ded, to which
I replied: 'I believe not, sir.' 'Then,' said he, 'where are the
primers?' This brought me completely to my senses, and I ran below and
carried the primers on deck. When I came up the second time I saw the
captain fall, and in my turn ran up and asked if he were wounded. He
answered me almost in the same words: 'I believe not, my son; but I felt
a blow on the top of my head.' He must have been knocked down by the
wind of a passing shot, as his hat was somewhat damaged." The bruises
from this fall down the hatch were the only injuries Farragut received.

When the surrender was determined, Farragut, at the captain's order,
dropped the signal book overboard, watching it as it sank in the water
till out of sight; and then in company with another midshipman amused
himself throwing overboard the pistols and other small arms, to keep
them out of the enemy's hands. The following morning he went on board
the Phoebe, where the mortification of defeat drew tears from his
eyes; a state of dejection from which he was roused by seeing a pet pig
belonging to the Essex in the custody of one of the Phoebe's
midshipmen. Farragut at once set up a claim to the porker as being
private property, and as such to be respected by all civilized nations.
The claim was resisted by the new owner; but his messmates, always ready
for a lark, insisted that so doubtful a question must be decided by
trial of battle. A ring being formed, Farragut, after a short contest,
succeeded in thrashing his opponent and regaining the pig, and with it a
certain amount of complacency in that one Briton at least had felt the
pangs of defeat. His grief mastered him again soon afterward, when asked
by Captain Hillyar to breakfast with himself and Captain Porter.
Hillyar, seeing his discomfiture, spoke to him with great kindness,
saying: "Never mind, my little fellow, it will be your turn next
perhaps"; to which, says Farragut, "I replied I hoped so, and left the
cabin to hide my emotion."

After the action Porter and Hillyar entered into an arrangement by which
the Essex Junior was disarmed and allowed to proceed to the United
States as a cartel, under the charge of Lieutenant Downes, who had
commanded her while a United States cruiser. All the survivors of the
Essex except two, whose wounds did not permit, embarked in her and
sailed from Valparaiso on the 27th of April for the United States,
arriving on the 7th of July in New York. On the 5th, off the coa