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PORTER'S JOURNAL* 



destruction of those vessels, I had another object in vlew^ 

 of no less importance, which was the protection of the 

 American whale-ships 5 and if I should only succeed in 

 driving the British from the ocean, and leaving it free for 

 our own vessels, I conceive that I shall have rendered an 

 essential service to my country, and that the efiecting this 

 object alone would be a sufficient compensation for the 

 hardships and dangers we have experienced, and be consi- 

 dered a justification for departing from the letter of my in- 

 structions. That I can effect this, no doubts exist, provi- 

 ded the Standard has left Lima ; and this it is necessary I 

 should be informed of before I make my attack on the Gal- 

 lipagos, for I have knowledge of letters having been writ- 

 ten to Lima by an active English merchant (perhaps an 

 agent of the British government) residing at Valparaiso, 

 They were sent by the ships which sailed four days before 

 us ; but as they had the reputation of being bad sailers, and 

 calculating some on Spanish indolence, and much on our 

 own activity and industry, I am in hopes of looking into Lima 

 before they can arrive there ; and shall so disguise the ship 

 that she cannot be known there from any description that 

 the aforesaid letters may contain. Until information re- 

 specting the Standard can be obtained, all my proceedings 

 must be governed by views toward that vessel, she being 

 the only vessel of war the British have in those seas, and I 

 can have but little apprehension of being pursued by any 

 from the Alantic for some months, or at least until I have 

 time to do them much injury. Although information had 

 been sent from Buenos Ayres to Valparaiso of my being on 

 the coast of Brazils, and this information had reached Val- 

 paraiso two weeks before my arrival, yet tliey could not 

 have had an idea of my intention of coming into this sea, as 

 it was unknown to every person but myself until after pass- 

 ing the River of Plate. The same mail that brought intel- 

 ligence of my being on the coast of Brazils, also gave an 

 account of an action having been fought off Bahia between 

 the American frigate Constitution and the British frigate 

 Java of forty-four guns, in which the latter was sunk ; also of 

 the capture of her convoy ; and of some small place on the 

 coast of Africa having been laid under contribution by the 

 squadron under the command of commodore Rodgers. It 

 was also stated that the Wasp, an American sloop of war^ 



