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For the Literary Magazine.

biographical sketches.

Commodore Preble.

DIED on the 25th of August, 1807,
commodore Preble, of the United
States navy. He had just complet-
ed the 45th year of his age, being
born in Portland, in August, 1761.
The following sketch of his life is
copied from “The Polyanthus.”

Our young hero, almost from his
infancy, discovered a noble and in-
vincible courage, and admirable
resolution and perseverance in all
his pursuits. Blest with an athlet-
ick constitution, and having no great
inclination to sedentary amusement,
his hours of leisure from his aca-
demical and other early studies
were mostly devoted to hunting, and
other exercises of the greatest acti-
vity.

In his youth he became a ma-
riner in the mercantile service,
which he successfully followed, dur-
ing some years after the commence-
ment of the revolutionary war. In
this war he was once made a prison-
er. After his liberation from cap-
tivity, his enterprize and vigour
were displayed in armed vessels of
the state of Massachusetts, with ho-
nour and success.

About the year 1779, he entered
as a midshipman on board the ship
Protector, commanded by captain
John Foster Williams; with whom
he served one or two years, till he
was promoted to a lieutenancy on
board the sloop of war Winthrop,
commanded by captain George Lit-
tle. In this station he performed a
very brilliant and heroic action,
boarding and capturing with a few
men a vessel of more than equal
force, lying in the harbour of Pe-
nobscot; under a furious cannonade
from the battery, and an incessant
firing from the troops. After this
he continued with captain Little,
till the peace of 1783.

In the year 1801, he had the com-
mand of the United States frigate
Essex, in which he performed a

voyage to the East Indies, for the
protection of our trade in those
seas; and, having driven off the
cruisers, returned in the following
year with a convoy from Batavia
under his care, consisting of fifteen
ships and other vessels, estimated
at the value of four millions of dollars.

In the year 1803, captain Preble
was honoured with the appointment
of commodore, and with the com-
mand of the United States frigate
Constitution, with a squadron con-
sisting of seven sail of vessels in all;
and before the end of the year
made his passage to the Mediterra-
nean Sea.

In the following year, 1804,
though he was destined to act in the
Mediterranean with his fleet, and
particularly designed to subdue or
humble the Tripolitan barbarians;
yet, on his arrival at Gibraltar, he
found the emperor of Morocco had
made war upon the vessels of the
United States. This prevented for
a time the fleet's progress up the
Mediterranean, till the commodore
had taken measures to obtain a
peace with that power, on terms
honourable to his country, which
was happily effected. But after the
unfortunate loss of the frigate Phi-
ladelphia, he found that his remain-
ing force was by no means equal to
the attack of the strong holds of
Tripoli, with any rational prospect
of success. Rather than fail, how-
ever, in his design, he obtained a
number of gun-boats from the king
of Naples, by which he was the bet-
ter able to oppose the gun-boats of
the enemy. After the burning of
the Philadelphia, through the va-
lour of the brave Decatur, under
the mouths of the enemy's cannon,
he made his first general attack; and
all the attacks which he made on
the city and fortifications were so
little distant in time from each
other, and so judiciously conducted,
with consummate bravery and
alertness, that though the obstinate
bashaw was not induced to surren-
der or flee, yet he was induced to
make great abatements from time
to time, in his demands for the

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emancipation of the prisoners whom
he then held in durance.

It is thought that one vessel more
added to the small fleet would have
enabled the commodore to complete
the ruin or capture of the place.
Much indeed was done towards
compelling the enemy to set at li-
berty captain Bainbridge, with his
officers and men; and towards ob-
taining a peace on moderate and ho-
nourable terms, which has since tak-
en place. The conduct of our prudent
and intrepid commander was such, as
to do much honour to himself and the
flag of the United States, in the
view of Europe as well as of Ame-
rica. His conduct has extorted
praise from the bashaw of Tripoli
himself: and what affords a peculi-
ar and unexpected honour to this
American warrior, though a here-
tick, is the declaration of his holi-
ness of Rome, That he has done
more towards humbling the anti-
christian barbarians on that coast,
than all the christian states of Eu-
rope had ever done.

Mr. John Tullock.

