And yet he lived for seven more years.  Then, when a scirrhus cancer appeared on his tongue, a skilful surgeon told him it could be easily removed and need cause him no trouble.

“Oh,” said the Admiral, who was then past ninety, “I’ve lived long enough; let it alone.”

He died a few months later, and, as has been stated, was in his ninety-second year.

CHAPTER XVIII.

Captures Made After the Signing of the Treaty of Peace—­The Privateers—­Exploit of the General Armstrong—­Its Far-Reaching Result.

The treaty of peace between Great Britain and the United States was signed December 24, 1814, at the city of Ghent, in Belgium.  Had the submarine telegraph been known at that time, or had we possessed our ocean greyhounds, a good deal of blood-shed would have been saved, and the most important victory of the whole war would not have been gained.  General Jackson won his famous triumph at New Orleans—­still celebrated in all parts of the country—­January 8, 1815; the President was captured by a British fleet, January 15; Captain Stewart captured the Cyane and Levant, February 20; the Hornet took the Penguin, March 23, and the Peacock captured the Nautilus, in a distant part of the world, June 30.  That was the last of hostilities between the two countries, and let us pray that it will be the last for all time to come.

In the account of the naval exploits of the War of 1812, I have confined myself to those of the regular cruisers of the United States, but in no other war in which we were engaged did the privateers play so prominent a part.  These vessels were usually schooners or brigs of 200 or 300 tons, with crews varying from 75 to 100 men.  They left all of our principal ports, many of the swiftest and most effective going from Baltimore, but twenty-six were fitted out in New York alone in the summer of 1812.  Probably the whole number engaged was about six hundred.  Of the four hundred British prizes captured in the second year of the war, four-fifths were taken by privateers.  A favorite cruising ground was the West Indies, but some of the vessels ventured across the ocean and displayed a degree of boldness that recalled the days of Paul Jones.  Among the most famous were the Reindeer, Avon and Blakeley, built in a few weeks, near Boston, in 1814.  They were so large and well equipped that more than once they attacked and defeated British warships.

Some of the privateers which left Charleston, Bristol and Plymouth were nothing but pilot boats, carrying twenty or thirty men each, who gave their attention to the West Indies.  They were often obliged to deplete their crews to that extent in order to man their prizes that barely enough were left to manage their own ships.  In those days all, of course, were sailing vessels, and they carried nothing in the shape of armor.  Their guns were cannon, loading at the muzzle and firing solid shot.  The most effective of these was the “Long Tom,” which was generally mounted on a pivot forward, and used in firing upon a fleeing vessel.