f sharing in any of the
victories of 1812, to be a partaker in one of the most glorious of
defeats.

The Constitution and Hornet being in Boston, and the Essex in the
Delaware, it became necessary to appoint for the three a distant place
of meeting, out of the usual cruising grounds of the enemy, in order
that the ships, whose first object was to escape crippling, could pass
rapidly through the belt of British cruisers then girding the coast of
the United States. The brilliant record made by United States ships in
their single combats with the enemy during this war should not be
allowed to blind our people to the fact that, from their numerical
inferiority, they were practically prisoners in their own ports; and,
like other prisoners, had to break jail to gain freedom to act. The
distant and little frequented Cape Verde group, off the African coast,
was therefore designated as the first rendezvous for Bainbridge's
squadron, and the lonely island of Fernando Noronha, off the coast of
Brazil, close under the equator, as the second. Both of these places
were then possessions of Portugal, the ally of Great Britain though
neutral as to the United States. With these orders the Constitution and
Hornet sailed from Boston on the 26th of October, 1812, and the Essex
two days later from the capes of the Delaware. Their course in the
passage was to be so directed as to cross at the most favorable points
the routes of British commerce.

On the 27th of November the Essex, after an uneventful voyage, anchored
at Porto Praya, in the Cape Verdes, where she remained five days.
Receiving no news of Bainbridge, Porter sailed again for Fernando
Noronha. On the 11th of December a British packet, the Nocton, was
captured, and from her was taken $55,000 in specie--an acquisition which
contributed much to facilitate the distant cruise contemplated by
Porter. Four days later the Essex was off Fernando Noronha, and sent a
boat ashore, which returned with a letter addressed ostensibly to Sir
James Yeo, of the British frigate Southampton; but between the lines,
written in sympathetic ink, Porter found a message from Bainbridge,
directing him to cruise off Rio and wait for the Constitution. On the
29th of December he was in the prescribed station, and cruised in the
neighborhood for some days, although he knew a British ship-of-the-line,
the Montagu, was lying in Rio; but only one British prize was taken, the
merchant vessels of that nation usuall