94 EEPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 



1,500 troops. Having found a bag containing about $800 on board the 

 President, they carried her captain, Solomon Folger, ashore under a 

 guard and imprisoned the remaining officers and crew, excepting the 

 mate, one boat-steerer, and the cook. 



Learning of this condition of affairs, Poinsett immediately joined the 

 Chilian army and directed its movements. On the 15th of May a bat- 

 tle was fought between the contending forces near the town of San 

 Carlos, but when the day had closed neither side could claim the vic- 

 tory. Taking advantage of the cover of the night, Poinsett put him- 

 self at the head of 400 picked men, with three pieces of light artillery, 

 and, leaving the main body, marched directly to Talcahuano, whither 

 the enemy had withdrawn. The town was immediately carried by storm 

 and the detained whalemen were released.* Some of the ships having 

 had their papers destroyed, Poinsett furnished them with consular cer- 

 tificates. The friendly regard for the United States which diplomatic 

 address and persuasion had been unable to obtain, were secured in a 

 much shorter time and probably far more efficaciously by force of arms, 

 and Lima yielded to muskets and cannon the respect she had been un- 

 willing to concede to the seal of the Department of State. Her dep- 

 redations on American commerce did not, however, entirely cease until 

 the advent of Captain Porter in those waters. t Soon after this the 

 United States Government, realizing the defenseless condition of our 

 commerce in the Pacific, dispatched Porter to that locality to protect 

 our interests. Up to the time of the capture of his vessel he had not 

 only done all in his power in this direction, but had effectually destroyed 

 the English whale-fishery in those seas, and so turned the tables upon 

 the enemy who had sent out his whale-ships well armed and manned to 

 perform the same kindly office toward our whalemen. f 



Up to the latter part of the year 1813 the people of Nantucket had 

 fished unmolested both for cod-fish and for humpback whales on the shoals 

 at the eastward of the island, and by this means eked out a livelihood 

 which was beginning to be quite precarious, but this resort was now 

 taken from them. An English privateer, during the fall, appeared among 



* See Nantucket Inquirer, August 9, 1824 ; also Inquirer and Mirror, September 14, 

 1872. In the latter paper is an account of the affair written by Captain Nathaniel 

 Fitzgerald, one of the crew on one of the detained whalers. 



t The Walker, of New Bedford, was captured by an English armed whale-ship, but re- 

 captured by Porter. The Barclay, of New Bedford, also was captured by the Peruvians, 

 and recaptured by Porter. 



t So far as operations in the Pacific were concerned, the English went out to shear 

 but " returned shorn." Wherever our sailors went ashore in foreign ports and met 

 English seamen, a melee was a frequent occurrence. An amusing instance is related 

 of the officer of a whaling-vessel incurring the displeasure of an English naval officer 

 in one of the South American Pacific ports, by his zeal in behalf of his country. A 

 challenge was the result. The American being the challneged party, had, of course, 

 the right to a cboice of weapons, and being most familiar with the harpoon, chose that. 

 They met according to the preliminaries and took their positions. For a moment the 

 English officer stood before the poised harpoon of our whaleman, then gave in, and the 

 proposed combat was deferred. 



