erce, had expired by its own limitations in May,
1810, when commerce with the two countries resumed its natural course;
but Congress had then passed a proviso to the effect that if either
power should, before March 3, 1811, recall its offensive measures, the
former act should, within three months of such revocation, revive
against the one that maintained its edicts. Napoleon had contrived to
satisfy the United States Government that his celebrated Berlin and
Milan decrees had been recalled on the 1st of November; and,
consequently, non-intercourse with Great Britain was again proclaimed
in February, 1811. The immediate result was that two British frigates
took their station off New York, where they overhauled all merchant
ships, capturing those bound to ports of the French Empire, and
impressing any members of the crews considered to be British subjects.
The United States then fitted out a squadron, to be commanded by
Commodore John Rodgers; whose orders, dated May 6, 1811, were to cruise
off the coast and to protect American commerce from unlawful
interference by British and French cruisers. Ten days later occurred the
collision between the commodore's ship, the President, and the British
corvette Little Belt. Of Rodgers's squadron the frigate Essex, expected
shortly to arrive from Europe, was to be one; and Commander Porter, who
did not obtain his promotion to the grade of captain until the following
year, was ordered to commission her. He took his ward with him, and the
two joined the ship at Norfolk, Virginia, in August, 1811, when the
young midshipman had just passed his tenth birthday. Long years
afterward Mrs. Farragut was told by Commodore Bolton, one of the
lieutenants of the Essex, that he remembered to have found the little
boy overcome with sleep upon his watch, leaning against a gun-carriage,
and had covered him with his pea-jacket to protect him from the night
air. An amusing incident, however, which occurred during these first
months of his naval career showed that the spirit of battle was already
stirring. Porter, probably with a view to keep the lad more immediately
under his own eye, had made him midshipman of his gig, as the captain's
special boat is called. On one occasion he was sent in to the wharf, to
wait for the captain and bring him to the ship when he came. A crowd of
dock-loungers gradually collected, and the youngster who stood erect in
the boat, doubtless looking pleasedly conscious of his ne