Notwithstanding the navy won such laurels during the war, the chief damage done to British commerce was inflicted by our privateers. A history of that period is therefore incomplete without a record of their acts. Nothing ever brought out the daring seamanship, skill, fertility of resource and stubborn bravery, so characteristic of our sailors, as the management of those private armed vessels. Scarcely was war declared before they began to shoot one after another from out our ports, and disappeared in the distant horizon. Trade being prostrated, merchants fitted up their idle ships with picked crews and skillful commanders, and sent them forth to vex the enemy's commerce. Our vessels at that time, as now, being swifter sailers than the English, these bold rovers asked only an open sea and a gale of wind to outstrip their pursuers, or overtake those in flight. Their sails were seen skirting the horizon in every direction--now saucily looking into the enemy's ports to see what was going on there, and again sweeping boldly through the English channels. They seemed ubiquitous--every pathway of commerce was familiar to them, and they passed from sea to sea, appearing and disappearing with a suddenness and celerity that baffled pursuit. Sometimes one of these light armed vessels would slyly hover about a whole fleet of merchantmen, convoyed by a stately frigate, under whose guns they clustered for protection, until a favorable opportunity occurred, when she would suddenly dash into their midst like a hawk into a brood of chickens, and seizing one, man her and be off before the frigate could sufficiently recover from its astonishment at such audacity to attempt pursuit. It sometimes occurred that she would find herself alongside a frigate which she had mistaken for a large merchantman, when a seamanship and coolness would be exhibited in the effort to get clear, seldom witnessed in the oldest naval commanders. If unable to escape she would gallantly set her colors and fight a hopeless, yet one of the most desperate battles that occur in maritime warfare. The way in which these ships were handled, the daring manner they were carried into action, and the desperation with which they were fought astonished the English, who had never witnessed any thing like it on the sea. Sweeping waters covered with British cruisers, with scarcely a safe neutral port to enter in case of distress--shut out from their own harbors by blockade, they were compelled to exercise the most unceasing watchfulness, and keep in a state of constant preparation.