olid iron into her
at the rate of nearly ten pounds to her one. For two hours this was kept
up. There was frightful slaughter on the _Essex_. Her men were falling
like dead leaves, but Porter would not yield.

After this went on for some time there came a change in the wind, and
the _Essex_ spread what sail she had and tried to get nearer. But the
_Phoebe_ would not wait for her, but sailed away and kept pumping balls
into her.

Soon the wind changed again. Now all hope was gone. The American crew
was being murdered and could not get near the British. Porter tried to
run his ship ashore, intending to fight to the last and then blow her
up.

But the treacherous wind shifted again and he could not even reach the
shore. Dead and wounded men lay everywhere. Flames were rising in the
hold. Water was pouring into shot holes. The good ship had fought her
last and it was madness to go on. So at 6.20 o'clock, two and a half
hours after the fight began, her flag came down and the battle was over.

The story of the cruise of the _Essex_ and her great struggle against
odds was written for us by her young midshipman--David Farragut.
President Roosevelt, in his Naval History of the War of 1812, says the
following true words about Captain Porter's brave fight:

"As an exhibition of dogged courage it has never been surpassed since
the time when the Dutch Captain Keasoon, after fighting two long days,
blew up his disabled ship, devoting himself and all his crew to death,
rather than surrender to the hereditary foes of his race." Porter was
the man to do the same thing, but he felt he had no right to send all
his men to death.

CHAPTER XVIII

COMMODORE MACDONOUGH'S VICTORY ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN

HOW GENERAL PREVOST AND THE BRITISH RAN AWAY

THE United States is a country rich in lakes. They might be named by the
thousands. But out of this host of lakes very few are known in history,
and of them all much the most famous is Lake Champlain.

Do you wish to know why? Well, because this lake forms a natural
waterway from Canada down into the States. If you look on a map you will
see that Lake Champlain and Lake George stretch down nearly to the
Hudson River and that their waters flow north into the great St.
Lawrence River. So these lakes make the easiest way to send trade, and
troops as well, down from Canada into New York and New England.

Now just let us take a look back in history. The very first battle in
the north of o