On the Ocean 47 



riere and Java, tried to bar their progress, but had 

 not sufficient means. On September ist an attempt 

 was made to destroy the Devastation by fire-ships, 

 but it failed; on the 4th the attempt was repeated 

 by Commodore Rodgers, with a party of some forty 

 men, but they were driven off and attacked by the 

 British boats, under Captain Baker, who in turn 

 was repulsed with the loss of his second lieutenant 

 killed, and some twenty-five men killed or wounded. 

 The squadron also had to pass and silence a battery 

 of light field-pieces on the 5th, where they suffered 

 enough to raise their total loss to seven killed and 

 thirty-five wounded. Gordon's inland expedition 

 was thus concluded most successfully, at a very 

 trivial cost ; it was a most venturesome feat, reflect 

 ing great honor on the captains and crews engaged 

 in it. 



Baltimore was threatened actively by sea and land 

 early in September. On the i3th an indecisive con 

 flict took place between the British regulars and 

 American militia, in which the former came off with 

 the honor, and the latter with the profit. The regu 

 lars held the field, losing 350 men, including Gen 

 eral Ross; the militia retreated in fair order with a 

 loss of but 200. The water attack was also unsuc 

 cessful. At 5 A.M. on the I3th the bomb vessels 

 Meteor, JEtna, Terror, Volcano, and Devastation, 

 the rocket-ship Erebus, and the frigates Severn, 



