loss in the action was small. That of the enemy in killed, wounded and prisoners, was about 250 men.

HE naval triumphs of the Americans had given them confidence in the skill of their commanders and the quality of their cruisers. But this career of victory now experienced some interruptions. The United States frigate Chesapeake, Captain Lawrence, being anchored in President's Roads, the commander of the British frigate Shannon, Captain Broke, sent a challenge to the American commander to meet him in equal combat frigate to frigate. Although the Chesapeake was not in a condition for action, the chivalrous Lawrence accepted the challenge, and met the Shannon on the 1st of June. The action commenced within pistol shot, both crews suffering greatly from the broadsides. The principal officers of the Chesapeake, including Captain Lawrence, were disabled early in the action. After a desperate and bloody combat, the Americans having lost nearly all their officers, the enemy gained complete possession of the ship. On board the Chesapeake, 47 men were killed and 98 wounded. The loss of the British was 26 killed and 58 wounded. Captain Lawrence, even after the enemy had boarded his ship, exhorted his men to keep their colors flying. He was greatly lamented in the United States. The victory caused much exultation among the British, though it was rather the result, of unavoidable accidents than of their superior skill and bravery.

The brig Argus, 20, Captain Allen, performed a very successful cruise in the course of the year, capturing about twenty British vessels, and committing great depredations upon the commerce of the British seas. At length, on the 14th of August, the Argus was encountered by the British brig Pelican, 21, and after an action of forty-seven minutes, captured. The Pelican was a much larger vessel. The Argus had 11 men killed and 12 wounded. Among the slain was the gallant Allen. The British stated their loss at seven killed and wounded.

On the 5th of October, the brig Enterprise, 14 guns, Lieutenant Burrows, encountered the British brig Boxer, of about the same force. The action was close and bloody. Captain Blythe, of the Boxer, and Lieutenant Burrows both fell. The enemy was out-manoeuvred and cut up by the raking fire of the Enterprise, and at length surrendered. The prize was brought into Portland, where the remains of the two commanders were buried with military honors.

About this time, the American privateers were floating in every direction on the ocean. They cruised before the entrances of most of the British colonial ports, and relying on the swiftness of their sailing, many of them had ventured into the chops of the British Channel. The alarm which was, in consequence, excited among the merchants of Great Britain, and the vast number of captures which were making by these vessels, induced the English government to fit out several sloops-of-war for the protection of their coast. The brig Charybdis, of 18 thirty-twopounders, and the Opossum sloop-of-war, were ordered to cruise for several privateers which were then known to be in the neighborhood of the coast, and which it was confidently expected would be brought in by one or the other of these armed vessels. The Charybdis fell in with the privateer Blockade of New York, of eight guns; and after an obstinate engagement of one hour and twenty minutes, in which the Charybdis lost 28 of

her officers and men killed and wounded, and the Blockade eight men only, the latter was carried and taken into port. The Opossum encountered the "Orders in Council," a small privateer, who fought her until they had exchanged seven broadsides, when, finding the enemy's force to be too powerful, she abandoned the contest and effected her escape.

The privateer Tom, Captain Wilson, of Baltimore, on the 23d of November descried a sail, gave chase, overhauled and brought her to an action, which terminated in the surrender of the enemy, with the loss of her captain and four men killed, and several wounded. She proved to be the British packet Townsend, M'Coy, from Falmouth for Barbadoes. Her mail had been thrown overboard, but was picked up by the Tom's boats, and after being ransomed, she was suffered to proceed.

The Bona privateer, of Baltimore, having discovered a British ship of 800 tons and 22 guns, then on a voyage from Madeira, ran up and engaged her, when the great gun bursted, and Captain Dameron put 29 officers and men into his boats, and despatched them to board her. After a severe fight upon her decks, they carried her with little loss. Two strange sail at this moment coming up in chase, the Bona left the prize in possession of those on board, and bore away to draw the chasing vessels after her.

