of the loss which the naval service of the United States has
since sustained in the death of that distinguished officer.

[Footnote 89: The silver medals are copies of the
one in gold given to Captain Lawrence.]

Approved January 11, 1814.

_____

_Captain Lawrence to the Secretary of the Navy._

To the Honourable United States ship Hornet,
William JONES, Holmes' Hole, March 19th, 1813.
Secretary of the Navy, Washington, D. C.

Sir: I have the honour to inform you of the arrival, at this
port, of the United States ship Hornet, under my command, from a
cruise of 145 days, and to state to you, that after Commodore
Bainbridge left the coast of Brazils, (on the 6th of January
last,) the Hornet continued off the harbour of St. Salvador,
blockading the Bonne Citoyenne until the 24th, when the Montagu
74 hove in sight, and chased me into the harbour; but night (p. 187)
coming on, I wore and stood to the southward. Knowing that
she had left Rio Janeiro for the express purpose of relieving the
Bonne Citoyenne and the packet, (which I had also blockaded for
fourteen days, and obliged her to send her mail to Rio in a
Portuguese smack,) I judged it most prudent to change my cruising
ground, and stood to the eastward, with the view of cruising off
Pernambuco; and on the 4th day of February, captured the English
brig Resolution, from Rio Janeiro, bound to Maranham, with
coffee, jerked beef, flour, fustic and butter, and about 25,000
dollars in specie. As the brig sailed dull, and could ill spare
hands to man her, I took out the money and set her on fire. I
then ran down the coast for Maranham, and cruised there for a
short time; from thence ran off Surinam. After cruising off that
coast from the 5th to the 22d of February, without meeting a
vessel, I stood for Demarara, with an intention, should I not be
fortunate on that station, to run through the West Indies, on my
way to the United States. But on the morning of the 24th, I
discovered a brig to leeward, to which I gave chase; ran into
quarter less four, and not having a pilot, was obliged to haul
off; the fort at the entrance of Demarara river at this time
bearing south west, distance about 2-1/2 l