Frazer.] duO [Sept_ g^ 



the captain's wife, by their grandmother, Mrs. Yorke, to meet their 

 father in Marseilles. They all traveled to Tripoli together, proceeding 

 from Malta in an American man-of-war. Edward was with them, and 

 the sailors made him a present of a heavy leaden cast of an Indian war- 

 rior painted in colors. It was for years a favorite toy of all the 

 children. During his tifth or sixth year he was in the care of his family 

 at Tripoli, where his early education in languages was commenced by 

 tutors, that in "mathematics, algebra («ic) and navigation," by his 

 father later. At the early age of seven he was riding races with his 

 sister Louisa, to the great admiration and astonishment of the Moors 

 (Letter of D. S. M., January, 1836). In 1887, or when Edward was ten 

 years old, his father considered him sufficiently advanced to "navigate " 

 his yacht to Malta, as will be seen further on. By experience of this 

 kind the future Rear Admiral gradually learned practical navigation 

 and evidently improved in linguistics, thus laying the foundation of the 

 philological and archeological studies which were kept up till his death. 



In a letter from D. S. McCauley, dated 1832, he describes an attack 

 on the bashaw's capital by the latter's brother, in which, during the 

 bombardment, the U. S. consulate was several times struck by mis- 

 siles. Edward, then a child of but five years, showed no fear, but was 

 always among the first of those who sallied out to investigate the extent 

 of the damage. Another incident of his childhood is thus related by 

 his sister. " My father was down on a sandy beach outside of the town 

 (Tripoli) one day superintending the building of his yacht. My 

 brother (Edward), a child of six, was with him, playing about among 

 the timber, etc. It happened to be a day which was kept every year as 

 a Mussulman religious fanatic feast. The custom was for the Marabouts 

 to race about the streets in a sort of religious frenzy, shouting, devouring 

 serpents, and cutting themselves with knives. Their violence was 

 chiefly shown against the Christians and Jews, who dared not leave 

 their houses, or even open a window on such occasions. The stories of 

 their atrocities were most appalling. My father, who did not believe in 

 their madness, always went out as usual on this feast, merely arming 

 himself with a stout stick. On this occasion, hearing the shouting and 

 tearing along of the crowd, he looked up just in time to see a Marabout 

 seize the child and fling him over his shoulder. My father picked up a 

 large pickaxe which lay close by and made a movement to throw it at 

 the Marabout, when the latter dropped the child very suddenly in a 

 very sane manner. Owing to very forcible representations to the 

 Pasha of Tripoli, the mummery was entirely done away with after that 

 year. My father did not believe in the madness of the fanatics." 



His early association with Arabs, Greeks, Turks and Levantines, and 

 his consequent familiarity with the distinctive features of Oriental life 

 at a time when the dwellers on the shores of the Mediterranean were 

 less contaminated by intercotirse with the travelers of all nations than 

 now, had great influence on the imagination of a boy who was nat- 



