river and on the adjacent
sounds. A dispute had arisen between the United States and the Spanish
Government, to whom the Floridas then belonged, as to the line of
demarcation between the two territories; and George Farragut was at
times employed with his vessel in composing disturbances and forwarding
the views of his own government.

David Glasgow, the second son of George Farragut, and the future Admiral
of the United States Navy, was born before the removal to Louisiana, on
the 5th of July, 1801, at Campbell's Station, near Knoxville, in eastern
Tennessee. In 1808, while living in his father's house on the banks of
Lake Pontchartrain, an incident occurred which led directly to his
entrance into the navy, and at the same time brought into curious
coincidence two families, not before closely associated, whose names are
now among the most conspicuous of those in the annals of the navy. While
George Farragut was fishing one day on Lake Pontchartrain he fell in
with a boat, also engaged in fishing, in which was an old gentleman
prostrated by the heat of the sun. He took him to his own house, where
he was cared for and nursed until he died, never having recovered
strength sufficient to be removed. The sufferer was David Porter, the
father of the Captain David Porter who afterward commanded the frigate
Essex in her adventurous and celebrated cruise in the Pacific during the
years 1813 and 1814, and grandfather of the still more distinguished
Admiral David D. Porter, who, over half a century later, served with
David Farragut on the Mississippi in the civil war, and in the end
succeeded him as second admiral of the navy. Captain, or rather, as he
then was, Commander Porter being in charge of the naval station at New
Orleans, his father, who had served actively afloat during the
Revolution and had afterward been appointed by Washington a
sailing-master in the navy, had obtained orders to the same station, in
order to be with, though nominally under, his son. The latter deeply
felt the kindness shown to his father by the Farraguts. Mrs. Farragut
herself died of yellow fever, toward the end of Mr. Porter's illness,
the funeral of the two taking place on the same day; and Commander
Porter soon after visited the family at their home and offered to adopt
one of the children. Young David Farragut then knew little of the
element upon which his future life was to be passed; but, dazzled by the
commander's uniform and by that of his ow