1 66 Naval War of 1812 



killed and mortally wounded at 24, says that the 

 Americans lost in all about 60, and that 4 of their 

 amputations perished under his own eyes; where 

 upon Surgeon Evans makes the statement ("Niles' 

 Register/' vi, p. 35), backed up by affidavits of his 

 brother officers, that in all he had but five amputa 

 tions, of whom only one died, and that one a month 

 after Surgeon Jones had left the ship. To meet the 

 assertions of Lieutenant Chads that he began action 

 with but 377 men, the Constitution's officers pro 

 duced the Java's muster-roll, dated Nov. I7th, or 

 five days after she had sailed, which showed 446 

 persons, of whom 20 had been put on board a prize. 

 The presence of this large number of supernumer 

 aries on board is explained by the fact that the Java 

 was carrying out Lieutenant-General Hislop, the 

 newly-appointed Governor of Bombay, and his suite, 

 together with part of the crews for the Cornwallis, 

 74, and gun-sloops Chameleon and Icarus; she also 

 contained stores for those two ships. 



Besides conflicting with the American reports, 

 the British statements contradict one another. The 

 official published report gives but two midshipmen 

 as killed; while one of the volumes of the "Naval 

 Chronicle" (vol. xxix, p. 452) contains a letter from 

 one of the Java's lieutenants, in which he states that 

 there were five. Finally, Commodore Bainbridge 

 found on board the Constitution, after the prisoners 

 had left, a letter from Lieutenant H. D. Cornick, 

 dated Jan. i, 1813, and addressed to Lieutenant 

 Peter V. Wood, 22d Regiment, foot, in which he 



