On May 28th another sail was seen, but as night came on she was lost to view. Next morning, however, she was sighted from the _Montezuma_, and after a long chase was taken by the _Essex_. This prize was the letter-of-marque whaler _Atlantic_, mounting eight eighteen-pounders, and reputed as the fastest ship in those waters. She was commanded by a man named Weir, “who had the pusillanimity to say that ‘though he was an American-born he was an ‘Englishman at heart,’” so wrote Midshipman Farragut. That same evening another vessel was seen, and late at night she was captured also. She proved to be the letter-of-marque whaler _Greenwich_, a ship that had sailed from England under convoy of the ill-fated _Java_. She was full of ship-stores and provisions of every kind, and had on board, moreover, one hundred tons of water and eight hundred large tortoises, sufficient to furnish all the ships with fresh provisions for a month. “The little squadron now consisted of the _Essex_, forty-six guns and two hundred and forty-five men; the _Georgiana_, sixteen guns and forty-two men; the _Greenwich_, ten guns and fourteen men; the _Atlantic_, six guns and twelve men; the _Montezuma_, two guns and ten men; the _Policy_ and the _Barclay_ of ten and seven men, respectively; in all, seven ships carrying eighty guns and three hundred and forty men.” The prisoners numbered eighty. As the number of prizes as well as prisoners proved burdensome, Captain Porter sailed on June 8th for the mainland, and reached Guayaquil Bay on the 19th. Here some provisions were obtained, and while lying here the _Georgiana_, with her crew of forty men, was sent on a cruise under Lieutenant Downes. The character of Downes was well illustrated on this cruise. Near James Island two British ships were found and secured without a fight. They were the _Catherine_, of eight guns and twenty-nine men, and the _Rose_, of eight guns and twenty-one men. Securing his fifty prisoners on the _Georgiana_, Downes sent ten of his men to each craft taken, and sailed on. That same night another ship was overhauled, and her captain, instead of surrendering when called on to do so, ordered his guns cleared for action. [Illustration: John Downes. _From an oil-painting at the Naval Academy, Annapolis._] Downes had but twenty men with which to handle his ship, work his guns, and guard his prisoners, but he promptly opened fire, and after the fifth broadside the enemy surrendered. She proved to be the British letter-of-marque _Hector_, of eleven guns and twenty-five men. She had lost in the fight her maintopmast and most of her standing and running rigging, and two of her crew were killed and six dangerously wounded.