The fate of this extraordinary
victim to literature deserves notice.
He was found dead the 3d October,
1804, in a garret in Rupert-street.
He literally died of want. He was
a native of Shetland. His father,
who was a poor industrious fisher-
man, having one day discovered a
chest washed on shore by the tide,
found that it contained a quantity of
carpenter's tools, and a few books.
When he showed this treasure to
his son John, he was surprised to
find that the boy fixed his eyes on
the books, and scarcely glanced at
the chissels and planes. “Oh, fa-
ther!” said he, after a pause and
a sigh, “I would give all Lerwick
(the chief town of the island) to be
able to read any one of these
books!”–“Then,” cried the old
man, with tears in his eyes, “if I
live, and you live, you shall read
every one of them, if I should even
sell the chest and all it contains, and,

what is still more valuable, my
boat and nets into the bargain.”–
John, who was then about nine years
old, was sent to school the very
next day; and in less than two
years the pupil outstripped the mas-
ter, who was allowed by all the island-
ers, to be an excellent teacher, as he
could read Bunyan's Pilgrim's Pro-
gress from beginning to end. John
was not satisfied with his school ac-
quisitions, he was resolved to try
what he could do by himself. Amongst
the books “which had fallen from
heaven,” to use his own expression,
he found Hill's Arithmetic. Not-
withstanding all the difficulties that
rose in succession to a beginner, who
had scarce ever ventured to count
beyond a hundred, he was determin-
ed to make himself master of a sci-
ence that daily extended the boun-
daries of his mind. In less than a
year, he could solve all the ques-
tions in skill. His fame as an arith-
metician was so great, that some of
the ignorant people thought that he
dealt a little in what they called the
black art. He was resolved that
the mere knowledge of numbers
should not close his literary career;
he sat down to study mathematics,
Nature had endowed him with ta-
lents peculiary adapted to studies of
this kind: a mind ardent yet patient
in the pursuit of knowledge, a
thorough contempt for what the
world calls wealth, and a tempe-
rance in diet contributed to health
and serenity. He was now about
fifteen years of age: and as his father
and mother were almost past their
labours, he was advised to open a
school, which would enable him to
support his parents in decency.
Dr. Young says, in allusion to in-
struction, that “in giving we re-
ceive, and in teaching we learn.”
This was verified in young Tullock.
In consulting that peculiar bias
which Nature has given to every
mind, he was enabled to draw many
deductions from the questions and
pursuits of his pupils. Some of these
questions led him to cast his eye to
the heavens, the native seat of phi-
losophy and kindred arts. Having

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in time learned to call some of “the
stars by their names,” he began to
emulate the fame of Flamstead and
Halley. These illustrious men,
however, could converse with the
living and the dead; they had
friends and books; they had leisure,
and could view the moon through
Gallileo's eyes. But Tullock had
none of these aids: he was obliged
to provide for the wants of the day
that was passing over his head, and
the only time that he could devote
to the study of astronomy was at
the expence of his humble pillow.
A favourite mountain was his only
observatory, on the top of which he
used to pass many a night, even in
the depth of winter, watching the
motions of the heavenly bodies. At
the age of twenty, he married a
young woman, who in the course of
time brought him a fine family of
girls and boys. One of his friends,
in an unlucky moment, conceiving
that his native isle was too narrow
a sphere for such a star to move in,
advised him to try his fortune in
London, the mart of genius, as he
was taught to believe. This advice
fell in with our young astronomer's
wishes; he longed to converse with
the learned, to consult books, and
to communicate all that he knew
to the world. Accordingly he set
out for the capital on the wings of
hope, and flattered himself that in
less than a year he would be able to
return with a sum sufficient to ena-
ble him to pass the rest of his days
in lettered ease, in the bosom of his
family. He travelled from Edin-
burgh to London on foot, with a
few shillings in his pocket. All his
golden prospects were not a little
clouded, soon after his arrival, to
and that he could not even procure
the situation of a mathematical as-
sistant in any one of the academies
about the city. He had the morti-
fication to experience, that talent is
often estimated by dress and ad-
dress, in both of which he was un-
fortunately wanting. Disappointed
in all his applications, he opened a
school in the neighbourhood of the
Seven Dials. Having been told by

a person on whose judgment he de-
pended, that all the treasures of-
learning were locked up in the La-
tin, he devoted all his spare mo-
ments to the study of that language,
and, in the end, made so great a
progress in the acquisition of it,
that he could translate it with tole-
rable ease. He then began to turn his
thoughts to chemistry, and soothed
himself with the hopes of making
some discoveries in that useful
branch of knowledge, and of one
day emerging from obscurity. The
income arising from his school was
so slender, that he was obliged to
live on the cheapest food, and could
scarce afford himself coal or candle
light. Baron Maseres occasionally
assisted him; but such was his mo-
desty, that even the want of the
necessaries of life could not urge
him to solicit the least relief. Hav-
ing caught a cold about two years
ago, it fell on his lungs. As his
health declined, his scholars fell off;
and as to friends, he had none that
could assist him. In this hopeless
situation, the thoughts of his family,
who eagerly looked out for his re-
turn, a series of disappointments,
together with the cold neglect of
those who affected to patronize sci-
ence, preyed on his mind, and hast-
ened his dissolution. He was found
dead in a damp room, with a few
shavings under his head.