s Amelia"--was armed with nine-pounders,
and made a gallant defence before surrendering. Several men were
killed, and the "Rossie" suffered the loss of her first lieutenant.
The prisoners taken by the "Rossie" were exchanged for Americans
captured by the British. With the first body of prisoners thus
exchanged, Barney sent a cool note to the British commander at New
Brunswick, assuring him that before long a second batch of his
captured countrymen should be sent in.

Several Northern seaports shared with Baltimore the business of
fitting out and manning privateers. The hardy seamen of Maine and
Massachusetts were ever ready for a profitable venture of this kind;
and, as the continuation of the war caused the whale-fishery to
languish, the sailors gladly took up the adventurous life of
privateersmen. The profits of a successful cruise were enormous; and
for days after the home-coming of a lucky privateer the little seaport
into which she came rang with the boisterous shouts of the carousing
sailors. "We still, in imagination, see our streets filled with
privateersmen," writes a historian of Portsmouth, "in groups, with
blue ribbons tied around their hats, inscribed in large letters,
'SUCCESS TO THE "FOX,"' or whatever vessel they were to sail in. And
then another scene, of sailors paid off with so much money that they
knew not what to do with it. It was one of these men that, in Market
Square, put his arm around a cow, kissed her, and put a five-dollar
bill in her mouth, for a good cud. Sometimes they might be seen,
finely dressed, walking down the sunny streets, carrying parasols."
One Portsmouth privateer came to grief in the West Indies, and was
captured by a British vessel of heavier metal. In the hold of the
privateer was a considerable sum of money in gold coin, the existence
of which was known only to the captain and his body-servant, a bright
negro. The British, on capturing the vessel, put a prize-crew on
board, and, while taking the Yankee captain upon their own ship, left
his negro servant on the prize. Watching his opportunity, the negro
brought up the gold coin, and dropped it unobserved into a tub of
greasy black slush with which he had been slushing down the masts.
Some days later, the captured vessel reached the port to which she had
been sent, and was tied up at a wharf to await condemnation. The
faithful servant lingered about the ship for a time, saying that he
had no place to go. At last he was gruff