st Indies and South
America. The bad luck of several frigates, and the rough handling of
the "Globe" by the packets, illustrate one side of the fortune of war,
as the good hap of the "America" and "Governor Tompkins" shows the
other.

[Illustration: Diagram of the Montague, Pelham, Globe battle]

It is, however, the beginnings and endings of commercial routes,
rather than the intermediate stretch, which most favor enterprises
against an enemy's trade. In the thronging of vessels, the Caribbean
Sea, with its teeming archipelago, was second only, if second, to the
waters surrounding the United Kingdom. England was one extremity, and
the several West India Islands the other, of a traffic then one of the
richest in the world; while the tropical articles of this exchange, if
not absolute necessaries of life, had become by long indulgence
indispensable to the great part of civilized mankind. Here, therefore,
the numbers, the efforts, and the successes of American privateers
most nearly rivalled the daring achievements of their fellows in the
Narrow Seas and the approaches to Great Britain and Ireland. The two
regions resembled each other in another respect. Not only was there
for both an external trade, mainly with one another, but in each there
was also a local traffic of distribution and collection of goods, from
and to central ports, in which was concentrated the movement of import
and export. As has been remarked concerning the coastwise carriage of
the United Kingdom, this local intercourse, to be efficient, could not
be regulated and hampered to the same extent as the long voyage,
over-sea, transportation. A certain amount of freedom and
independence was essential, and the risk attendant upon such separate
action must be compensated, as far as might be, by diminishing the
size of the vessels engaged; a resource particularly applicable to the
moderate weather and quiet seas prevalent in the tropics.

Both the exposure of trade under such relaxed conditions, and the
relative security obtained by the convoy system, rigidly applied, are
shown by a few facts. From September 1, 1813, to March 1, 1814, six
months, the number of prizes taken by Americans, exclusive of those on
the Lakes, was reported as two hundred and seventy. Of these, nearly
one third--eighty-six--were to, from, or within the West Indies. Since
in many reports the place of capture is not given, nor any data
sufficient to fix it, it is probable that qui