ut I looked upon this as an insult
to be paid in kind, and was anxious to discharge the debt with
interest." It is scarcely necessary to say how keenly this feeling was
shared by his seniors in the service, to whom the Vixen incident was but
one among many bitter wrongs which the policy of their Government had
forced them humbly to swallow.

After their arrival in Washington Farragut was put to school, where he
remained until Porter was relieved from the New Orleans station. During
his stay at the capital he was presented by his guardian to the
Secretary of the Navy, Paul Hamilton, of South Carolina; who, after
ascertaining his wish to enter the service, promised him a midshipman's
warrant when he should be ten years old. The promise was more than kept,
for the warrant, when issued, was dated December 17, 1810; the future
admiral thus finding himself at least a titular officer, in the service
which he was afterward to adorn, when not quite nine and a half years of
age. Although at that time, and in earlier generations, boys, no older
than Farragut then was, were not infrequently turned aboard ship to
fight their own way in life, Porter did not so construe his duties to
his charge. In the latter part of 1810 he finally left New Orleans and
went North again, this time by the Mississippi River and in a gun-boat.
The voyage to Pittsburg against the swift current took three months; and
it was not till toward the close of the year that he and his family were
again settled in their home at Chester, in Pennsylvania, the birthplace
of Mrs. Porter. Farragut was then removed from Washington and put to
school in Chester, there to remain until his guardian should be able to
take him to sea under his own eyes, in a vessel commanded by himself.
This opportunity was not long in arriving.

CHAPTER II.

CRUISE OF THE ESSEX.

1811-1814.

Child though Farragut was when he obtained his nominal admission to the
navy, he had but a short time to wait before entering upon its stern
realities--realities far harsher in that day than now. The difficulties
that had existed between the United States and Great Britain, ever since
the outbreak of war between the latter and France in 1793, were now fast
drifting both nations to the collision of 1812. The Non-intercourse Act
of March, 1809, forbidding American merchant ships to enter any port of
France or Great Britain, as a retaliation for the outrages inflicted by
both upon American comm