It may be remembered that the _Essex_, under Captain David Porter, was to form part of Bainbridge’s command when the latter left Boston October 26, 1812, with the _Hornet_. Porter was then in Delaware River. He left on October 28th, but when he reached the rendezvous appointed his consorts had gone. On his way thither a British brig transport, the _Nocton_, was captured, with $55,000 in specie, which in the circumstances to come was to be a most valuable aid. The prize was sent with a crew of seventeen men to the United States, but was overhauled by a frigate and captured after passing Bermuda. Porter continued on to the second rendezvous off Cape Frio, where he arrived December 25th, four days before the capture of the _Java_. Porter remained on the Brazilian coast until near the end of January, 1813, when, hearing no news of his consorts, he started for the Pacific, where for a full year he was to cruise at will, capturing nearly every British whaler in that ocean, arming some, destroying others, and recapturing and protecting our own. British commerce was swept from what was then called the South Sea. The story of this cruise in which the captain of the _Essex_ showed a surpassing boldness, energy, and resource is one of the most romantic in history. After nearly a year of continuous success in crippling the enemy’s commerce, during which the _Essex_ supported herself and armed her consorts entirely from her prizes, Porter was desirous of meeting a British man-of-war, and hearing of the dispatch of the frigate _Phoebe_, of 36 guns, to the Pacific, he went to Valparaiso to await her coming. But instead of one ship came two, the _Cherub_ accompanying the former. This cruising in couples was the outcome of one of the most remarkable orders ever issued by the British Admiralty; its issuance was the highest compliment ever paid any navy. The order in full cannot be omitted, it read: “My Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty having received intelligence that several American ships-of-war are now at sea, I have their lordships’ commands to acquaint you therewith, and that they do not conceive that any of his Majesty’s frigates should attempt to engage, single-handed, the larger class of American ships, which, though maybe called frigates, are of a size, complement, and weight of metal much beyond that class and more resembling line-of-battle ships. “In the event of one of his Majesty’s frigates under your orders falling in with one of these ships, his captain should endeavor in the first instance to secure the retreat of his Majesty’s ship; but if he finds that he has an advantage in sailing, he should endeavor to manœuvre, and keeping company with her, without coming to action, in the hope of falling in with some other of his Majesty’s ships, with whose assistance the enemy might be attacked with a reasonable hope of success.