. These achievements, as involving no
bloodshed, may be set off against the captures of the "Nautilus" and
"Vixen" by the British. Of the number of British merchant-vessels
captured, the records are so incomplete that no accurate estimate can
be made. To the naval vessels are accredited forty-six captures among
the enemy's merchant-marine, and this estimate is probably very nearly
accurate. But with the declaration of war, Portsmouth, Salem, New
London, New York, Baltimore, and, indeed, every American seaport,
fitted out fleet privateers to prey upon the enemy's commerce. The
sails of this private armed navy fairly whitened the sea, and few
nights were not illuminated by the flames of some burning prize. As
their chief object was plunder, the aim of the privateers was to get
their prize safely into port; but, when this was impossible, they were
not slow in applying the torch to the captured vessel. The injury they
inflicted upon the enemy was enormous, and the record of their
exploits might well engage the industry of painstaking historians. As
an adjunct to the regular navy, they were of great service in bringing
the war to a happy conclusion.

It is not to be supposed that the British men-of-war and privateers
were idle while the Americans were thus sweeping the seas. More than
one American vessel set sail boldly from some little New England port,
freighted with the ventures of all classes of tradesmen, only to be
snapped up by a rapacious cruiser. But the mercantile marine of the
United States was but small, and offered no such rewards to
enterprising privateers as did the goodly fleets of West-Indiamen that
bore the flag of Great Britain. And so, while the American privateers
were thriving and reaping rich rewards of gold and glory, those of the
British were gradually abandoning privateering in disgust. The
American prize-lists grew so large, that the newspapers commenced the
practice of publishing weekly a list of the enemy's ships taken during
the week past. In Baltimore, Henry Niles, in his paper "The Weekly
Register," robbed "The London Naval Chronicle" of its vainglorious
motto,--

"The winds and seas are Britain's broad domain,
And not a sail but by permission spreads."

This sentiment Niles printed at the head of his weekly list of British
vessels captured by United States vessels,--a bit of satire not often
equalled in the columns of newspapers of to-day.

CHAPTER VII.

THE