“It is their lordships’ further directions that you make this known as soon as possible to the several captains commanding his Majesty’s ships.”[37] There is a delightfully ingenuous recognition of the alarm that had been inspired by our victories in the hope that we might be attacked by two together, “with a reasonable hope of success.” It was absurd to compare our frigates with line-of-battle ships. They were undoubtedly heavier than the usual frigate, though some then in the British navy were quite as powerful. But the fact that our ships were as good as any of their class and better than most was all the more to the credit of their designers. But the _Constitution_, one of our best, was “but very little more than _one half_ the force of one of the smallest _true_ liners England possessed!”[38] The _Essex_ thus anchored at Valparaiso on January 12, 1814. She had in company one of her captured merchantmen, renamed the _Essex Junior_ with 60 men, ten long 6’s, and ten 18-pound carronades. She was of course wholly unfit to meet a regular cruiser. On February 8th the _Phoebe_, 36, Captain Hillyar, and the _Cherub_, 18, Captain Tucker, appeared. There was an evident design on the part of Hillyar to run aboard the _Essex_, but a very near approach revealed the latter’s crew at her guns, and he backed his yards, inquiring, meanwhile, of Captain Porter’s health. Porter politely replied, but warned Hillyar not to fall foul, adding later, “You have no business where you are; if you touch a rope-yarn of this ship I shall board instantly.” It had been well had the two ships fought then and there, for later the _Essex_ was to be taken at a much greater disadvantage. The two British ships established a blockade, and on Porter’s endeavor to fight the _Phoebe_ singly on February 27th she ran down and joined her consort. On March 28th, however, Porter, who had already decided to go to sea, parted his port cable in a gale of wind and dragged his other anchor in the deep roadstead and very difficult anchorage, under the best of circumstances, at Valparaiso. He had, by several trials, assured himself of the superior speed of the _Essex_, and now, under way, was sure of getting clear of his enemies. In rounding the outermost headland of the bay, his ship was struck by a heavy squall, which careened her to the gunwale and carried away the maintopmast. The _Essex_ attempted to regain the harbor, but an adverse wind and her crippled condition prevented this. She thus stood northward and anchored three miles north of the town and half a mile from a small Chilean battery. She was within pistol shot of the shore and far within neutral waters. But our British kindred have never recked of such small matters as neutrality unless such stickling served their purpose. Both British ships thus stood in with flags and mottoes at every masthead, deliberately took position out of range of the short-range carronades