The history of the Navy of the United States of America : abridged in one volume

Front matter

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Preface

This work has been reduced in size, and consequently in cost, by omitting that portion of the original matter which it is thought will have the least interest with the general reader. The original descriptions of the battles, attacks, chases, &c., have been retained, nearly verbatim, and the narrative is unbroken. Wherever there has been any alteration, in this respect, it has been made with a view to improvement. The opportunity has been taken, also, to introduce a little new matter, and to correct a few errors. Some faults of style, and many errors of the press, have been corrected. In a word, in the author's opinion, this reduced work has all the value or interest which may belong to the original, the documents and more elaborate reasoning excepted. As a mere narrative, he thinks the abridgment will be found to have the most attraction.

A powerful and combined attempt has been made to injure both the book and the writer, in connexion with his account of the Battle of Lake Erie. As to the final decision of the world on this subject, the author feels no concern ; but he will take this occasion to say, that the man who

IV PREFACE.

makes up his mind on such a subject, without looking for evidence, is guilty equally of weakness and injustice ; and as for those who do inquire into the testimony, who collate and consider it, as he has himself done, the author has no apprehensions concerning their decision. His assailants are fast refuting themselves ; for, not satisfied with contradicting each other, as has already been done in fifty instances, they are contradicting their own witnesses, and their own statements. The moment is near when a full review of the whole matter will be laid before the public, in which these facts will be made apparent to any reader who will take the trouble to peruse it. It is not difficult to deceive the world for a time; and this is done so much the more easily, when passion, prejudice, and clamour conspire to aid the effort ; but pubhc opinion never fails to take ample vengeance for the mistakes into which it has fallen even by its own negligence and compliance. The victims are those who have been so ignorant of the power of truth as to act under the delusion of hoping to smother it, in an age like this, and on a question that can excite party feeling only for a day.

Chapter I

Settlement of country — expedition of Captain Argal — first vessels of New England — first engagement on the water — first decked vessel — guarda-costas — first sea-fight— Sir William Phipps's expedition — first two-decked ship, built in America Page 13

CHAPTER n.

Buccaneers — Captain Kidd — taking of Port Royal — expedition against the Canadas — slave-trade — whale-fisheries — capture of Louisbourg 20

CHAPTER HI.

Shipping of different ports, 1750 — old French war — destroying the tea — burning of the Gaspe — battle of Lexington, &c. — commencement of revolution 29

CHAPTER IV.

Privateers — first naval action of the revolution — Lee, Captain Manly — laws of Congress — first American vessels of war — officers of navy first appointed — expedition of Commodore Hopkins — battle with the Glasgow — Edward taken by the Lexington < 36

CHAPTER V.

Paul Jones — his first cruise as a commander — Doria, Captain Biddle — Defence, Captain Harding, takes British transports — cruise of the Providence and Alfred — cruise of Reprisal, in Europe — Lexington, do. — Captain Wicke's cruises — Lexington taken — loss of Reprisal — Captain Gustavus Conyngham's cruises 4B

1* (5)

vi CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VI.

Captain Mugford— Sachem 10— Andrea Doria 14— Captain Robinson takes the Racehorse, Lieutenant Jones— galleys in the Delaware — action in the Hudson — Ranger's action in the West-Indies — battle on Lake Champlain — General Arnold. . . 59

CHAPTER VII.

Cruise and blowing up of Randolph 32 — loss of Cabot 14 — action of Trumbull 28, Captain Saltonstall— capture of Fox 28 — capture of Hancock 32, Captain Manly— vessels destroyed in the Delaware, by the English — Augusta 64, blown up — cruise of Raleigh 32, Captain Thompson, and her action with the Druid 20 64

CHAPTER VIIL

French alliance — new frigates built — Providence 12, Captain Rathburne, seizes New Providence— capture of the Alfred 24

do. of Virginia 28, Captain Nicholson — frigates burned by

the enemy in the Delaware — cruise of the Ranger 16, Paul Jones — takes the Drake 16 — Major Talbot cuts out the Pigot 8_loss of Raleigh 32, Captain Barry 72

CHAPTER IX.

Alliance sails for France — mutiny — cruise of Warren 32, Queen of France 24, and Ranger 16 — Paul Jones's celebrated cruise round Scotland — his battle with the Serapis 81

CHAPTER X.

