It would be impossible to give the names and details of all the vessels and their engagements; but, independent of the vast number of merchantmen captured by them, they took eight national vessels of the enemy, in single combat. They seemed to vie with each other in daring and the venturous exploits they would undertake. One of these vessels would shoot out of port within sight of a blockading squadron, start alone on a cruise, and scouring thirty or forty thousand miles of the ocean, return with a fleet of prizes. The commanders were almost, invariably humane men, treating their prisoners with vastly more kindness than British admirals and commodores did those Americans who fell in their hands. Many acts of kindness and generosity were performed, and a nobleness of spirit exhibited towards a fallen foe, which has ever been, and it is to be hoped ever will be, a distinguished trait in the American character. On one occasion a privateer captured in the channel a Welch vessel from Cardigan, freighted with corn. As the captain went on board he saw a small box with a hole in the top, in the cabin, marked "Missionary box." "What is this?" said he, touching it with a stick. "Oh," replied the Cambrian, "the truth is, my poor fellows here have been accustomed every Monday morning to drop a penny each into that box, for the purpose of sending out missionaries to preach the gospel to the heathen; but it's all over now." "Indeed," said the captain, and reflecting a moment, he added, "Captain, I'll not hurt a hair of your head nor touch your vessel," and immediately returned to his own ship, leaving him unmolested. Such conduct appears the more striking when contrasted with that of British officers. The murder of Mr. Sigourney, of the Alp, whose brains were beaten out; though when his vessel was taken possession of not a soul but himself was found on board--the confinement of Capt. Upton and his officers of the privateer Hunter, for three months in a filthy prison, and their after transfer to a prison ship--the cruelty shown to Capt. Nichols, who, after enjoying his parole for two months, was without the least reason thrown into a prison-ship and kept for more than a month in a room four feet by seven, and many other cases of extreme cruelty, were well known, for the facts had been sworn to and placed on record as state papers. Rumor aggravated all these a hundred fold, yet the English government can offset them with no retaliatory acts substantiated before courts of inquiry. CHAPTER XIV. DARTMOOR PRISON.