enemy by boarding, in sight of his own port, and vanquishes him on his own decks. The page of naval annals does not record a bolder enterprize than that which was achieved by the British arms on this occasion: our curiosity is naturally prompted to inquire to what cause we are to attribute the rapidity of their victorious career: and to this no satisfactory answer can be returned, unless the narrator is interested only for the truth and candour of history. At a very early hour of the morning, Captain Broke, cruizing off Boston bay, confided a letter to a discharged prisoner, addressed to Captain Lawrence, inviting him to come out, and, ship to ship, try with him the fortune of their respective flags. This letter, conceived in a spirit of generous sentiment, and bearing strong internal evidence of a total freedom from private revenge, disposes philanthropy to sigh over the infatuation of mankind in their passion for war; which counteracts the best principles of human nature, and has made its history in all ages little else than a chronicle of blood. The Shannon having stood close in with the land, hove to off Boston Light House, to reconnoitre the harbour; and, as the day broke in tints of gold over the ocean, the Chesapeake presented herself to the eager view of the English commander, lying at anchor in President Roads, with royal yards rigged across, and her sails bent ready for sea the colours were now hoisted on board the Shannon as a sort of defiance to the American frigate. Captain Lawrence, who was not an inattentive observer of the motions of the Shannon, prepared immediately to go on board his ship, and get her underweigh, regard

less of the expostulations of his friend Commodore Bainbridge, the naval-commanding officer at Boston, who accompanied him to the pier. That officer, as circumspect as Lawrence was impetuous, emphatically urged, as dissuasives to his going out, that "never having sailed "with his crew, he was throwing himself on their sup"port and bravery with a blind, precipitate trust; that "the want of the presence and authority of his first “Lieutenant, Page, who, from sickness, could not join “him, would be a privation of great moment; and that "it was to be apprehended the sailors, from the super "stition of their character, would not combat hopefully on the deck of the Chesapeake, which, ever since Barron had hauled down her flag without fighting,* had "incurred reproach and ignominy as an unlucky craft."

66

66

The enterprizing ardour of Lawrence was not to be restrained by the arguments of his friend, and his visions and prophecies were interpreted by him as idle dreams. He gave his hand to a troop of friends who pressed on his steps, and sighing saw his topsails flapping in the wind; and, having embraced with visible emotion his two sons, one a fine boy of eleven, and the other of thirteen, he stepped into his boat, whose crew were standing at the thwarts with uplifted oars, waved his hand as a signal for the coxswain to shove off, and sought

See page 63 of this volume.

The Congress of the United States settled a pension on the widow of Captain Lawrence, and enacted that his sons should be educated at the public expence.

his ship without delay. The wharves and shipping were covered with the inhabitants of Boston. From the vast multitude no sound was heard; but all remained silent and immoveable, till the ship, under full sail, evanished from their sight.

and

As there was a leading breeze from the S. W. out of harbour, and the Chesapeake did not for some time leave her anchorage, the English officers and sailors, who had viewed her attentively from the Shannon's deck since the first pale flush of light, began to entertain an apprehension that she declined giving them battle; but their suspense was relieved when they discerned her crew heaving at the capstan-bars, and hoisting in her boats. The Shannon now filled, and stood out to gain an offing under an easy sail; she was followed with great promptitude by the Chesapeake under a crowd of canvas. About 4 in the afternoon, when the Shannon had got between the two Capes that form the entrance of Massachusett's Bay, the ships were within five or six miles of one another, the Chesapeake fired a gun and hauled up, as if in defiance; upon which the Shannon hauled up likewise, with her fore-sail in the brails, and her main-top-sail braced flat aback, for her antagonist to overhaul her. The Chesapeake again squared away, and bore down on the Shannon's starboard quarter with three ensigns flying; one at the mizen-royal-mast head, one at the mizen-peak, and one in the starboard main-rigging: the Shannon displayed only an old rusty blue ensign at her gaff, nor was her exterior calculated to inspire a belief of the subordination, the discipline, and the prowess that reigned within.

As the Chesapeake approached her adversary, Captain Lawrence sent down his royal yards; but, as the breeze was apparently dying away, Captain Broke judged it expedient to keep his aloft.

It was at this time that Captain Lawrence desired Mr. Ludlow, his lieutenant, to assemble the crew on the quarter-deck, and, in a speech worthy of himself and the occasion, he exhorted them to assert their country's flag, to avenge her insults, and protect the freedom of their navigation. His harangue, instead of being received by the seamen with a burst of patriotism, was answered with sullen murmurs; they recapitulated their former services, for which they were unrewarded. The author of the tumult, and the leader of the sedition, was a boatswain's mate, one Joseph Antonio, a Portuguese. Artful and insinuating, he had practised on the facility, and inflamed the discontent of the crew, and he now came forward as their interlocutor. The appearance of this foreigner was singularly fantastic; he wore a checked shirt with a laced jacket, rings in his ears, and a bandana handkerchief round his head. The extreme diminutiveness of his person was rendered the more remarkable by the extravagance of his gesticulation, and he never grew warm in discourse without throwing his body into shrugs and contortions. Laying his hand on his breast, making a profound inclination of his head, and stealing a significant side-glance at the by-standers, he replied to Captain Lawrence, in his broken jargon, with " Pardon me, "Sir, but fair play be one jewel all over the world, and we no touchee the specie for our last cruize with

66

66

66

Capitaine Evans. The Congress is very munificent; they keep our prize piasters in the treasury, and pay us with 66 grape and canister. We only receive ten dollars a man "for the Volontaire, who groan with the kegs of piasters "in her fore and after hold, till she get hogged with their "weight. Good fashion in Portuguese ship, when take "rich prize, is not to pay poco a poco, but break bulk and "share out dollar on drum-head of capstan." At any other time the importunate clamours of a venal crew would have disconcerted the equanimity of such a man as Captain Lawrence; but his ambition now imposed restraint on his indignation; he directed the purser to distribute prize-checks among the men, and, in dismissing them to their guns, bade them remember and emulate the naval trophies of the crews of the Constitution and United States. The Chesapeake was now approaching the Shannon, who, hove to all standing for her to come up, had scarcely steerage-way through the water; and Captain Lawrence reducing his courses, and taking in his top-gallant-sails, luffed gallantly up within half pistol shot on the Shannon's starboard quarter; contrary to the expectation of Captain Broke, who thought that the Chesapeake would pass under his stern, and engage him on the larboard side; and who had ordered his men to avoid, in some degree, her raking fire, to lie down flat

* Hogged, or broken-backed, is the state of a ship, when, from some great strain, she droops at each end.

T