s, and privateers. Winter coming on, Porter
then sailed to the pleasant Marquesas Islands and laid the _Essex_ up
for a thorough overhauling. The enemy had furnished all needful supplies
and even the money to pay the wages of the officers and crew.

Fit for sea again, the _Essex_ and the _Essex, Junior_, betook
themselves to Valparaiso where they received information that the
thirty-six-gun frigate _Phoebe_ of the British navy was earnestly
looking for them. She had been sent out from England to proceed to the
northwest American coast and destroy the fur station at the mouth of the
Columbia River. At Rio de Janeiro Captain Hillyar had heard reports of
the ravages of the _Essex_ and he considered it his business to hunt
down this defiant Yankee. To make sure of success, he took the
sloop-of-war _Cherub_ along with him and, doubling the Horn, they made
straight for Valparaiso. David Porter got wind of the pursuit but
assumed that the _Phoebe_ was alone. He made no attempt to avoid a
meeting but on the contrary rather courted a fight with his old friend
Hillyar, whom he had known socially on the Mediterranean station. For an
officer of Porter's temper and training the capture of British whalers
was a useful but by no means glorious employment. He believed the real
vocation of a frigate of the American navy was to engage the enemy.

The _Phoebe_ and the _Cherub_ sailed into the Chilean roadstead in
February, 1814, and found the _Essex_ there. As Captain Hillyar was
passing in to seek an anchorage, the mate of a British merchantman
climbed aboard to tell him that the _Essex_ was unprepared for attack
and could be taken with ease. Her officers had given a ball the night
before in honor of the Spanish dignitaries of Valparaiso, and the decks
were still covered with awnings and gay with bunting and flags.
Reluctant to forego such a tempting opportunity, Captain Hillyar ran in
and luffed his frigate within a few yards of the Essex. To his
disappointed surprise, the American fighting ship was ready for action
on the instant. Though the punctilious restraints of a neutral port
should have compelled them to delay battle, Porter was vigilant and took
no chances. The liberty parties had been recalled from shore, the decks
had been cleared, the gunners were sent to quarters with matches
lighted, and the boarders were standing by the hammock nettings with
cutlasses gripped. Making the best of this unexpected turn of events,
the Englis