Information had been received that a large fleet of English merchantmen had left Jamaica, under {064}a strong convoy, for England, and on the 21st of June, Rodgers left the port of New York with his squadron, in search of them. He did not find them; but on the morning of the 23d a sail appeared in sight, which proved to be the British frigate _Belvidera_, and the _President_ gave chase. About four o'clock in the afternoon the vessels were within gunshot, and Rodgers opened fire with his bow-guns, sighting and discharging the first one himself. The ball struck the rudder-coat of the _Belvidera_, and passed into the gun-room. The next shot struck the muzzle of one of her stern-chasers. The third killed two men and wounded five. At the fourth shot the gun burst, blowing up the forecastle deck, on which Rodgers was standing, and hurling him into the air. The explosion also killed or wounded sixteen men. This caused a lull in the action, and the _Belvidera's_ men went back to their guns and returned the fire with considerable effect. The _President_ soon began to forge ahead, when the _Belvidera_ cut loose her anchors, stove her boats and threw them overboard, started fourteen tons of water, and thus lightened, managed to escape, and a few days afterward made the port of Halifax. The total loss of the _President_, killed and wounded, in this action, was twenty-two; that of the _Belvidera_, about half as many. {065}An English privateer was captured by the _Hornet_ on the 9th of July, and subsequently seven merchantmen, and an American vessel that had been captured by the enemy was retaken. When the _Belvidera_ carried into Halifax the news of the declaration of war, and that the American cruisers were out, a squadron of five vessels, under Captain Vere Broke in the _Shannon_, was sent out to destroy Rodgers. They did not find him, but they captured several American merchantmen off the port of New York, and also took, after a smart chase, the little brig-of-war _Nautilus_. The Essex, which had left port a little later than the _President_ and _Hornet_, took several prizes, one of them being a transport filled with soldiers. She was chased by the _Alert_, of twenty guns, and fired upon. The _Essex_ was armed with carronades, guns not intended for work at long distances. Waiting till the enemy had come pretty near, she suddenly opened her broadside, and in eight minutes the _Alert_ struck her colors.