on this disparity of force in this action, as an excuse for the 1815. Penguin's capture. The chief cause is to be sought in that which cannot be made apparent in figures; Rethe immense disparity between the two vessels in marks the fitting of their guns, and in the effectiveness of action. their crews. A ship's gun, cast adrift, not only becomes utterly useless as a weapon of offence or defence, but, in the very act of breaking loose, maims and disables the men stationed at it; and, if the sea is rough, as captain Biddle says it was in the present instance, continues to cause destruction among the crew, generally, until again lashed to the ship's side. How much is the evil increased, if, as in the Penguin's case, instead of one gun, several guns break loose. In the midst of all this delay and self-destruction, the enemy, uninterrupted in his operations, and animated by the feeble resistance he meets, quickens his fire; and, conquering at last, fails not to ascribe, solely to his skill and valour, that victory, which accident had partly gained for him. We are inclined to think that the prize was not so "riddled in her hull," as to render her destruction Penguin on the morning of the 25th a matter of necessity, deThe fact is, that, just after the action had ended, the stroyed Peacock and Tom-Bowline hove in sight; and captains Warrington and Biddle, having heard of the peace, were anxious to get to the East Indies as quickly as possible, in order to have their share of the few prizes yet to be taken. portant The communicativeness of one of the american officers having conveyed to the ears of lieutenant M'Donald the statement in captain Biddle's official letter, that the Hornet had suffered so slightly in the action, lieutenant M'Donald took an opportunity An imof mentioning the circumstance to the american cap- secret tain; when, having drowned his native cunning in diswine, (some of poor captain Dickinson's probably,) captain Biddle admitted the fact, but attempted to gloss it over by stating, that it was necessary to say so and so, and so and so, in order to closed. ར Of 1815. to make the thing be properly received in the United June. States. Here was an acknowledgment! How unnecessary, then, have been all our previous labours in detecting and exposing the misrepresentations contained in the american official accounts. course, we are saved all further trouble in showing, how completely captain Biddle has mistated every important fact connected with the capture of the Penguin. Peacock being Corn rate and On the 28th of April, at daylight, in latitude 39° and south, longitude 34° west, the Peacock and Hornet Hornet bore down upon, in order to capture as an indiaman, chased the british 74-gun ship Cornwallis, captain John by Bayley, bearing the flag of rear-admiral sir George wallis, Burlton, K. C. B. The mistake was soon discovered, sepa- and a chase commenced, during which the Peacock separated to the eastward. In the afternoon the escape. Cornwallis, when gaining fast upon the Hornet, had to heave to and lower a boat for a marine that had dropped overboard. This delay, aided by the unskilful firing of the Cornwallis on the following day, saved the Hornet; but the chase continued until 9 A. M. on the 30th, when the 74, finding further pursuit useless, shortened sail and hauled to the wind. The closeness of the chase, however, had effected enough to render the Hornet, as a cruiser, utterly useless. She hove overboard her guns, muskets, cutlasses, forge, bell, anchors, cables, shot, boats, spare spars, and a considerable portion of her ballast, and was of course obliged to steer straight for the United States. Pea cock The Peacock, after she had been compelled to falls in part from her consort, pursued her way to the East with Indies; and, on the 30th of June, being off Anjier in tilus. the Straits of Sunda, fell in with the honourable Nau company's brig-cruiser Nautilus, of 10 carronades, 18-pounders, and four long nines, commanded by lieutenant Charles Boyce. On the Peacock's approach within hail, the lieutenant inquired if her captain knew that peace had been declared. Let us suppose, for a moment, that, just as the american 1815. commander was listening to the hail from the Nau- June. tilus, the latter became suddenly transformed into the british 22-gun ship Volage, captain Joseph Drury, a sister-vessel to the Cyane, and at that time cruising in the East Indies. Captain Warrington would then have promptly hailed in turn, with the best speaking-trumpet in the ship; thanked captain Drury for his politeness, and been the first to urge the folly, not to say wickedness, of wounding and killing each other, while any doubt existed about peace having been signed. But it was a vessel he could almost hoist on board the Peacock. He there- Desires fore called out: "Haul down your colours instantly." strike. This "reasonable demand" lieutenant Boyce very properly considered as an imperious and insulting mandate, and, fully alive to the dignity of the british flag, and to the honour of the service to which he was acknowledged to be an ornament, prepared to cope with a ship, whose immense superiority, as she