CAPTURE OF THE ESSEX. After having been nearly six years with Capt. John Downes, Lieut. J. M. Maury, Doctor Hoffman, and several other junior officers of the Essex, also a great portion of her surviving crew, and a short time under the command of Com. David Porter and Lieut. Edmund Barnwell, and have often visited the scene of her capture, besides many other incidents relating to that gallant frigate, I thought that the official account of her capture might be interesting to the reader. Copy of a letter from Captain Porter, to the Secretary of the Navy. Essex- Junior, at sea, July 3, 1814. Sir: — I have done myself the honor to address you repeatedly, since I left the Delaware; but have scarcely a hope that one of my letters has reached you; therefore consider it necessary to give a brief history of my proceeding since that period.
I sailed from the Delaware on the 27th of October, 1812, and repaired, with all diligence, (agreeably to instruction from Com. Bainbridge) to Port Praya, Fernando de Xoronho, and Cape Frio; and arrived at each place on the day appointed to meet him. On my passage from Port Praya to Fernando de Noronho, I captured H. B. M. packet Nocton; and after taking out about 11,000?. sterling in specie, sent her under command of Lieut. Finch, for America. I cruised off Rio de Janeiro, and about Cape Frio, until the 12 th January, 1813, hearing frequently of the commodore, by vessels from Bahia. I here captured but one schooner, with hides and tallow. I sent her j^to Eio. The Montague, the admiral's ship, being in pursuit of me, my provisions now getting short, and finding it necessary to look out for a supply, to enable me to meet the commodore by the 1st of April, off St.
Helena, 1 proceeded to the Island of St. Catherines, (the last place of rendezvous on the coast of Brazil) as the most likely to supply my wants, and at the same time afford me that secrecy necessary to enable me to elude -the British ships of war on the coast, and expected there. I here could procure only wood, water and rum, and a few bags of flour; and hearing of the commodore's action with the Java, the capture of the Hornet by the Montague, and a considerable augmentation of the British force on the coast, and of several being in pursuit of me, I found it necessary to get to sea as soon as possible. I now, agreeably to the commodore's plan, stretched to the southward, scouring the coast as far as the Bio de la Plata.
I heard that Buenos Ayres was in a state of starvation, and could not supply our wants; and that the government of Montevideo was very inimical to us. The commodore's instructions now left it discretionary with me what course to pursue, and I determined on following that which had not only met his approbation, but the approbation of the then Secretary of the Navy. I accordingly shaped my course for the Pacific; and after suffering greatly from short allowance of provisions and heavy gales off Cape Horn, (for which my ship and men were illy provided) I arrived at Valparaiso on the 14th of March, 1813. I here took in as much jerked beef, and other provisions, as my ship would conveniently stow, and run down the coast of Chili and Peru; in this track, I fell in with a Peruvian corsair, which had on board 2-1 Americans as prisoners, the crews of 2 whaleships, which she had taken on the coast of Chili.
The captain informed me, that as the allies of Great Britain, they would capture all they should meet with, in expectation of a war between Spain and the United States. I consequently threw all his guns and ammunition into the sea, liberated the Americans, wrote a respectful letter to the Viceroy, explaining the cause of my proceedings, which I delivered to her captain. I then proceeded for Lima, and re-captured one of the vessels as she was entering the port. From thence I proceeded for the Gallapagos islands, where I cruised from the 17th April, until the 3d October, 1813; during which time I touched only once on the coast of America, which was for the purpose of procuring a supply of fresh water, as none is to be found among those islands, which are, perhaps, the most barren and desolate of any known.