r to sit down, and make himself
a less conspicuous target for the fire of the enemy; but Perry paid
but little attention to their entreaties. Suddenly the men rested on
the oars, and the boat stopped. Angrily the commodore demanded the
cause of the stoppage, and was told that the men refused to row unless
he sat down. With a smile he yielded, and soon the boat was alongside
the "Niagara." Perry sprang to the deck, followed by his boat's crew
and a plucky sailor who had swum just behind the boat across the long
stretch of water. Hardly a glance did the commodore cast at the ship
which he had left, but bent all his faculties to taking the new
flag-ship into the battle.

The "Niagara" was practically a fresh ship; for, up to this time, she
had held strangely aloof from the battle. Now all was to be changed.
The battle-flag went to her masthead; and she plunged into the thick
of the fight, striking thunderous blows at every ship she encountered.
As she passed the American lines, the sailors greeted with cheers
their gallant commander. The crippled "Lawrence," an almost helpless
hulk, left far behind, was forced to strike her flag; although her
crew protested loudly, crying out, "Sink the ship, and let us go down
with her." But the conquered vessel was not destined to fall into the
hands of her enemies. Already the sight of their commodore on a fresh
vessel stimulated the American tars; so that in half an hour the
British line was broken, their ships cut to pieces, and the "Detroit,"
their flag-ship, a prize to the "Niagara." A white handkerchief was
waved at the end of a pike by one of the crew of the "Princess
Charlotte." The firing stopped, the flag was again run up to the
masthead of the "Lawrence," while a few feeble cheers came faintly
over the water from the remnant of her crew.

The dense clouds of smoke blowing away, Perry saw, by the disposition
of his squadron, that the victory was secure. Hastily catching off his
navy-cap, he laid upon it a sheet of paper torn from an old letter,
and wrote to Gen. Harrison the famous despatch, "_We have met the
enemy, and they are ours,--two ships, two brigs, one schooner, and one
sloop._"

Then, with true chivalry, he determined that to his flag-ship
"Lawrence," that had so stoutly borne the brunt of battle, should
belong the honor of receiving the British captains, when they came to
surrender their vessels. He returned to the "Lawrence;" but the scene
there was such that ev