esistance but they
did not desist. Four men were killed at my side and others at
different parts of the ship. I now believed he intended to show us
no quarter, that it would be as well to die with my flag flying as
struck, and was on the point of again hoisting it when about ten
minutes after hauling down the colors he ceased firing.

... We have been unfortunate but not disgraced--the defense of the
_Essex_ has not been less honorable to her officers and crew than
the capture of an equal force; and I now consider my situation less
unpleasant than that of Captain Hillyar, who in violation of every
principle of honor and generosity, and regardless of the rights of
nations, attacked the _Essex_ in her crippled state within pistol
shot of a neutral shore, when for six weeks I had daily offered him
fair and honorable combat on terms greatly to his advantage.

The behavior of Captain Hillyar after the surrender, however, was most
humane and courteous, and lapse of time has dispelled somewhat of the
bitterness of the American opinion of him. If he was not as chivalrous
as his Yankee foemen had expected, it must be remembered that there was
a heavy grudge and a long score to pay in the havoc wrought among
British merchantmen and whalers and that in those days the rights of
South American neutrals were rather lightly regarded.

CHAPTER IX

VICTORY ON LAKE CHAMPLAIN

Spectacular as were the exploits of the American navy on the sea, they
were of far less immediate consequence in deciding the destinies of the
war than were the naval battles fought on fresh water between hastily
improvised squadrons. On Lake Erie Perry's victory had recovered a lost
empire and had made the West secure against invasion. Macdonough's
handful of little vessels on Lake Champlain compelled the retreat of ten
thousand British veterans of Wellington's campaigns who had marched down
from Canada with every promise of crushing American resistance. This was
the last and most formidable attempt on the part of the enemy to conquer
territory and to wrest a decision by means of a sustained offensive. Its
collapse marked the beginning of the end, and such events as the capture
of Washington and the battle of New Orleans were in the nature of
episodes.

That September day of 1814, when Macdonough won his niche in the naval
hall of fame, was also the climax and the conclusion of the long