There, among all the evidences of what had well-nigh been a disaster, he received the swords of the Britishers who had been worsted in a fair fight wherein the odds were in their favor. The _Lawrence_ had lowered her flag; but so hot had been the engagement immediately afterward that the enemy did not have an opportunity to take possession of her, and when we returned, for I accompanied Alec and our commodore, it was the same as if she had never submitted. I have heard it said that never before had an American fleet or squadron encountered the enemy in regular line of battle, and never before, since England possessed a navy, had a whole British fleet been captured. Even before we returned to our flag-ship, the commodore wrote on the back of an old letter this message to General Harrison, and sent it at once by special messenger:-- “We have met the enemy, and they are ours: Two ships, two brigs, one schooner and one sloop. “Yours with great respect and esteem, “O. H. PERRY.” [BY THE EDITOR.] It seems fitting that Master Dobbins’s story should be concluded with the following extract from the “War of 1812,” written by that eminent historian, Benson J. Lossing:-- “Then the ceremony of taking possession of the conquered vessels, and receiving the formal submission of the vanquished, was performed. Perry gave the signal to anchor, and started for his battered flag-ship, determined, on her deck, and in the presence of her surviving officers and crew, to receive the commanders of the captured squadron. ‘It was a time of conflicting emotions,’ says Dr. Parsons, ‘when he stepped upon deck. The battle was won, and he was safe, but the deck was slippery with blood, and strewn with the bodies of twenty officers and men, seven of whom had sat at table with us at our last meal, and the ship resounded everywhere with the groans of the wounded. Those of us who were spared and able to walk, met him at the gangway to welcome him on board, but the salutation was a silent one on both sides; not a word could find utterance.’ “The next movement in the solemn drama was the reception of the British officers, one from each of the captured vessels. Perry stood on the after-part of the deck, and his sad visitors were compelled to pick their way to him among the slain. He received them with solemn dignity and unaffected kindness. As they presented their swords, with the hilts toward the victor, he spoke in a low but firm tone, without the betrayal of the least exultation, and requested them to retain their weapons....