For thirty days he continued his
daring operations in the very waters into which Paul Jones had carried
the American flag nearly thirty-five years earlier. British merchants
and shipping owners in London read with horror of the destruction
wrought by this one vessel. Hardly a paper appeared without an account
of some new damage done by the "Argus." Vessels were kept in port
to rot at their docks, rather than fall a prey to the terrible Yankee.
Rates of insurance went up to ruinous prices, and many companies
refused to take any risks whatever so long as the "Argus" remained
afloat. But the hue and cry was out after the little vessel; and many
a stout British frigate was beating up and down in St. George's
Channel, and the chops of the English Channel, in the hopes of falling
in with the audacious Yankee, who had presumed to bring home to
Englishmen the horrors of war.

It fell to the lot of the brig-sloop "Pelican" to rid the British
waters of the "Argus." On the night of the thirteenth of August, the
American vessel had fallen in with a British vessel from Oporto, and
after a short chase had captured her. The usual result followed. The
prisoners with their personal property were taken out of the prize,
and the vessel was set afire. But, before the torch was applied, the
American sailors had discovered that their prize was laden with wine;
and their resolution was not equal to the task of firing the prize
without testing the quality of the cargo. Besides treating themselves
to rather deep potations, the boarding-crew contrived to smuggle a
quantity of the wine into the forecastle of the "Argus." The prize was
then fired, and the "Argus" moved away under easy sail. But the light
of the blazing ship attracted the attention of the lookout on the
"Pelican," and that vessel came down under full sail to discover the
cause.

Day was just breaking, and by the gray morning light the British saw
an American cruiser making away from the burning hulk of her last
prize. The "Pelican" followed in hot pursuit, and was allowed to come
alongside, although the fleet American could easily have left her far
astern. But Capt. Allen was ready for the conflict; confident of his
ship and of his crew, of whose half-intoxicated condition he knew
nothing, he felt sure that the coming battle would only add more
laurels to the many already won by the "Argus." He had often declared
that the "Argus" should never run from any two-master; and now, tha