Porter^s Voyage 



that he was prepared for action, and fired one shot between his 

 masts to intimidate him, threatening him with a broadside if he 

 did not repair on board immediately. This had the desired effect, 

 as he soon came on board, prepared to meet in us an enemy, 

 This vessel proved to be the British letter of marque ship Green- 

 wich, of ten guns, a prime sailer, employed in the whale fishery. 

 Her captain had taken in a good stock of Dutch courage, and, 

 from the preparations that were made on board his vessel, there 

 could be no doubt of his intentions to have fired into us, had he 

 not been intimidated by the shot we gave him between his masts. 



I must here observe, that the captain of the Atlantic, (an 

 American from Nantucket, where he has a wife and family,) on 

 his first coming on board the Essex, expressed his extreme plea- 

 sure on finding (as he supposed we were) an English frigate in 

 those seas. He informed me that he had sailed from England 

 under convoy of the Java frigate, and had put into port Praya a 

 few days after the Essex, an American frigate, had left there; 

 that the Java had sailed immediately in pursuit of her, and that 

 it was the general belief the Essex had gone around the Cape of 

 Good Hope. He parted with the Java a'fter crossing the line, 

 and on his arrival at Conception, heard she had been sunk off 

 Bahia by the American frigate Constitution. On enquiry re- 

 specting the American vessels in the South Seas, he informed me 

 that about Conception was the best place to cruise for them, for 

 he had left at that place nine of them in an unprotected and de- 

 fenceless state, and entirely at a loss what to do with themselves ; 

 that they were almost daily arriving there, and that he had no 

 doubt, by going off there, we should be enabled to take the most 

 of them. I asked him how he reconciled it to himself to sail from 

 England under the British flag, and in an armed ship, after hos- 

 tihties had taken place between the two countries. He said he 

 found no difficulty in reconcihng it to himself ; for, although he 

 was born in America, he was an Englishman at heart. This 

 man appeared the poishled gentleman in his manners, but evi- 

 dently possessed a corrupt heart, and, like all other renegadocs, 

 was desirous of doing his native country all the injury in his 

 power, with the hope of thereby ingratiating himself with his new 

 friends. I permitted him to remain in his error some time, but 

 at length introduced to him the captains of the Montezuma and 

 Georgiana, who soon undeceived him with respect to our being 

 an English frigate. I had felt great pity for these two last gen- 

 tlemen, and had made the evils of war bear as light on them as 

 possible, by purchasing of them, for the use of the crew, their 

 private adventures, consisting of slop-clothing, tobacco, and spirits, 

 for which they were sincerely gratefuL But towards this man I 

 pould not feel the same favourable disposition, nor could I cpn^ 



