s. As even the lighter British ships
of war could not here navigate, on account of the shoalness, and the
troops, to reach the place of debarkation, the Bayou des Pecheurs, at
the head of Lake Borgne, must go sixty miles in open boats, the
hostile gun vessels had first to be disposed of. Jones, who from an
advanced position had been watching the enemy's proceedings in
Mississippi Sound, decided December 12 that their numbers had so
increased as to make remaining hazardous. He therefore retired, both
to secure his retreat and to cause the boats of the fleet a longer and
more harassing pull to overtake him. The movement was none too soon,
for that night the British barges and armed boats left the fleet in
pursuit. Jones was not able to get as far as he wished, on account of
failure of wind; but nevertheless on the 13th the enemy did not come
up with him. During the night he made an attempt at further
withdrawal; but calm continuing, and a strong ebb-tide running, he was
compelled again to anchor at 1 A.M. of the 14th, and prepared for
battle. His five gunboats, with one light schooner, were ranged in
line across the channel way, taking the usual precautions of springs
on their cables and boarding nettings triced up. Unluckily for the
solidity of his order, the current set two of the gunboats, one being
his own, some distance to the eastward,--in advance of the others.

At daylight the British flotilla was seen nine miles distant, at
anchor. By Jones' count it comprised forty-two launches and three
light gigs.[450] They soon after weighed and pulled towards the
gunboats. At ten, being within long gunshot, they again anchored for
breakfast; after which they once more took to the oars. An hour later
they closed with their opponents. The British commander, Captain
Lockyer, threw his own boat, together with a half-dozen others, upon
Jones' vessel, "Number 156,"[451] and carried her after a sharp
struggle of about twenty minutes, during which both Lockyer and Jones
were severely wounded. Her guns were then turned against her late
comrades, in support of the British boarders, and at the end of
another half-hour, at 12.40 P.M., the last of them surrendered.

That this affair was very gallantly contested on both sides is
sufficiently shown by the extent of the British loss--seventeen killed
and seventy-seven wounded.[452] They were of course in much larger
numbers than the Americans. No such attempt should be made except with
th