On the Ocean 31 



piece of needless cruelty ; so any outsider must con 

 sider Hilyar as having most treacherously broken 

 faith with Porter. 



After the fight Hilyar behaved most kindly and 

 courteously to the prisoners; and, as already said, 

 he fought his ship most ably, for it would have 

 been quixotic to a degree to forego his advantages. 

 But previous to the battle his conduct had been over 

 cautious. It was to be expected that the Essex 

 would make her escape as soon as practicable, and 

 so he should have used every effort to bring her to 

 action. Instead of this he always declined the fight 

 when alone ; and he owed his ultimate success to the 

 fact that the Essex instead of escaping, as she could 

 several times have done, stayed, hoping to bring the 

 Phoebe to action single-handed. It must be remem 

 bered that the Essex was almost as weak compared 

 to the Phoebe as the Cherub was compared to the 

 Essex. The latter was just about midway between 

 the British ships, as may be seen by the following 

 comparison. In the action the Essex fought all six 

 of her long I2*s, and the Cherub both her long g's, 

 instead of the corresponding broadside carronades 

 which the ships regularly used. This gives the Es 

 sex a better armament than she would have had 

 fighting her guns as they were regularly used ; but 

 it can be seen how great the inequality still was. 

 It must also be kept in mind, that while in the bat- 