Serapis and her consorts arrive in Holland — Paul Jones quits Holland in the Alliance — Alliance sails for America — Commodore Jones's return in the Ariel 20 — cruise of Deane 32, and Boston 24 — Providence captures the Diligent — Massachusetts' cruiser. Hazard, captures Active 14 — unfortunate expedition to the Penobscot 104

CHAPTER XI.

Vessels taken at Charleston, S. C— battle of the Trumbull and Watt — cruises of the Alliance 32, Captain Barry — captures the Atalanta and Trepassy — capture of Confederacy 32 — do.

CONTENTS, Vli

of Trumbull 28 — Congress privateer takes the Savage 16 — cruise of the Alliance in the West-Indies — escape of the Hague 32, Captain Manly 108

CHAPTER Xn.

Battle of the Hyder Ally, Captain Barney, and Monk, Captain Rogers — state cruisers — South Carolina — her capture — end of war of revolution 117

CHAPTER Xni.

Commencement of present navy — quasi vpar with France 123

CHAPTER XIV.

First vessel at sea — le Croyable taken — escape of the Retaliation, Lieutenant Bainbridge 126

CHAPTER XV.

Vessels of war at sea in 1799 — Constellation 38, captures I'lnsurgente 36 — vessels at sea in 1800 — action between Constellation and la Vengeance — Lieutenant Hull cuts out the Sandwich — loss of I'Insurgente and Pickering — cruise and actions of Enterprise, Lieutenant Commandant Shaw — Boston engages boats — captures the Berceau — French privateers taken — Experiment, Lieutenant Commandant Maley, engages barges — Experiment, Lieutenant Commandant Stewart, captures Diana — captures English privateer — end of French war — peace establishment 130

CHAPTER XVI.

War with Tripoli — Commodore Dale's squadron — Enterprise captures the Tripoli — negotiations 150

CHAPTER XVII.

Law of 1802 — Commodore Morris' squadron sent to Mediterranean — Boston 24, Captain M'Neill — Constellation opens the war before the town of Tripoli — movements of squadron under Commodore Morris — arrives off Tripoli — attack on wheat vessels — attack on gun-boats — John Adams, Captain Rodgers, destroys an enemy's cruiser — gallant behaviour of Lieutenant Commandant Hull — Commodore Morris returns home — deaths and resignations 155

Vlll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Small cruisers built — third squadron sent to Mediterranean, under Commodore Preble — treaty with Morocco — Philadelphia captures a Moorish cruiser 165

CHAPTER XIX.

Philadelphia 38, Captain Bainbridge — appears off Tripoli — chases a xebec — is lost on a reef, and crew captured — list of her officers — movements of Commodore Preble — sends ketch Intrepid, Lieutenant Decatur, to destroy the Philadelphia — frigate burned 169

CHAPTER XX.

Year 1804 — Siren takes the Transfer — affair with gun-boats to the westward of Tripoli — Commodore Preble appears off the port — forces of respective parties — action of 3d of August .... 185

CHAPTER XXI.

Preparations for new attack— attack of 17th of August — No. 8, gun-boat, blown up — John Adams, Captain Chauncey, arrives from America — narrow escape of the Argus, Captain Hull — bombardment of the 24th — attack of 25th — attack of 3d of September 196

CHAPTER XXII.

Ketch Intrepid — preparations — her attack — the explosion — probable causes of the disaster — private journal of Captain Bainbridge — arrival of squadron of Commodore Barron — Commomodore Preble returns home 205

CHAPTER XXIII.

Force in Mediterranean, close of 1804 — expedition of General Eaton— force May, 1805 — end of Tripolitan war 216

CHAPTER XXIV.

Commodore Rodgers goes to Tunis — dictates a treaty — condition of the navy 1805-6-7 — Leander kills a man off Sandy Hook — Chesapeake 38, Commodore Barron, fitted for the Mediterranean — English demand for deserters — frigate sails — attacked by Leopard 50 — particulars of the affair — courts martial 221

CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTER XXV.

Gun-boats — embargo of 1807 — naval force on the coast — vessels on the lakes — vessels in active service — 1811 — President punishes Little Belt 332

CHAPTER XXVI.

State of navy 1812 — marine corps — English navy — American do. — prospects of a war with England — Captains Bainbridge and Stewart remonstrate against laying up the vessels of war — feeling of country, and of the navy 239

CHAPTER XX Vn.

