THE BRITISH HAD PLENTY OF PLUCK, AND LAMBERT WAS A SKILFUL SEAMAN; BUT HIS GUNNERS HAD NOT LEARNED TO SHOOT, WHILE THE YANKEES WERE ABLE MARKSMEN--THE _JAVA_ WAS RUINED BEYOND REPAIR--PROOF THAT THE BRITISH PUBLISHED GARBLED REPORTS OF BATTLES WITH THE AMERICANS--THOUGH TWICE WOUNDED, BAINBRIDGE REMAINED ON DECK--WIDE DIFFERENCE IN LOSSES--STORY OF A MIDSHIPMAN--WHEN BAINBRIDGE WAS A MERCHANT CAPTAIN. On the morning of December 29, 1812, the _Constitution_, Commodore William Bainbridge commanding, was cruising along the coast of Brazil under short sail, about thirty miles to the southward and eastward of the old city of Bahia (then called San Salvador). A gentle breeze, a swirl, perhaps, of the southeast trades, was blowing from the north and east, and the long, low swells of the sea were roughed and flecked over with the tiny, white-capped waves that delight the eye of the sailor in tropical seas. The _Constitution_ had sailed from Boston some weeks before in company with the _Hornet_, bound on a long voyage for the destruction of the enemy’s commerce, and the _Essex_ had sailed from the Delaware at about the same date, intending to join these two in the waters where the _Constitution_ was now cruising. Of the doings of the three ships up to the day mentioned something will be told further on, but at 9 o’clock on this morning the look-out on the _Constitution_ hailed the deck and announced two sails to the north and inshore. As the event proved, the two sails were ships, one the British frigate _Java_, Captain Henry Lambert, and the other the American merchant ship _William_, that had been captured two weeks before that time. As the crew of the _Constitution_ watched the two sails it was observed that one of them was making sail in chase, while the other headed away on a different course, and it was therefore plain that the coming ship was a man-o’-war looking for a fight. [Illustration: Billet-Head of the _Constitution_. _From the original at the Naval Institute, Annapolis._] An hour later the _Java_ was near enough to read signals, and she spread to the breeze a variety of small flags--the private ones by which the British ships were to recognize each other. These, of course, could not be answered on the _Constitution_, but Commodore Bainbridge a little later hoisted the American private signal. When this was not answered, Commodore Bainbridge eased away his sheets and ran off to the southeasterly to get further off shore, where he could have abundant sea-room. This was done at about 11 o’clock. The _Java_ at once headed after her, taking a course that would keep the weather-gauge, and for two hours that was what a yachtsman would call a very pretty ladies’-day race, with the honors (sad to relate, so far as a race is to be considered) all with the _Java_. She was much the swifter vessel.