On the Ocean 7 



classes, it can always be safely set down as sheer 

 bravado when any talk is made of an American 44 

 refusing to give battle to a British 38 ; and it is 

 even more absurd to say that a British line-of-battle 

 ship would hesitate for a minute about engaging 

 any frigate. 



On Jan. ist, the Constitution, which had been 

 lying in Boston harbor undergoing complete re 

 pairs, put out to sea under the command of Capt. 

 Charles Stewart. The British 38-gun frigate 

 Nymphe had been lying before the port, but she 

 disappeared long before the Constitution was in con 

 dition, in obedience to the order already mentioned. 

 Capt. Stewart ran down toward the Barbadoes, and 

 on the 1 4th of February captured and destroyed the 

 British I4~gun schooner Pictou, with a crew of 75 

 men. After making a few other prizes an$ reach 

 ing the coast of Guiana she turned homeward, and 

 on the 23d of the same month fell in, at the en 

 trance to the Mona passage, with the British 36- 

 gun frigate Pique (late French Pallas'), Captain 

 Maitland. The Constitution at once made sail for 

 the Pique, steering free; 7 the latter at first hauled 

 to the wind and waited for her antagonist, but 

 when the latter was still 3 miles distant she made 

 out her force and immediately made all sail to es 

 cape ; the Constitution, however, gained steadily till 



7 Letter of Capt. Stewart, April 8, 1814. 



