PORTER’S JOURNAL, 
CHAPTER I. 
PASSAGE FROM THE DELAWARE TO THE CAPE DE VERB IS¬ 
LANDS, AND FROM THENCE TO CAPE FRIO ; WITH NAUTICAL- 
REMARKS. 
October Sth, 1812. 1 RECEIVED orders from commodore 
William Bainbridge to prepare the Essex for a long cruize, and 
on the day following received his final instructions, appointing 
places of rendezvous, and the next day a copy of his orders from 
the honourable secretary of the navy. 
I consequently directed the ship to be furnished with every 
requisite supply of stores, See. &c.; ordered for her a new suit of 
sails and standing rigging? took out the bowsprit and fished it; 
and put her in the best possible state for service; taking in as 
much provision as she could stow, and providing ourselves with 
•a double supply of clothing, and fruit, vegetables, and lime juice 
as antiscorbutics; and gave the officers and men intimation of the 
probable length of our cruize, in order that they should supply 
themselves with such comforts as their means would admit of, 
they having recently been paid a proportion of the prize-money 
for the last cruize, and advanced the officers three months pay, 
They accordingly furnished themselves with stock, vegetables, 
and other stores, in as large quantities as could be stowed away? 
and on the afternoon of the 28th we left the capes of the Dela* 
ware*, with the wind from the northward, which gradually hauled 
VOL, I, 
See note A at the end of the volume, 
A 
