master of forest warfare, and in the bloody battle of Horseshoe Bend he
broke the strength of the Creeks forever. Weathersford sought the tent of
his conqueror, and asked for mercy for his people--not for himself.
Jackson, who could respect in others the courage with which he was so
eminently endowed, granted generous terms to the vanquished, and
Weathersford lived thereafter in harmony with the whites. The autumn of
1813 witnessed the subjection of the hostile Indian tribes from the Lakes
to the Gulf.

* * *

The American navy continued to distinguish itself on the ocean as on the
lakes, in heroic defeat as well as in signal victory. While Captain David
Porter, in the Essex, swept British commerce and privateers from the
Pacific, starting out with a frigate and starting home with a fleet, all
taken by himself during a cruise unsurpassed for skill, daring and
success, Master-Commandant William Henry Allen, of the American brig
Argus, lost his life and his vessel in battle with the British brig
Pelican. The defeat of the Argus is believed to have been caused by the
use of defective powder, which had been taken from on board a prize, and
which did not give the cannon shot force enough to do serious damage to
the enemy. Allen's death was due to his remaining on deck to direct his
men after he had been seriously wounded. He was one of the best officers
in the navy. The defeat and capture of the British brig-of-war Boxer,
fourteen guns, after a sharp engagement, by the American schooner
Enterprise, sixteen guns, in some degree compensated for the loss of the
Argus. Captain Samuel Blythe, of the Boxer, nailed his colors to the mast
and was killed at the first broadside. Lieutenant William Burrows, of the
Enterprise, was mortally wounded, but lived long enough to have the
British commander's sword placed in his hands. The splendid cruise of the
Essex ended most unfortunately at Valparaiso, where the frigate was
attacked while in port by the British thirty-six-gun frigate Phoebe and
eighteen-gun ship-sloop Cherub. The Essex was in a disabled condition.
The British stood off beyond reach of the American's short guns, and kept
up a terrific cannonade with their long guns, of which the two British
vessels had thirty-eight and the Essex only six. Captain Porter held out
for about two hours under these unequal conditions, while his men were
slaughtered and his vessel cut to pieces--he himsel