The firing, which had been entirely with artillery, now ceased on both sides. The _Macedonian's_ mizzen-mast was gone, her main and foretopmasts carried away, her main-yard cut in two, and her ensign had disappeared. The _United States_ hailed her, and was answered that she had struck her colors. She had received a hundred shot in her hull, most of them in the waist. She went into the action with three hundred men, of whom she lost thirty-six killed and sixty-eight wounded. On board were seven impressed American sailors, two of whom were killed. On the _United States_ five men were killed and seven wounded. Her rigging was considerably cut, but otherwise she received very little injury. Decatur took his prize to New York, going in by way of Long Island Sound, where he arrived on New Year's day, 1813. He was received with a great ovation, and there were banquets, orations; and public rejoicings unlimited. Congress, following the precedent set in the case of Hull, voted a gold medal to the commander, and a silver one to each of his commissioned officers. A member of the British Parliament, making a {078}speech concerning this affair, said he "lamented that, with the navy of Great Britain against that of America, which consisted of only four frigates and two sloops, two of our finest frigates were now in their possession, captured by only two of theirs. This was a reverse which English officers and English sailors had not before been used to, and from such a contemptible navy as that of America had always been held, no one could suppose such an event could have taken place." And the London _Independent Whig_ was constrained to say: "A powerful and rival nation is now rapidly rising in the west, whose remonstrances we have hitherto derided, but whose resentment we shall soon be taught to feel; who for our follies or our crimes seems destined to retaliate on us the miseries we have inflicted on defenceless and oppressed states, to share with us the fertile products of the ocean, and snatch from our feeble and decrepit hands the imperial trident of the main." But the cup of English humiliation was not yet full. The Americans had another able commander, with a stanch ship and a fearless crew, who now came in for his turn. This was Commodore William Bainbridge, who sailed from Boston late in October, on board the _Constitution_, the same vessel with which Hull had conquered the _Guerriere_. In com{079}pany with her sailed the brig _Hornet_, of eighteen guns, commanded by Captain James Lawrence. They cruised southward, and in December the _Hornet_ was left at San Salvador, or Bahia, Brazil, to blockade an English brig that was on the point of sailing with a large amount of specie on board. Lawrence had sent in a challenge to fight the two brigs, on even terms, just outside the harbor, but the English captain declined.