orgia and Florida; nor does there appear any
result of consequence from the mission of Colonel Nicholls. On
September 17 the "Hermes" and "Carron," supported by two brigs of war,
made an attack upon Fort Bowyer, a work of logs and sand commanding
the entrance to Mobile Bay. After a severe cannonade, lasting between
two and three hours, they were repulsed; and the "Hermes," running
aground, was set on fire by her captain to prevent her falling into
the hands of the enemy. Mobile was thus preserved from becoming the
starting point of the expedition, as suggested by Cochrane; and that
this object underlay the attempt may be inferred from the finding of
the Court Martial upon Captain Percy of the "Hermes," which decided
that the attack was perfectly justified by the circumstances stated at
the trial.[443]

In October, 1810, by executive proclamation of President Madison, the
United States had taken possession of the region between Louisiana and
the River Perdido,[444] being the greater part of what was then known
as West Florida. The Spanish troops occupying Mobile, however, were
not then disturbed;[445] nor was there a military occupation, except
of one almost uninhabited spot near Bay St. Louis.[446] This
intervention was justified on the ground of a claim to the territory,
asserted to be valid; and occasion for it was found in the danger of a
foreign interference, resulting from the subversion of Spanish
authority by a revolutionary movement. By Great Britain it was
regarded as a usurpation, to effect which advantage had been taken of
the embarrassment of the Spaniards when struggling against Napoleon
for national existence. On May 14, 1812, being then on the verge of
war with Great Britain, the ally of Spain, an Act of Congress declared
the whole country annexed, and extended over it the jurisdiction of
the United States. Mobile was occupied April 15, 1813. Pensacola, east
of the Perdido, but close to it, remained in the hands of Spain, and
was used as a base of operations by the British fleet, both before and
after the attack of the "Hermes" and her consorts upon Fort Bowyer.
From there Nicholls announced that he had arrived in the Floridas for
the purpose of annoying "the only enemy Great Britain has in the
world"[447]; and Captain Percy thence invited the pirates of Barataria
to join the British cause. Cochrane also informed the Admiralty that
for quicker communication, while operating in the Gulf, he intended to
es