War declared, June 18th, 1812 — situation of American navy — squadron of Commodore Rodgers —chase of Belvidera SBunsuccessful pursuit of West-India convoy — English squadron under Commodore Broke, takes the Nautilus 12, Lieutenant Commandant Crane — celebrated chase of the Constitution 44, Captain Hull — cruise of the Essex 32, Captain Porter — captures the Alert 18 — second cruise of the Constitution — action •with the Guerriere — squadron of Commodore Bainbridge. . . . 244

CHAPTER XXVHL

Commodore Rodgers — action of United States and Macedonian — cruise of Argus — action of Wasp and Frolic 262

CHAPTER XXIX.

Cruise of the Constitution, Commodore Bainbridge, Hornet, Captain Lawrence — action between Constitution and Java — Hornet blockades Bonne Citoyenne — action between Hornet and Peacock — Hornet returns home — new vessels ordered to be built 269

CHAPTER XXX.

Essex 32, Captain Porter — takes the Nocton — doubles Cape Horn — makes prizes — equips a sloop of war 278

CHAPTER XXXL

Cruises of Essex and Georgiana — prizes — equips Essex Junior proceeds to the Marquesas 284

X C O N T E N r S .

CHAPTER XXXII.

Arrival at Nooaheevah — sails for Valparaiso — arrival of Phoebe and Cherub — attempt on the latter — blockade — action of Phoebe and Cherub with Essex— capture of the Essex — Essex Junior sails for America — Lieutenant Gamble 289

CHAPTER XXXni.

Chesapeake Bay — Constellation frigate — blockaded — Chesapeake 38, Captain Lawrence — sails from Boston — her action with the Shannon 38 301

♦^CHAPTER XXXIV.

Smaller cruisers — Vixen — Siren — Enterprise — captures the Boxer — chased on the southern coast — Rattlesnake taken. . . . 310

CHAPTER XXXV.

New sloops of war — Argus' cruise in British channel — captured by the Pelican 314

CHAPTER XXXVI.

Chesapeake Bay — gun-boats attack British frigates Narcissus and Junon — attack on Craney Island — Asp taken — Commodore Decatur chased into New London — Lieutenant Kearny takes the Hebrus' tender — do. Severn's — gun-boat, No. 160, taken — affair in the Delaware 318

CHAPTER XXXVII.

New vessels launched — Frolic taken by the Orpheus — cruise of the Adams — run on a rock — attacked and burned — Wasp 18, sails for English channel — action with the Reindeer — goes into France — sails again — action with the Avon — continues her cruise — probable fate 324

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

Captain Sir Peter Parker — Commodore Barney in Chesapeake Bay — his different actions — flotilla burnt — Bladensburgh — vessels destroyed at Washington — Baltimore — death of General Ross 333

CONTENTS. XI

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Loss of gun-boats at New Orleans — gallant conduct of the Carolina — Louisiana cannonade — battle of New Orleans 340

CHAPTER XL.

War on the lakes — enemy's force — first attack on Sackett's Harbour — Commodore Chauncey takes command — upper lakes — Lieutenant Elliott cuts out two brigs from under Fort Erie — John Adams' crew arrives — Commodore Chauncey attacks Kingston — bloody affair at Erie, under Lieutenant Angus. . . . 347

CHAPTER XLL

Character of vessels on Lake Ontario — new vessels built^— attack on York — do. on Fort George 358

CHAPTER XLIL

British attack Sackett's Harbour— building— loss of Growler and Eagle, on Lake Champlain — attempt on American vessels fails — Lake Ontario-— York taken a second time— manoeuvring of two squadrons— Hamilton and Scourge lost in a squall — action — Growler and Julia taken 365

CHAPTER XLin.

Squadrons in front of each other — fruitless manoeuvres — actions without results — action off York — English squadron driven to Burlington Bay—- enemy escapes — British gun-vessels captured — American troops transported 375

CHAPTER XLIV.

Captain Perry on Lake Erie — enemy's force — Americans get out of Presque Isle — American force — first cruise — reinforcement of officers and men — battle of Lake Erie 383

CHAPTER XLV.

Increased force on Lake Ontario — Oswego taken— Sackett's Harbour blockaded — English party in Salmon river taken— blockade of Sackett's Harbour raised — handsome exploits of Lieutenant Gregory — Americans blockade Kingston — English two-decker gets out— end of the season , 396

Xll CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XL VI.

