fined to the more open sea, upon the highways of
commerce. These were now travelled by British ships under strict laws
of convoy, the effect of which was not merely to protect the several
flocks concentrated under their particular watchdogs, but to strip the
sea of those isolated vessels, that in time of peace rise in irregular
but frequent succession above the horizon, covering the face of the
deep with a network of tracks. These solitary wayfarers were now to be
found only as rare exceptions to the general rule, until the port of
destination was approached. There the homing impulse overbore the
bonds of regulation; and the convoys tended to the conduct noted by
Nelson as a captain, "behaving as all convoys that ever I saw did,
shamefully ill, parting company every day." Commodore John Rodgers has
before been quoted, as observing that the British practice was to rely
upon pressure on the enemy over sea, for security near home; and that
the waters surrounding the British Islands themselves were the field
where commerce destruction could be most decisively effected.

The first United States vessel to emphasize this fact was the brig
"Argus," Captain William H. Allen, which sailed from New York June 18,
1813, having on board a newly appointed minister to France, Mr.
William H. Crawford, recently a senator from Georgia. On July 11 she
reached L'Orient, having in the twenty-three days of passage made but
one prize.[217] Three days later she proceeded to cruise in the chops
of the English Channel, and against the local trade between Ireland
and England; continuing thus until August 14, thirty-one days, during
which she captured nineteen sail, extending her depredations well up
into St. George's Channel. The contrast of results mentioned, between
her voyage across and her occupancy of British waters, illustrates the
comparative advantages of the two scenes of operations, regarded in
their relation to British commerce.

On August 12 the British brig of war "Pelican," Captain Maples,
anchored at Cork from the West Indies. Before her sails were furled
she received orders to go out in search of the American ship of war
whose depredations had been reported. Two hours later she was again at
sea. The following evening, at half-past seven, a burning vessel to
the eastward gave direction to her course, and at daybreak, August 14,
she sighted a brig of war in the northeast, just quitting another
prize, which had also been fired. The w