"The next day the Highflyer fell in with and engaged two British vessels at half gun-shot distance, one of them the Jamaica, seven guns and twenty-one men, and the other the Mary Ann, twelve guns and eighteen men. There was too much wind blowing to make it safe to attempt boarding, and so the Highflyer hauled off and waited till the wind moderated. The next day she jumped at them again, and, after a sharp fight with cannon and musket, boarded the Jamaica and captured her, and then went for the Mary Ann, which lowered her flag without any further fighting. Both of them had rich cargoes, and were first-class prizes. They were sent into port, where they arrived safely." When Johnson paused in his story of the performance of the Highflyer, Captain Percival said that one of the most successful privateers in the early part of the war was the John, of Salem, which captured eleven vessels in a cruise of three weeks; and another was the Paul Jones, which captured in a month's time near the island of Porto Rico fourteen vessels, some of them of considerable value. The best of all of them was the British ship Hassan, fourteen guns and twenty men, sailing from Gibraltar to Havana, with wines and dry goods, valued at two hundred thousand pounds. Mr. Johnson asked if any of us had ever known Captain Shaler, of the schooner Governor Tompkins, of New York. Two or three of us had met him, but none could claim acquaintance. I remembered having been introduced to him one day, and he impressed me as one of the most dashing, brave fellows that ever trod a ship's deck. "The Tompkins was built especially for the business," said Johnson; "she had fourteen carronades and one Long Tom, and carried a crew of about one hundred and fifty men. One of Captain Shaler's first experiences in the Tompkins was to find three British vessels together, all looking like merchantmen. One was larger than the rest, and Shaler supposed she was a transport until he got within a quarter of a mile of her; then he found that she was a frigate that had been got up so as to deceive the closest observer. He opened fire on her, and then her ports flew open, and he received a response that nearly took his breath away. His only hope was to get away, and he left the spot as rapidly as he could. His schooner was a splendid sailer, and so he managed to get out of his trouble. He got out all his sweeps, threw overboard all the lumber on his decks and about two thousand pounds of shot, and in this way managed to escape.