PORTER'S JOURNAL. 



45 



iliat they would endeavour to get to the eastward, I steered 

 that course along shore, which would prevent, as I belie- 

 ved, the possibility of their keeping in shore of us, without 

 being seen. When I believed myself nearly as far to the 

 east as they were, I steered away to the southeast, with a 

 view of traversing their course ; and after running about 

 thirty miles, steered northeast. 



During this pursuit, there appeared an evident desire, on 

 the part of the captain of the prize, to deter us from going 

 off St. Salvador, and in pursuit of the Bonne Citoyenne. 

 To effect his object, he stated a number of circumstances 

 which we knew to be false, and, among others, that the 

 admiral had sailed from Rio Janeiro to give her convoy, 

 when we had the most certain intelligence of his being at 

 Rio Janeiro with all his sails unbent. From his apparent 

 eagerness on the occasion, I was induced to believe, that 

 the convoy were bound there to join the Bonne Citoyenne ; 

 and what served to strengthen this belief was, that the Ju- 

 niper sailed from Rio Janeiro with only a small quantity 

 of water on board. Added to this, it was understood that 

 she was not to convoy the vessels beyond a certain dis- 

 tance, when she would leave them and proceed to Halifax, 

 the station to which she belonged. These considerations 

 induced me to make the best of my way to intercept them 

 off St. Salvador. 



On the 1st January, 1813, the man at the fore-topgai- 

 lantmast-head cried out, a sail, and in a few minutes after, 

 three more. The ship was immediately in an uproar, 

 every person hurrying on deck to give chase, as there was 

 not a doubt of these being the convoy ; but in a few mo- 

 ments we were undeceived : it proved to be nothing but 

 small clouds rising from the horizon, that bore strongly the 

 appearance of vessels. 



On the 2d, at daylight, discovered two sail to wind- 

 ward ; gave chase to one, which bore the appearance of a 

 brig of war, the other being a polacca, and had the appear- 

 ance of a Portuguese. At 9, spoke the chase : she proved 

 to be a Portuguese brig of war, nine days from Bahia, 

 where she left the Bonne Citoyenne, and was boarded the 

 day after she came out by a frigate mounting fifty guns, ha- 

 ving a sloop of war in company, under English colours. 



Knowing that the enemv had but three ships of war in 