Lake Ohamplain— naval forces- — Americans cannonade English army— battle of Plattsburg Bay 404

CHAPTER XLVIL

Upper lakes— English surprise American schooners oif Fort Erie — do. in Lake Huron— recapitulation of the service performed on the lakes 417

CHAPTER XLVm.

Constitution, Captain Stewart — action with Cyaneand Levant — Port Praya— English squadron appears — chase of Constitution and her prizes— escape of Constitution and Cyane — capture of Levant — services of Old Ironsides 421

CHAPTER XLIX.

President, Commodore Decatur — her capture— action between Hornet and Penguin— chase of Hornet — Peacock takes the Nautilus— end of war , 429

CHAPTER L.

War against Algiers- — squadron despatched to the Mediterranean — capture of an Algerine frigate, and of a brig — submission of the Regency — treaty concluded — increase of the American navy— its present condition, and future prospects 441

OF THE

UNITED STATES.

CHAPTER I. 1607.

Notwithstanding the insular position of its seat of authority, the naval ascendency of England is of comparatively recent date ; Spain, and even the diminutive communities of Portugal and Holland, manifesting as great a spirit of nautical enterprise, during the century and a half that succeeded the important discovery of the western hemisphere, and that of a passage by sea to India. While these three nations were colonismg extensively, and laying the foundations of future states, the seamen of England expended their energies in predatory expeditions that were rapacious in their object and piratical in spirit. Familiar political causes, beyond a question, had an influence in bringing about these results ; for, while the accession of the House of Hapsbourg to the throne of Spain and the Indies, created a power able to cope with Europe, as it then existed, England, driven entirely from her continental possessions, had Scotland for a troublesome neighbour, and Ireland for a discontented and turbulent subject, to check her efforts abroad. It is probable, too, that the civil contests, in which England was so long engaged, had a serious effect on her naval advancement, and the struggle that succeeded the dethronement of the family of Stuart, could not fail to lessen exertions that were directed to interests without the territory more immediately in dispute. As a consequence of all these causes, or of that portion of them which was in existence at < the commencement of the seventeenth century, when England seriously commenced the business of colonisation, Spain, France, and Portugal were already in possession of what were 2 (W)

then considered the most favourable regions on the American continent. When, indeed, the experiment was finally and successfijlly made, individual enterprise, rather than that of the government, achieved the object ; and for many years the power of the crown was exercised with no other aim than to afford an ill-regulated, and frequently an insufficient protection. It was Englishmen, and not England, that founded the country which is now known as the United States of America.

The vessels employed in the earliest communications between the colonies and the mother country, were small, varying from filly to two hundred tons in burthen. The expedition to Plymouth was first attempted in the May Flower, a bark of one hundred and eighty tons, and the Speedwell, of sixty tons ; but the latter proving leaky, after twice returning to port to refit, was abandoned, and the voyage was made in the former vessel alone. The May Flower sailed from Plymouth, in England, on the 6th of September, and, after a stormy passage, made Cape Cod on the 9th of November.

The first conflict that took place between the colonists and any of their civilized neighbours, occurred in 1613, when an expedition from Virginia, under the ordei's of Captain Samuel Argal, arriving on the coast of Nova Scotia, made an attack on the new French post of St. Sauveur, which was reduced without difficulty. Argal had eleven vessels with him, most of which, however, were quite small, and his armaments amounted in the whole to fourteen light guns. The French were entirely without artillery. The avowed object of this enterprise was fishing, but the armament has induced a suspicion that the end actually effected was also kept in view. Whatever might have been the intention in fitting out the first force under Captain Argal, it is quite certain, that, on his return to Virginia, he was formally sent against the French in Acadie, with three vessels, better prepared, and that he laid waste the whole of their possessions. Both of these occurrences took place in a time of profound peace, and grew out of a claim of the English, to the possession of the whole coast, as far north as the 46th degree of latitude.

On his return to Virginia, Captain Argal entered the bay of ( New York, and demanded possession of that territory also,

y\ under the plea that it had been discovered by an Englishman.

Hendrick Christaens, whom Argal styled " a pretended Dutch Governor," had no force to resist such a claim, and was compelled to submit. On the return to Virginia, one of the three vessels employed in this expedition was lost, and another hav ing been driven as far east as the Azores, proceeded to Eng land, while Captain Argal alone got into the Chesapeake. The prisoners taken on this occasion narrowly escaped being executed as pirates !

