“Indeed I sh.d place much more confidence in the continuance of a peace with the present Bashaw, if he is well beaten into it, then I sh.d have with the other, if he should be placed on the throne by our means.”
Lear stated that the rumors of the U.S. naval preparations appeared sufficient to bring Tripoli around to negotiate a reasonable peace treaty and ransom. He mentioned that in the spring he expected to accompany Commodore Barron to Tripoli “in order to be ready to treat with the Bashaw, if he sh.d desire it; before we make an attack.” (The word before would prove ominous and prophetic.)
Barron and Eaton shuttled back to Syracuse, a place where lax quarantine laws would allow them to go ashore immediately. Barron’s health was worsening, and he wrote to Captain Rodgers, “I am so unwell to Day that I can scarcely write at all & am totally unfit for business—God knows how it will End.”
Finally on November 10, Commodore Samuel Barron, thinking himself near death, issued orders for the Argus, which had returned, to carry William Eaton to Alexandria. Barron had received some favorable reports about Hamet and, amazingly, he ordered Captain Isaac Hull to aid Eaton. “If on your Arrival in Egypt it should be found necessary to furnish any Stores, Ammunition, Money &c. for the Service of the United States, in aid of the intended cooperation with Hamet Bashaw, you are hereby Authorized to supply Mr. Eaton with such as may be wanted for that purpose, and can be spared from the Argus Brig under your command—taking his receipts & Vouchers for the same.”
A smallpox outbreak on board the Argus slowed the ship’s exit. Some of the sick men were ferried ashore to a new U.S. hospital that Barron was setting up in Syracuse. The ship was fumigated, and at least one sailor, Lev White, died and was consigned to the deep outside the harbor. (No one wanted the corpse to wash ashore.)
Eaton took advantage of these last few days prior to leaving. First off, he made certain not to visit Barron, who was recuperating at a country house outside the city. Eaton must have been afraid that Barron would change his mind. Eaton’s excuse, given a week later to Barron, is completely unconvincing. Eaton, who had trekked alone on the Mississippi and scouted Indians in Spanish Florida, claimed that he tried twice to find Barron’s house in the evening and once missed to the left and the next time to the right.
One can easily find another motive in Eaton’s avoiding Barron. The New Englanders, Eaton and Preble, were cooking up a little end run to help Eaton embark on his mission. Preble wrote a note to Sir Alexander Ball, British governor of Malta, a longtime friend. (Preble had once commissioned a fishing boat to be built in America and sent to Ball by way of thanks for help in fighting Tripoli.) Preble wrote: “Commodore Barron being at present sick in the Country for the recovery of his health, I take the liberty of introducing to your Excellency William Eaton, U.S. Naval Agent for the Barbary States. Mr. Eaton is going to Egypt, and wishes to obtain a letter of introduction from your Excellency to some Character of your acquaintance. Any attentions you may please to shew Mr. Eaton will be considered as an additional obligation to the many which your Excellency has already confered on . . . Edward Preble.”
With the French long evacuated from Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean, Sir Alexander Ball ranked among the most powerful men in the entire region.
Eaton, ready to depart early the following day, took one last crack at landing more supplies. (He clearly knew that the brig Argus—carrying 140 men—held but a trifle of what he needed, and that Barron might be delirious.) Eaton yet again wrote to the secretary of the navy.
On further consideration, I am of opinion that the supplies of arms and ammunition to be loaned [to Hamet] should come out from America. . . . Brass field pieces, well mounted, and excellent french arms are ready at Springfield; and as this place is in the vicinity of Hartford, the best port in the United States, perhaps for shipping salt beef, 14 brass 4p.rs and 500 or a thousand stands of arms may be sent out from thence. Good muskets, powder, flints and balls; and suitable ammunition for the Artillery will be necessary.
Presuming on the perseverance of Government in the resolution you expressed to me last spring of furnishing those supplies I shall assure the Bashaw accordingly. If cash be loaned him, of which he will stand in need, I desire it may be under regulations which will impose no responsibility on me.
That last sentence marks one of the very few times that William Eaton showed any fiscal caution. At that moment, under tentative calculations at the Treasury Department, Eaton owed the enormous sum of $40,000 to the government. He clearly did not want this new mission to put him any further in debt; in fact, his best chance for escaping ruin was a victory by Hamet, which would halo Eaton.