The privateer Dolphin, Captain W. S. Stafford, of 10 guns and 60 men, also of Baltimore, being off Cape St. Vincent, engaged a ship of 16 guns and 40 men, and a brig of 10 guns and 25 men, at the same instant, and after a long and gallant action made prizes of both. The Dolphin had four men wounded; the enemy 19 killed and 40 wounded, among them the captain of one of the vessels. Instances of the bold

and daring intrepidity of the crews of the private armed vessels of the United States are so numerous, that the recital of them would swell this work very far beyond the limits which have been assigned to it. The enemy's commerce was every where assailed by them, and the British government was obliged to protect their merchant ships by large convoys of vessels of war.

The declaration of war against Great Britain was no sooner made known at that court, than its ministers determined on sending into their provinces of Canada the veteran regiments of their army, and adopted effectual measures to forward to the coast of the American states a naval force competent to blockade its principal bays and rivers. Incensed at the successes of the American naval arms over the frigates and sloops-ofwar of their nation, they hastened the departure of their different fleets, and in retaliation for the invasion of their provinces by the American troops, instructed their commanders to burn and otherwise to destroy, not only the coasting and river craft, but the towns and villages on the navigable inlets; and more particularly in the southern department of the Union. Early in the spring of 1813, detachments of these fleets arrived at the mouth of the Delaware, and at the entrance to the Chesapeake Bay. Others were to rendezvous at Bermuda, and thence to proceed to the reinforcement of the blockading squadrons.

N the month of March, the Poictiers seventy-four, Commodore Beresford; the frigate Belvidere, and several smaller vessels of war entered the bay of Delaware, and destroyed great numbers of small trading vessels. In the course of that month, they were repeatedly repulsed in their attempts to capture others which lay near the shore, by the militia of Delaware; and several instances occur of sharp fighting, which tended to improve the discipline of the volunteers of that state, and to inspire them with confidence.

Among other expedients for obtaining supplies, a demand was made upon the people of Lewistown for a supply of provisions for the blockading squadron, which being spiritedly refused, on the 6th of April, Sir John P. Beresford directed Captain Byron to move as near the town, with the Belvidere, as the waters would permit him, and, having first notified its inhabitants, to bombard it until his demands were complied with. On the night of the 6th, the bombardment accordingly took place. The shells

did not reach the town; the rockets passed over it; but the thirty-two pounders injured several of the houses.

On the 10th of May, the same squadron proceeded from their anchorage to a place seven miles distant from Lewistown, and sent out their barges to procure water from the shore. Colonel Davis immediately despatched Major George Hunter, with 150 men, to oppose their landing, which the major did with much gallantry, and compelled them to return to their shipping. The Poictiers and the Belvidere then sailed out of the bay for Bermuda; and the militia took up the buoys, which had previously been set in the river by the enemy.

The Spartan frigate having entered the Delaware soon after the departure of this squadron, attempted, on the 31st of the same month, to land about 60 of her men near Morris's river, on the Jersey side, with a view to obtain provisions. A small party of the militia of that state, however, hastily collected and drove them off before they had an opportunity of visiting the farmers' houses.

N the month of June, the frigate Statira and the sloop-of-war Martin reinforced the enemy, and had captured many large merchant vessels bound up the Delaware. The whole trade between the capes and Philadelphia, and many of the intermediate places, was liable to be intercepted; and, unless they were protected by a convoy, the small

vessels usually employed on the river did not attempt to sail. On the 23d, a squadron of nine gun-boats and two armed sloops, under Lieutenant-Commandant Angus, of the navy, convoyed three sloops laden with timber for a forty-four, then building at Philadelphia, under the eye of the enemy. The gun-boats engaged the two frigates, whilst the sloops effected their passage, and the Statira and Spartan moved from their anchorage to a situation out of reach of annoyance.

A merchant sloop having entered the bay on the 22d of July, on her return from sea, was cut off by the Martin sloop-of-war, which had just reappeared in the Delaware. The sloop ran aground to avoid capture; and although she was afterwards attacked by a tender and four barges well manned and armed, a hasty collection of militia, with one field-piece, under Lieutenant Townsend, drove off her assailants, and saved the sloop.

A detachment of the gun-boat flotilla, being at this time but a few miles off, were apprized of the attack made by the sloop-of-war, and Captain Angus immediately proceeded down the bay, with eight gun-boats and two block sloops. On the 29th, he discovered the Martin, grounded