This was the first warlike maritime expedition attempted by the American colonists, if a few parties sent in boats against the savages be excepted. The Dutch were not dispossessed by the useless attempt on their settlement, which appears to have been viewed more as a protest than a conquest, for they continued to increase and to govern themselves for near half a century longer. The first decked vessel built within the old United States, of which we have any account, was constructed by Schipper Adrian Blok, on the banks of the Hudson, and probably within the present limits of New York, during the summer of 1614. This vessel De Laet terms a " yacht," and describes as having been of the dimensions of thirty-eight feet keel, forty-four and a half feet on deck, and eleven feet beam. In this "yacht" Blok passed through Hell Gate, into the Sound, and steering eastward, he discovered a small island, which he named after himself; going as far as Cape Cod, by the Vineyard passage.

According to the same authority, the Dutch at New Amsterdam, who had constructed a fort, and reinforced their colony, soon after built many more small vessels, sloops and periaguas, opening a trade with the savages, by means of the numerous bays, sounds, and rivers of their territory.

It was also in 1614 that the celebrated Capt. John Smith arrived from England, and sailed on a coasting voyage, with the double purpose of trade and discovery. He went himself in a boat, having a crew of only eight men, and the profits, as well as the discoveries, abundantly rewarded the risks.

As early as in 1629 the New England Company employed five ships of respectable size, in the trade with the colony. Most of these vessels were armed, and all took colonists in their outward passages. A small ship was built at or near Boston, in 1633, which was one of the first vessels, if not the first vessel of any size constructed in New England. But the proress of the colony of Massachusetts Bay was so rapid, that

1639 laws were passed to encourage the fisheries, which may be considered as the elementary school of American nautical enterprise. The first engagement that probably ever occurred between inhabitants of the American colonies, and onemies afloat, was a conflict between John Gallop, who was engaged in a trade with the Indians, in a sloop of twenty tons, and some Narragansetts, who had seized upon a small vessel belonging to a person of the name of Oldham, known to have been similarly occupied. As this, in a certain sense, may be deemed the earliest sea-fight of the nation, it is worthy to be related.

Some time in May, 1636, Gallop in his little sloop, manned by two men and two boys, himself included, was standing along the Sound, near Plum Island, when he was compelled by stress of weather to bear up for the islands that form a chain between Long Island and Connecticut. On nearing the land, he discovered a vessel very similar to his own, which was immediately recognised as the pinnace of Mr. Oldham, who had sailed with a crew of two white boys and two Narragansett Indians. Gallop hailed on approaching the other crafl., but got no answer ; and, running still nearer, no less than fourteen Indians were discovered lying on her deck. A canoe, conveying goods, and manned by Indians, had just started for the shore. Gallop now suspected that Oldham had been overpowered by the savages ; a suspicion that was confirmed by the Indians slipping their cable, and standing off before the wind, in the direction of Narragansett Bay. Satisfied that a robbery had been committed. Gallop made sail in chase, and running alongside the pinnace, he fired a volley of duck-shot at the savages. The latter had swoi'ds, spears, and some fire-arms, and they attempted a resistance, but Gallop soon drove them below to a man. Afraid to board in the face of such odds, Gallop now had recourse to a novel expedient to dislodge his enemies. As the pinnace was virtually adrifi:, she soon fell to leeward, while the sloop hauled by the wind. As soon as the two vessels were far enough asunder. Gallop put his helm up, and ran directly down on the weather quarter of the pinnace, striking her with so much violence as to come near forcing her over on her side.

The shock so much alarmed the Indians, that six of them rushed frantically on deck, and leaped into the sea. The sloop again hauled ofi', when Gallop lashed an anchor to her bows, and running down on the pinnace a second time, he forced the flukes through the sides of the latter, which are represented as having been made of boards. The two vessels were now fast to each other, and the crew of the sloop began to fire through the sides of the pinnace, into her hold. Finding it impossible, however, to drive his enemies up, Gallop loosened his fasts, and hauled up to windward a third time, when four or five more of the Indians jumped overboard. One Indian now appeared on deck and offered to submit. Gallop ran alongside, and received this man in the sloop ; he was bound hands and feet, and put into the hold. Another soon followed this example, and he was also received on board the sloop and bound ; but, fearful if two of his wily foes were permitted to commune together, that they would liberate themselves, the second prisoner was thrown into the sea. Only two Indians now remained in the pinnace. They had got into a small apartment below, and being armed, they showed a disposition to defend themselves, when Gallop removed all the goods that remained into his own sloop, stripped the pinnace of her sails, took her in tow, and hauled up for the islands again. But the wind increasing, the pinnace was cut adrift, and she disappeared in the direction of Narragansett Bay, where it is probable she was stranded in the course of a few hours.

