injury to the two ships and for the short duration of the encounter. The Essex was far superior in the number and weight of the guns, in the number of men, in the fighting qualities of the ship; while the Alert, according to the English account, was, except in the commander, badly officered and manned, and the result showed unfavorably for the discipline and gunnery of her crew.

The prize was fitted as a cartel and sent with the prisoners to Newfoundland. Porter returned to the Delaware in September. During the cruise he made nine captures and recaptured five American privateers and merchantmen, making fourteen prizes in all. Two of these were burnt, one was captured by the Belvidera, and the rest were sent in or ransomed.

Before this time, an English squadron, composed of the Africa, a 64-gun ship, and the frigates Shannon, Guerriere, Belvidera and Æolus, under Commodore Broke, of the Shannon, had assembled on the coast, and was watching for our cruisers. About the middle of July the Nautilius left New York and, after a few hours sailing, fell in with this squadron. All the usual measures were taken to lighten the ship and to aid her escape, but after a six hours chase she surrendered to the Shannon.

On the 12th of July, four days before the capture of the Nautilius, the Constitution under Captain Hull, left the Chesapeake for New York. On the afternoon of the 16th, she fell in with Commodore Broke's squadron off Barnegat. I will not here go into the details of the famous chase, with which every one is familiar, and which we can now read in the spirited narrative of one of the principal actors, the gallant first lieutenant of the Constitution. On the 19th, after three days of incessant toil and anxiety, the ship finally lost sight of her pursuers, and a week later she landed safely in Boston.

After a week in port, Hull sailed on a cruise to the eastward. He took and burned some prizes in the gulf of St. Lawrence; and hearing that the squadron from which he recently had escaped was in the neighborhood, he steered to the southward.

On the 19th of August, at two o'clock in the afternoon,