Comparison of the injuries of the “Java” and “Constitution” is interesting. With the exception of her maintop-sail-yard, the “Constitution” came out of the fight with every yard crossed and every spar in position. The injuries to her hull were trifling. The “Java” had every stick, one after another, shot out of her until nothing was left but a few stumps. It might have been possible to have taken her into Bahia, but Bainbridge thought himself too far away from home; and so, after the prisoners and wounded had been removed to the “Constitution,” a fuse was laid, and the American got under weigh. Not long after a great volume of smoke went up into the air, and a terrific explosion was heard as the last of the “Java” sunk beneath the Southern Ocean. When the “Constitution” arrived at Bahia, Captain Lambert was carried up on the quarter-deck, and lay near where Bainbridge, still suffering acutely from his wounds, had been brought. Bainbridge was supported by two of his officers as he came over to Lambert’s cot, for he was very weak from loss of blood. He carried in his hand the sword which the dying Englishman had been obliged to surrender to him. Bainbridge put it down beside him on his bed, saying,-- “The sword of so brave a man should never be taken from him.” The two noble enemies grasped hands, and tears shone in the eyes of both. A few days afterwards the Englishman was put on shore, where more comfortable quarters were provided for him, but he failed rapidly, and died five days after. The news of the capture of the “Java” created consternation in England. The loss of the “Guerriere” and the “Macedonian” were thought to have been ill-luck. But they now discovered an inkling of what they rightly learned before the war was over,--that the navy of the United States, small as it appeared, was a force which, man for man and gun for gun, could whip anything afloat. When Bainbridge arrived in Boston he and his officers were met by a large delegation of citizens, and many festivities and dinners were held and given in their honor. The old “Constitution,” rightly deserving the attention of the government, was put in dry-dock to be thoroughly overhauled. Of the five hundred merchantmen captured by Americans, she had taken more than her share, and of the three frigates captured she had taken two. THE LAST OF THE “ESSEX” When Captain David Porter in the “Essex” failed to meet Captain Bainbridge in the “Constitution” off the Brazilian coast, and learned that the latter had captured the “Java” and returned to the United States, he was free to make his own plans and choose his own cruising-ground.