Introductory 39 



regard the war from very different standpoints, and 

 their accounts generally differ. Each writer natur 

 ally so colored the affair as to have it appear favor 

 able to his own side. Sometimes this was done inten 

 tionally and sometimes not. Not infrequently errors 

 are made against the historian's own side ; as when 

 the British author, Brenton, says that the British 

 brig Peacock mounted 32*5 instead of 24*5, while 

 Lossing in his "Field Book of the War of 1812" 

 makes the same mistake about the armament of the 

 American brig Argus. Errors of this description 

 are, of course, as carefully to be guarded against as 

 any others. Mere hearsay reports, such as "it has 

 been said," "a prisoner on board the opposing fleet 

 has observed," "an American (or British) news 

 paper of such and such a date has remarked," are of 

 course to be rejected. There is a curious parallelism 

 in the errors on both sides. For example, the Amer 

 ican, Mr. Low, writing in 1813, tells how the Con 

 stitution, 44, captured the Guerriere of 49 guns, 

 while the British Lieutenant Low, writing in 1880, 

 tells how the Pelican, 18, captured the Argus of 20 

 guns. Each records the truth but not the whole 

 truth, for although rating 44 and 18 the victors car 

 ried respectively 54 and 21 guns, of heavier metal 

 than those of their antagonists. Such errors are 

 generally intentional. Similarly, most American 

 writers mention the actions in which the privateers 

 were victorious, but do not mention those in which 

 they were defeated ; while the British, in turn, record 

 every successful "cutting-out" expedition, but ig- 