overshadowed his little bark, gave him nothing to expect short of a speedy annihilation. her to War is in of the peace. It will scarcely be credited that, about a quarter Capt. of an hour before this, Mr. Bartlett, the master of rington the Nautilus, and cornet White, one of her passen-formed gers, in one boat, and Mr. Macgregor, the master- again attendant at Anjier, in another, had gone on board the Peacock, in a friendly way, to communicate the news of peace. Scarcely had Mr. Bartlett stepped upon the american ship's deck than, without being allowed to ask a question, he was hurried below. Happily, Mr. Macgregor met with rather better success. The instant he arrived on board, he communicated to the Peacock's first lieutenant, the most authentic information of peace having been concluded between Great Britain and America, grounded on no less authority than Mr. Madison's proclamation; which Mr. Macgregor had himself received from an american ship, passing the Straits on her way to China. What effect had this communication? بہت 1815. Captain Warrington, whom the single word "Peace!" ought to have made pause, before he proceeded to spill the blood of his fellow-creatures, ordered Mr. Macgregor to be taken below. The fact altho' mitted by him. Captain Warrington does not admit that Mr. estab- Macgregor mentioned that peace existed; although lished, the latter gentleman has sworn that he did, both to not ad- captain Warrington's first lieutenant and to his purser. As to the imputed silence of messieurs Bartlett and White, would two officers, who had voluntarily entered on board the ship of a nation, with whom they knew a peace had just been concluded, have acted in so senseless a manner as to suffer themselves to be made prisoners, without some such words as, "Peace is signed," bursting from their lips? Even the ceremony of gagging, however quickly performed, could not have stopped an exclamation, which their personal liberty, and every thing that was dear to them as men, would prompt them to utter. The same motives would have operated upon the two boats' crews; and there cannot be a doubt, He that they all gave some sort of intimation, that peace Nauti had been signed. But captain Warrington, as the lus, and Peacock's purser could not help saying, wanted to pels have a little brush with the british brig. He saw her to what a diminutive vessel she was, and, accordingly, der. ordered his men to fire into her. They did so; and the Nautilus was soon compelled to haul down her Her colours. But this the brig did not do until her gallant commander was most dangerously wounded, casion. One seaman, two european invalids, and three lascars killed, her first lieutenant, (mortally,) two seamen, and five lascars wounded. The wound of lieutenant Boyce was of a most serious description. A grapeshot, that measured two inches and one-third in diameter, entered at the outside of his hip, and passed out close under the backbone. This severe attacks com surren heavy loss on the oc wound did not, however, disable him. In a few minutes a 32-pound shot struck obliquely on his right knee, shattering the joint, splintering the leg bone downwards and the thighbone a great way upwards. This, as may be supposed, laid the young officer prostrate on the deck. The dismounting of a bow gun, and four or five men wounded, appears to have been the extent of the injury sustained by the Peacock. 1815. marks War ton's con Fearful that these facts would come to light, cap- Retain Warrington had additional reasons for endea- on vouring to lessen the enormity of his offence, by contai stating, in his official letter, that "lascars" were ring the only sufferers. Poor wretches! and were they to be butchered with impunity, because their com- duct. plexion and the american captain's were of different hues? Whose heart was the blackest, the transaction in which they lost their lives has already shown to the world. Had the Volage, as we said before, been the vessel that had hove in sight, every man in the Peacock, in less than three minutes after the master-attendant at Anjier and the other british officers had come on board, would have been informed of the peace. Captain Warrington would have approached the stranger, if he approached at all, without opening his ports or displaying his helmets. In short, he that hectored so much in one case, would have cringed as much in the other; and the commander of the United States' sloop Peacock would have run no risk of being by his government "blamed for ceasing," or rather, for not commencing, "hostilities, without more authentic evidence that peace had been concluded." Boyce tation The first lieutenant of the Nautilus, Mr. Mayston, Lieut. languished until the 3d of December, a period of five suffers months, when a mortification of his wound carried ampu him off. About a fortnight after the action, lieu of his tenant Boyce suffered amputation very near his hip, thigh. on account of the length and complication of the fracture. The pain and danger of the operation was augmented by the proximity of the grape-shot wound. His life was subsequently despaired of; but, after a long course of hopes and fears to his |