1814	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	284

his men at the guns, if the President, contrary to what her movements indicated, had waited to engage, Commodore Rodgers, in all probability, would have found the conquest of a British 18-pounder frigate, by an American 44, not so easy a task as he had been led to expect.

We formerly noticed the sailing, on the 27th of October, 1812, of the United States' 32-gun frigate Essex, Captain David Porter, from Delaware bay, on a cruise in the Pacific, conjointly with the Constitution and Hornet. * Not finding either of these ships at the appointed rendezvous, Captain Porter resolved to proceed alone round Cape Horn ; and on the 14th of March, 1813, having previously captured the British packet Nocton and taken out of her 11,0001. sterling in specie, the Essex arrived at Valparaiso, on the coast of Chili. Captain Porter here refitted and provisioned his frigate, and then cruised along the coast of Chili and Peru, and among the Gallapagos islands, until October; by which time he had captured 12 British whale-ships.

Having taken several American seamen out of a Peruvian corsair and decoyed several British seamen out of his prizes, Captain Porter armed and manned two of the whale-ships as cruisers. One of them, late the Atlantic, but newly named the Essex-Junior, was armed with 20 guns (10 long 6-pounders and ten 18-pounder carronades), and manned with a crew, officers included, of 95 men ; and Lieutenant John Downes, who had the command of her, taking under his charge the Hector, Catherine, and Montezuma, proceeded with them to Valparaiso. On the return of the Essex-Junior from this service, the Essex, with the remaining three prizes (three having been sent to America, and two given up to the prisoners), steered for the island of Nooaheevah, one of the Marquesas. Here Captain Porter completely repaired the Essex ; and, sailing thence on the 12th of December, in company with the Essex-Junior, returned, on or about the 12th of January, 1814, to Valparaiso.

On the 8th of February, at 7 a.m., the British 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Phoebe, Captain James Hillyar, accompanied by the 18-gun ship-sloop Cherub, Captain Thomas Tudor Tucker, when standing in towards the harbour of Valparaiso, in quest of the Essex and the three ships which Captain Porter was represented to have armed, discovered the Essex-Junior off the port, and, shortly afterwards, the Essex herself and two of her three prizes, the Montezuma and Hector, at anchor within it. At 11 h. 15 m. a.m. Captain Hillyar spoke the Essex; and at 11 h. 30 m. the Ph�be and Cherub anchored at no great distance from her. The established force of the Phoebe was precisely what we supposed it to be in May, 1811 ; � but, profiting by the example of the Americans, Captain Hillyar had since mounted one swivel in the fore, two in the main, and one in the mizen top of the Ph�be,

* See p. 126. � See p. 21.

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