainbridge was to assume command, because he was senior by right of the date of his commission. Decatur got under way first, sailing on May 20, 1815. He carried with him Mr. William Shaler as Consul-general to the pirate states; and Shaler, Bainbridge, and Decatur were fully empowered to negotiate new treaties. The squadron under Decatur included the new frigate _Guerrière_ (rated a forty-four); the _Macedonian_ (captured from the British), Captain Jacob Jones; the _Constellation_, Captain Charles Gordon; the sloop-of-war _Epervier_ (captured from the British), Captain John Downes; the _Ontario_, Captain Jesse D. Elliott; the brig _Firefly_, Captain George W. Rodgers; the brig _Flambeau_, Captain John B. Nicholson; the brig _Spark_, Captain Thomas Gamble; the schooner _Spitfire_, Captain A. J. Dallas; and the schooner _Torch_, Captain Wolcott Chauncey--in all, ten vessels and two hundred and ten guns. The squadron at Boston was headed by the new Yankee seventy-four-gun line-of-battle ship _Independence_, and included the frigates _United States_ and _Congress_, the sloop _Erie_, the brigs _Boxer_, _Chippewa_, _Saranac_, and _Enterprise_, and the sloop (one-masted) _Lynx_. The _Boxer_ was the vessel captured by the Yankee brig _Enterprise_, and the _Enterprise_ was the old favorite. But these vessels arrived in the Mediterranean too late to have any part in negotiating a treaty. Decatur had already done the work, and this is the more remarkable when one considers the force of the Algerian navy. As estimated by Maclay, the Algerian force afloat was a half stronger than Decatur’s. It included five frigates armed with eighteens and twelves, six sloops-of-war armed with twelves, nines, and sixes, and a schooner--in all twelve vessels carrying three hundred and sixty guns. Moreover, these vessels were fully manned with able seamen, and their admiral, “Rais Hammida, was the terror of the Mediterranean.” He “had risen from the lowest to the highest place in the Algerian navy” (something that cannot be done in the navy of the American republic), and he had proved his prowess and valor over and again.