On board the pinnace. Gallop found the body of Mr, Oldham. The head had been cleft, the hands and legs were much mangled, and the flesh was still warm. The corpse was thrown into the sea.

Thus terminated this extraordinary conflict, in which Gallop appears to have shown as much conduct as courage, and which in itself illustrates the vast superiority that belongs to professional skill on an element like the sea. As it was of the last importance to create a respect for the English name, the report of the conqueror on this occasion induced the government of Massachusetts to send an expedition against the offenders, under Mr. Endecott, one of the assistants, which did the Indians much injury in the destruction of their dwellings and crops, though the savages themselves took to flight. This expedition, however, was followed up by others that met with greater success.

The French in Acadie, also, gave rise to two or three unimportant armaments, which led to no results worthy of being recorded.

Notwithstanding the frequency of the Indian conflicts, and the repeated visits of tlie Frencli, the first regular cruisers employed by the American colonists appear to have owed their existence to misunderstandings with the Dutch of the New Netherlands. The colony of New Haven had so far increased as to cause a vessel of one hundred and fifty tons to be 2* ^ built in Rhode Island, as early as the year 1646, but the ship was lost at sea on her first passage. Shortly after, a small cruiser, carrying ten guns, and forty men, was employed by the united colonies of ilartford and New Haven, to cruise in Long Island Sound, with a view to prevent the encroachments of the Dutch, and to keep open the communication with the settlements they had made on the opposite shore. In 1654, orders were received from Parliament to treat the Dutch as enemies, but both communities were still too young and feeble to engage in a warfare that was not considered of paramount necessity. Nothing effective appears to have been done under these instructions.

At a later day, or in 1665-6, Connecticut kept another small vessel cruising off Watch Hill, in order to prevent the Narragansett Indians from crossing to attack the Montauk tribe, which had been taken under the protection of the colony.

In 1645, a ship of some size was built at Cambridge, Massachusetts, and receiving an armament of fourteen guns, and a crew of thirty men, she sailed for the Canary Isles. This vessel fell in with a rover, of twenty guns, and seventy men, supposed to belong to Barbary, when an action took place / that continued the entire day. The rover receiving some serious injury in her rudder, the New England ship was enabled to escape. Although the conflict between Gallop and the Narragansetts is, in one sense, entitled to the precedency, this action may be set down as the first regular naval combat in which any American vessel is known to have been engaged.

An important change occurred, in 1664, in the situation of the American colonies, by the capture of New Netherlands from the Dutch. The vessels employed on this service were under the orders of Sir Robert Carr, while Colonel Richard Nicoll commanded the troops. No resistance was made. In consequence of this accession of territory, and the submission of the Swedish settlements on the Delaware, the English Colonies had entire possession of the coast, between the Bay of Fundy and the Floridas.

While the English were thus occupying the coast, the French were gradually extending themselves along the chain of Great Lakes in the interior, drawing a belt around the territories of their rivals. In the course of events of tliis nature, de la Salle launched a vessel often tons on Lake Ontario, in 1678, which was the fu'st decked boat that ever sailed on those waters.

The following year, he caused a vessel of sixty tons to be -^

launched on Lake Erie. J

The buccaneers began to commit depredations in the American seas, about the year 1666; and piracies on a smaller scale, were not unfrequent at a much earlier day. These buccaneers originally were mere outlaws in the West India Islands. Compelled at length to unite, they assembled at the Tortugas, and began to plunder such vessels as approached the shore ; most of their robberies being committed by means of open boats. The Spanish vessels, in particular, became the objects of their assaults ; and encouraged by success, they began to cruise farther from the land. Their numbers rapidly increased, and ere long they ventured to make descents on the coasts, more especially on those of the Spanish settlements, in quest of plunder. It is a mark of the peculiar character of the age, that these freebooters often commenced their enterprises with prayer! — They spent their ill-gotten wealth as profligately as it had been obtained, and like more powerful bodies of men, were finally destroyed by the excesses engendered by their own prosperity.