and only one commissioned lieutenant
and two acting lieutenants, whatever my wishes may be, going
out is out of the question. The men that came by Mr.
Champlin are a motley set,--blacks, soldiers, and boys. I
cannot think you saw them after they were selected. I am,
however, pleased to see any thing in the shape of a
man."--_Mackenzie's Life of Perry_, vol. i. pp. 165, 166.

Commodore Chauncey then rebuked him in his reply, and set forth the
worth of the negro seaman:

"SIR,--I have been duly honored with your letters of the
twenty-third and twenty-sixth ultimo, and notice your
anxiety for men and officers. I am equally anxious to
furnish you; and no time shall be lost in sending officers
and men to you as soon as the public service will allow me
to send them from this lake. I regret that you are not
pleased with the men sent you by Messrs Champlin and Forest;
for, to my knowledge, a part of them are not surpassed by
any seamen we have in the fleet: and I have yet to learn
that the color of the skin, or the cut and trimmings of the
coat, can effect a man's qualifications or usefulness. I
have nearly fifty blacks on board of this ship, and many of
them are among my best men; and those people you call
soldiers have been to sea from two to seventeen years; and I
presume that you will find them as good and useful as any
men on board of your vessel; at least if you can judge by
comparison; for those which we have on board of this ship
are attentive and obedient, and, as far as I can judge, many
of them excellent seamen: at any rate, the men sent to Lake
Erie have been selected with a view of sending a fair
proportion of petty officers and seamen; and I presume, upon
examination, it will be found that they are equal to those
upon this lake."--_Mackenzie's Life of Perry_, vol. i. pp.
186, 187.

The battle of Lake Erie is the most memorable naval battle fought with
the British; of it Rossiter Johnson, in his "History of the War of
1812," in the description of the engagement, says:

"As the question of the fighting qualities of the black man
has since been considerably discussed, it is worth noting
that in this bloody and brilliant battle a large number of
Perry's men were negroes."

It was not left to Commodores Chauncey and Perry, solely, to applaud
t