“The action had now lasted about an hour and a half, and the fire from the enemy began to slacken, when we suddenly discovered that all the sails on her mainmast were enveloped in a blaze.  Fire spread with amazing rapidity, and, running down the after rigging, it soon communicated with her magazine, when her whole stern was blown off, and her valuable cargo emptied into the sea.  Our enemy’s ship was now a complete wreck, though she still floated, and the survivors were endeavoring to save themselves in the only boat that had escaped the general destruction.  The humanity of our captain urged him to make all possible exertions to save the miserable wounded and burned wretches, who were struggling for their lives in the water.  The ship of the enemy was greatly our superior in size, and lay much higher out of the water.  Our boats had been exposed to his fire, as they were placed on spars between the fore and mainmasts during the action, and had suffered considerable damage.  The carpenters were ordered to repair them with the utmost expedition, and we got them out in season to take up fifty-five men, the greater part of whom had been wounded by our shot, or burned when the powder-magazine exploded.  Their limbs were mutilated by all manner of wounds, while some were burned to such a degree that the skin was nearly flayed from their bodies.  Our surgeon and his assistants had just completed the task of dressing the wounds of our own crew, and then they directed their attention to the wounded of the enemy.  Several of them suffered the amputation of their limbs, five of them died of their wounds, and were committed to their watery graves.  From the survivors we learned that the British commander had frequently expressed a desire to come in contact with a ‘Yankee frigate’ during his voyage, that he might have a prize to carry to London.  Poor fellow.  He little thought of losing his ship and his life in an engagement with a ship so much inferior to his own—­with an enemy upon whom he looked with so much contempt.”

But most notable of all the battles fought by privateersmen in the War of 1812, was the defense of the brig “General Armstrong,” in the harbor of Fayal, in September, 1814.  This famous combat has passed into history, not only because of the gallant fight made by the privateer, but because the three British men-of-war to whom she gave battle, were on their way to cooperate with Packenham at New Orleans, and the delay due to the injuries they received, made them too late to aid in that expedition, and may have thus contributed to General Jackson’s success.

The “General Armstrong” had always been a lucky craft, and her exploits in the capture of merchantmen, no less than the daring of her commander in giving battle to ships-of-war which he encountered, had won her the peculiar hate of the British navy.  At the very beginning of her career, when in command of Captain Guy R. Champlin, she fought a British frigate for more than an hour, and inflicted such grave damage