ct for the
American navy that orders were issued that two or three vessels should
always cruise in company, and under no circumstances should a single
vessel engage an American, where there was the least preponderance
against the British. The Americans were the only nation against whom
such an order was ever issued.

Captain William Henry Allen, in command of the brig _Argus_, boldly
entered the English Channel and destroyed much shipping of the enemy.
Many vessels were sent in search of him, and on the 14th of August he
was captured by the _Pelican_. Soon afterward the brig _Enterprise_
captured the British _Boxer_ off the coast of Maine. The fight was a
desperate one, both commanders being killed. They were buried side by
side in Portland.

THE CRUISE OF THE ESSEX.

In the spring of 1813, Captain David Porter (father of Admiral David
Dixon Porter), in command of the _Essex_, doubled Cape Horn and entered
the Pacific, where until then no American frigate had ever been seen. He
protected American vessels and nearly broke up the British whaling trade
in that ocean. He made so many captures that he soon had almost a fleet
under his command, and was able to pay his men with the money taken from
the enemy. Every nation in that region was a friend of England, and he
seized the Marquesas Islands, where he refitted his fleet and resumed
his cruise. Early in 1814, he entered the neutral harbor of Valparaiso,
where he was blockaded by two British vessels that had long been
searching for him. Regardless of international law, they attacked the
_Essex_, which was in a crippled condition and unable to close with
them, and finally compelled her surrender.

OPERATIONS ON THE LAKES.

Thus far our record of the exploits of the American navy has been
confined to the ocean, but the most important doings of all occurred on
the lakes. At the beginning, our force upon these inland waters was
weak. On Lake Ontario, there was but one small vessel, while the British
had several. Both sides began building war-vessels. The American fleet
was commanded by Commodore Chauncey and the British by Sir James Yeo.
They alternated in gaining command of the lake. Meanwhile, the
ship-builders were so busy that from about a dozen vessels on either
side they increased the number to more than a hundred each by the close
of the war.

PERRY'S GREAT VICTORY.

One of the grandest of all triumphs was gained by the American navy in
the early autumn o