The captain went on shore every day to bargain for provisions to be paid for with the money we captured from the _Nocton_, and boatloads of stores were put aboard this ship or that; therefore it was certain the inhabitants were friendly, or would be so long as our cash lasted. There was no little amount of grumbling because we were kept so snug; but as a matter of course none of the hard words were spoken where they might be overheard by the officers, therefore nothing came of it. Five days after we let go our ground tackle three sail were seen standing into the bay, and we were summoned to get the frigate under way, but the order was countermanded when those on the foremost ship lowered a boat as if to come ashore. Captain Porter waited to learn who the visitors were, and soon we had the great satisfaction of seeing Lieutenant Downes in the stern-sheets of the boat, although it puzzled us not a little as to why he had returned thus soon. Of course the lieutenant came on board the _Essex_, as did those who had manned his boat, and we of the gun-deck heard the whole story of the _Georgiana's_ adventures while Mr. Downes was having his confab in the cabin. And what a story it was! We cheered and yelled as our old shipmates spun it off, and nearly went wild with rejoicing. Here is the yarn boiled down, and that it was true we knew full well, for yonder were the prizes coming to close under the _Georgiana_ stern. It seems that after leaving us Lieutenant Downes cruised off James's Island, where he fell in with two Britishers. Hoisting the English colors, he soon had the captains of the whalers sitting comfortably in his cabin, and then he told them who he was. Well, the prizes were taken without resistance, as a matter of course, and the United States entered into possession, less what prize money would be coming to us, of the ship _Catherine_ of two hundred and seventy tons burden, carrying eight guns and twenty-nine men, and the _Rose_, two hundred and twenty tons, eight guns and twenty-one men. After manning these prizes, Lieutenant Downes had only twenty as a crew all told, and yet that fact did not prevent him from giving chase next day to the whaler _Hector_, a ship of two hundred and seventy tons, twenty-five men, and carrying eleven guns, although she was pierced for twenty. This last craft was a Britisher who stood ready to fight, and when Mr. Downes understood that he had an action on his hands, with hardly men enough to work his ship, he put the prisoners in irons so that they might not be able to lend a hand to their countrymen. When the _Hector_ was ordered to surrender she refused, and Mr. Downes let her have a broadside which brought down her main-topmast. The crew had good pluck, however, and fought their ship until nearly all her standing and running rigging was shot away, when they could do no less than haul down their colors. The Britishers had two men killed and six wounded.