146 
PORTER’S JOURNAL. 
its present state meet a favourable reception, he may be induced, 
with the, assistance of others, to endeavour to dress it in a garb 
more proper to meet the public eye. Many of the materials are 
yet unemployed; and dressed with the same taste, the voyage of 
the Essex should not, I think, yield the palm to those of Anson, 
or Cook. 
COPY OF A LETTER FROM CAPTAIN PORTER, TO THE SECRE¬ 
TARY OF THE NAVY. 
JEssex Junior , July 3d , 1814, a? sea. 
Sir, 
I have done myself the honour to address you, repeatedly, 
since I left the Delaware; but have scarcely a hope that one of my 
letters has reached you; therefore, consider it necessary to give 
you a brief history of my proceedings since that period. 
I sailed from the Delaware on the 27th of October, 1812, 
and repaired, with all diligence, (agreeably to the instructions of 
Commodore Bainbridge,) to Port Praya, Fernando de Moronho, 
and Cape Frio; and arrived at each place on the day appointed to 
meet him. On my passage from Port Praya to Fernando de Noron- 
ho, I captured his Britannic majesty’s packet Nocton—and after 
taking out about eleven thousand pounds sterling in specie, sent 
her under command of lieutenant Finch for America. I cruized 
©ff Rio de Janeiro, and about Cape Frio, until the 12th January, 
1813, hearing frequently of the commodore by vessels from Ba¬ 
hia. I here captured but one schooner with hides and tallow; I 
sent her into Rio. The Montague, the admiral’s ship, being in 
pursuit of me, my provisions now getting short, and finding it ne¬ 
cessary to look out for a supply to enable me to meet the commo¬ 
dore by the first of April, off' St. Helena, I proceeded to the island 
of St. Catherines, (the last place of rendezvous on the coast of 
Brazil,) as the most likely to supply my wants, and, at the same 
time, afford me that intelligence necessary to enable me to elude 
the British ships of war on the coast, and expected there. I here 
could procure only wood, water, and rum, and a few bags of flour; 
and hearing of the commodore’s action with the Java, the capture 
of the Fie met by the Montague, and of a considerable augmenta 
