1812	Macedonian and United States	121

and truly gallant defence. The commodore subsequently gave up all the British officers' private property, extending his generosity to even a quantity of wine, which they had purchased at Madeira for their friends in England. " * That Commodore Decatur should have held out his hand to Captain Cardan, will not be considered surprising, when we state that, not many months before, the two officers had met as friends in Chesapeake bay ; nor will it appear extraordinary that, on seeing his old acquaintance, the former should have " started back, " especially when he recollected the opinion which Captain Cardan, in some friendly disputation about the relative force of their two frigates, had given, respecting the comparative effectiveness of 18 and 24 pounders. Commodore Decatur's treatment of the Macedonian's late officers, and his behaviour about the wine, was certainly very creditable to him : we may perhaps come to something presently, which will be, in the language of the law, a good set-off.

With the profusion of stores of every sort which was to be found on board the American frigate, with so many able seamen that could be spared from her numerous crew, and with all the advantages that a fortnight's calm weather gave him, it took the whole of that time to place his prize in a seaworthy state ; a clear proof how much the Macedonian had been shattered. That service accomplished, the two frigates, the Macedonian under the command of Lieutenant William Henry Allen, late first of the United-States, made sail towards the coast of America. Owing to adverse and baffling winds, the ships were until noon on the 4th of December, ere they came in sight of New-London lighthouse, on their way through the Sound to New-York. Singular indeed was it, that these two frigates, one so crippled in her masts, should have been, during a passage of more than five weeks, not merely unmolested, but, as far as we know, unseen, by a single British cruiser. On her arrival at New-York, the Macedonian was of course purchased by the American government, and, being nearly a new ship (built in 1810), became a great acquisition to the republican navy ; in which, under the same name, she was rated as a 36-gun frigate, and was the smallest ship of her class.

It was not enough for the lieutenants, petty-officers, and seamen of the frigate United-States, to try the effect of their eloquence upon the late crew of the Macedonian ; Commodore Decatur must use his personal endeavours to inveigle them into the service of their country's enemy. On arriving off New-London, as if the shrewd-inspiring air of Connecticut had already begun to exert its influence, the commodore sent the British officers on shore on their parole; meaning to carry the Macedonian's late crew with him to New-York. These he threatened

* Marshall, vol. ii., p. 1014.

^ back to top ^