rough marsh and chaparral and
cactus--a service often perilous, always painful and exhausting. His
health fortunately held out through it; nor did he take the yellow
fever, which, as the summer wore on, made sad havoc among both officers
and men. Toward the end of his time he obtained the command of one of
the Mosquito schooners, which, however, he held but for a short period;
for, not having yet received his lieutenant's commission, he was
relieved by the arrival of an officer of that rank. An interesting
incident of this cruise was a meeting with his brother William, then
already a lieutenant, whom he had not seen for thirteen years. Soon
after that he obtained permission to visit New Orleans; and it is a
curious coincidence that the vessel in which he took passage thither was
carrying the first load of bricks to build Fort Jackson, one of the
defenses of New Orleans, by the passage of which nearly forty years
later he began his career as commander-in-chief. His father had then
been many years dead; but he met his sister, with whom he had to make
acquaintance after so long a separation.

The service of the Mosquito fleet was one of great exposure and
privation. "I never owned a bed during my two years and a half in the
West Indies," wrote Farragut, "but lay down to rest wherever I found the
most comfortable berth." It was, however, effectual, both directly and
indirectly, to the suppression of piracy; seconded as it was by the navy
of Great Britain, interested like our own country in the security of
commerce. Driven off the water, with their lurking-places invaded, their
plunder seized, their vessels burned, their occupation afloat gone, the
marauders organized themselves into bandits, and turned their predatory
practices against the towns and villages. This roused the Spanish
governors from the indolent complacency with which they had watched
robberies upon foreigners that brought profit rather than loss to their
districts. When the evil was thus brought home, the troops were put in
motion; and the pirates, beset on both sides, gradually but rapidly
disappeared.

This Mosquito war had, however, one very sad result in depriving the
navy of the eminent services of Commodore Porter. In 1824 a gratuitous
insult, accompanied by outrage, offered to one of his officers, led him
to land a party at the town of Foxardo, in Porto Rico, and force an
apology from the guilty officials. Although no complaint seems to have
been ma