And another three-line jotting is devoted to what is called the _Leander_ affair. A British squadron was cruising off Sandy Hook on what is, in these years, the favorite American ground for yacht races. They were lying in wait, as was their custom, for American ships, from which they could gather in seamen. When a little American sloop came along on April 25, 1806, “a shot was recklessly fired from one of them, the _Leander_.” It is fair to suppose that this shot was fired as a joke on the sloop’s crew. If one recalls the undisputed character of such men as Lieutenant Hope of the _Macedonian_, already described, one may readily believe that the average British officer of that day would have thought it a good joke to scare a sloop’s crew by firing a cannon-ball across her deck. The gunner on the _Leander_, to make the joke as laughable as possible, aimed carefully. His shot killed the man at the tiller. When the people of New York learned the facts through the return of the sloop, the local excitement was very great. All the vessels in the harbor hoisted their flags at half-mast on the day the body was buried, while the Tammany Society attended the funeral in a body. So Mr. Jefferson’s government felt constrained to protest. At that, Captain Whitby, who commanded the _Leander_, was taken through the form of a court-martial, unanimously acquitted of wrong-doing _and promoted_. The crowning outrage, however, came in the year 1807. Early in that year a squadron of British warships had congregated in the mouth of Chesapeake Bay to blockade some Frenchmen lying at Annapolis. The American Congress had granted an appropriation meantime (though with stingy hand) for enough seamen to man the frigate _Chesapeake_, that was to be sent out under Capt. Charles Gordon to the Mediterranean, where she was to take the place of the _Constitution_. She was to carry Commodore James Barron with her (his real title was captain), and he was to command at the Mediterranean station. [Illustration: Capt Henry Whitby. R.N.]