A GENEROUS RECEPTION FOR A PREDATORY BRITISH FRIGATE--HILLYAR’S LUCKY ESCAPE--HILLYAR’S EXPLICIT ORDERS--WHEN THE _ESSEX_ HAD LOST HER TOP-MAST THE _PHŒBE_ AND THE _CHERUB_ ATTACKED THE YANKEE IN NEUTRAL WATER--IT WAS A TWO-TO-ONE FIGHT AND THE ENEMY HAD LONG GUNS TO OUR SHORT--THE BRITISH HAD TO GET BEYOND THE RANGE OF THE _ESSEX_--MAGNIFICENT BRAVERY OF THE YANKEE CREW WHEN UNDER THE FIRE OF THE LONG RANGE BRITISH GUNS--THE _ESSEX_ ON FIRE--FOUGHT TO THE LAST GASP--PORTER’S INTERRUPTED VOYAGE HOME--THE MEN WHO WERE LEFT AT NUKAHIVA IN SORRY STRAITS AT LAST. The _Essex_, with her consort, the _Essex Junior_, got up anchor at Nukahiva on December 12, 1813. For two days they were in the offing and then they sailed for the coast of South America. They sighted the Andes early in January, and after getting water at San Maria and calling at Concepcion, went to Valparaiso, where they arrived on February 3, 1814. There Porter learned that the British frigate _Phœbe_, Captain James Hillyar, had been on the coast some time looking for the _Essex_. So Porter determined to await her at Valparaiso. To make the time pass pleasantly a grand reception was given to the officials of the city and their friends on the night of the 7th, the _Essex Junior_, meantime, having been stationed outside to watch for the enemy. As it happened the enemy was seen next morning while yet the men of the _Essex_ were taking down the bunting with which the ship had been decorated. But when Captain Porter came to read the signals on the guard-ship he found that two ships were in sight instead of the one looked for. After a time the two appeared and displayed British colors, and the _Essex Junior_ was obliged to come into the port. And what made matters still more uncomfortable was the fact that half of the crew of the _Essex_ were on shore enjoying life sailor fashion. This last fact had not escaped the eye of the patriotic mate of an English merchantman lying in the harbor, and jumping into a small boat he rowed outside to tell his countrymen about the crew of the _Essex_. As it appeared very soon after this, the two British ships outside were the _Phœbe_ already mentioned and the eighteen-gun war-ship _Cherub_, Captain Tucker. Captain Hillyar, of the _Phœbe_, very naturally assumed that the Yankee sailors on shore were already so full of the excellent native wine of the country that even if got on board they would not be able to make a fight. The wind was in just the right direction to enable him to take his two ships into port and handle them there with certainty. It was true that Valparaiso was a neutral port, but that fact was considered unimportant. Captain Hillyar had been sent there expressly to capture the _Essex_, and the opportunity to do it comfortably seemed to have been made as if to order. So he cleared his ship for action, and, leaving the _Cherub_ outside, steered boldly for the _Essex_.