their aim especially upon the admiral's
barge. The admiral himself escaped, but narrowly; his cockswain and a
midshipman standing by him being killed, and another midshipman wounded.
"The Mexicans continued to fight with great gallantry," wrote Farragut;
and it was perhaps well for the assailants that the fog sweeping in
again covered their further retreat.

Of all these incidents Farragut was a close and interested observer.
Upon joining the Erie as her commander, he found that the ship was under
orders to proceed with the utmost dispatch to the Mexican coast, to
afford to American citizens and their property the protection so likely
to be needed in event of active hostilities. On the 26th of August she
was anchored under the island of Sacrificios, off Vera Cruz, which was
then still undergoing the blockade which preceded recourse to stronger
measures. Farragut remained there till the 19th of September, when he
returned to Pensacola; but early in November he was again off the
Mexican coast at Tampico, where a revolution threatened, for Mexico at
the time was not only menaced with foreign attack, but also a prey to
the utmost internal disorder. On the 17th of this month the Erie ran
down again to Vera Cruz; and learning there that the 27th was fixed as
the day for a final conference and settlement of the questions at issue,
her commander of course decided to remain throughout the affair, making
preparations to receive on board Americans and their movable property
in case the city was bombarded.

In his journal, and afterward in a letter to Commodore Barron, then the
senior officer in the United States Navy, Farragut has preserved a very
full and detailed account of the attack, the principal features of which
have already been mentioned; and it is interesting to note, as
testifying to the care and accuracy of his observations, that the
account in his journal corresponds very closely with that given in the
Life of Admiral Baudin, published in France within the last few years.
He was particularly impressed with, and distinguishes as matters of
principal importance, the utility of the small French steamers in towing
the fighting ships into position, and the destructive effects of the
shell upon the soft masonry of the fort. Admiral Baudin, in his reports,
indulged in some of the pardonable grumbling of a seaman of the old
school about the constant ailments of the little steam-vessels; but he
was too capable an officer to