38 Naval War of 1812 



it was practicable upon the official letters of the 

 commanding officers, taking each as authority for 

 his own force and loss. 7 For all the British victories 

 we have British official letters, which tally almost 

 exactly, as regards matters of fact and not of opin 

 ion, with the corresponding American accounts. For 

 the first year the British also published official ac 

 counts of their defeats, which, in the cases of the 

 Guerriere, Macedonian, and Frolic, I have followed 

 as closely as the accounts of the American victors. 

 The last British official letter published announcing 

 a defeat was that in the case of the Java, and it is 

 the only letter that I have not strictly accepted. The 

 fact that no more were published thereafter is of 

 itself unfortunate; and from the various contradic 

 tions it contains it would appear to have been tam 

 pered with. The surgeon's report accompanying it 

 is certainly false. Subsequent to 1812 no letter of 

 a defeated British commander was published, 8 and I 

 have to depend upon the various British historians, 

 especially James, of whom more anon. 



The American and British historians from whom 

 we are thus at times forced to draw our material 



7 As where Broke states his own force at 330, his antago 

 nist's at 440, and the American court of inquiry makes the 

 numbers 396 and 379, I have taken them as being 330 and 379 

 respectively. This is the only just method ; I take it for 

 granted that each commander meant to tell the truth, and 

 of course knew his own force, while he might very naturally 

 and in perfect good faith exaggerate his antagonist's. 



8 Except about the battles on the Lakes, where I have ac 

 cordingly given the same credit to the accounts both of the 

 British and of the Americans. 



