in the Pacific Ocean. 



to endeavour to run her on shore, land my men and destroy her. 

 Every thing seemed to favour my wishes. We had approached 

 the shore within musket shot, and I had no doubt of succeeding, 

 when, in an instant, the wind shifted from the land (as is very 

 common in this port in the latter part of the day) and payed our 

 Jiead down on the Phoebe, where we were again exposed to a 

 dreadful raking fire. My ship was now totally unmanageable ; 

 yet, as her head was toward the enemy, and he to leeward of me, 

 I still hoped to be able to board him. 



At this moment Lieutenant-Commandant Downes came on 

 board to receive my orders, under the impression that I should 

 soon be a prisoner. He could be of no use to me in the then 

 wretched state of the Essex ; and finding (from the enemy's put- 

 ting his helm up) that my last attempt at boarding would not 

 succeed, I directed him, after he had been about ten minutes on 

 board, to return to his own ship, to be prepared for defending 

 and destroying her in case of an attack. He took with him. 

 several of my wounded, leaving three of his boaf s crew on board 

 to make room for them. The slaughter on board my ship had 

 now become horrible, the enemy continuing to rake us, and we 

 unable to bring a gun to bear, I therefore directed a hawser to 

 be bent to the sheet anchor, and the anchor to be cut from the 

 bows to bring her head round : this succeeded. We again got 

 our broadside to bear, and as the enemy was much crippled and 

 / unable to hold his own, T have no doubt he would soon have 

 drifted out of gun shot before he discovered we had anchored, 

 had not the hawser unfortunately parted. My ship had taken fire 

 several times during the action, but alarmingly so forward and 

 aft; at this moment, the flames were bursting up each hatch v/ay, 

 and no hopes were entertained of saving her : our distance from 

 the shore did not exceed three-quarters of a mile, and I hoped 

 many of my brave crew would be able to save themselves, should 

 the ship blow up, as I was informed the fire was near the maga- 

 zine, and the explosion of a large quantity of powder below 

 served to increase the horrors of our situation — our boats were 

 destroyed by the enemy's shot ; I therefore directed those who 

 could swim to jump overboard, and endeavour to gain the shore. 

 Some reached it — some were taken by the enemy, and some perish- 

 ed in the attempt ; but most preferred sharing with me the fate of 

 the sliip. We, who remained, now turned our attention wholly 

 to extinguishing the flames ; and when we had succeeded, went 

 again to our guns, where the firing was kept up for some mi- 

 nutes, but the crew had by this time become so weakened, that 

 they all declared to me the impossibility of making further re- 

 sistance, and entreated me to surrender the ship to save th^ 

 wounded, as all further attempt at opposition must prove ineffec* 



