Chapter XXVI. COASTING AMONG THE ISLANDS

We left St. Bartholomew in the Lapwing and proceeded on our way towards
Grenada. I was treated with kindness by every person in the sloop,
and found my situation far more agreeable than when loafing and
vagabondizing about the wharves.

Mr. Bohun was a light-hearted young man, intelligent, high-spirited,
and impulsive. He conversed with me about the events of the war, and
speculated freely in relation to the future. He spoke of the defeat
of General Hull as an event which might have been expected. When I
expressed an opinion that our national vessels would be more successful
on the sea, he appeared amused, laboring under the error which was
universal among the British at that time, that an American frigate
of the first class could hardly be considered a match for an English
sloop-of-war.

I spoke of the action between the President and the Little Belt,
where one broadside, fired through mistake by the American frigate,
transformed the proud and defiant sloop-of-war into a sinking wreck. But
my argumentative fact was met by a reference to the unfortunate affair
between the Leopard and the Chesapeake. I urged that the Chesapeake,
although rated and officered and manned as a frigate, was merely an
armed STORE-SHIP carrying out supplies in a time of peace to our ships
in the Mediterranean. But Bohun, like every other Briton I have met
with, would not admit the efficiency of the excuse. I next recurred to
the Tripolitan war, and alluded to the many deeds of daring performed by
my gallant countrymen. But Bohun contended that their feats of valor
in a war against barbarians could not be regarded as a test of their
ability to battle on equal terms against the most accomplished seamen
in the world. Bohun said that the Shannon and the Guerriere, two of the
finest frigates in the English navy, had recently been fitted out and
ordered to cruise on the American coast, with the expectation that
a single-handed contest between one of these vessels and an American
frigate of the first class would humble the pride of the Yankees, and
decide the question of superiority. I could only reply that I hoped
the meeting would soon take place, and when it did, he would be as much
astonished as I should be gratified at the result.

The next morning after the above conversation, we were passing along the
westerly side of the island of Dominica, and Mr. Bohun expressed a
wish to touch at Rosseau, t