reer under the brave old captain of the War of 1812.

I am going now to tell you about David Porter and the little _Essex_, a
ship whose name the British did not like to hear. And I have spoken of
Farragut from the fact that he began his naval career under Captain
Porter.

Captain Porter was born in 1780, before the Revolution had ended. His
father was a sea-captain; and when the boy was sixteen years old, he
stood by his father's side on the schooner _Eliza_ and helped to fight
off a British press-gang which wanted to rob it of some of its sailors.
The press-gang was a company of men who seized men wherever they found
them, and dragged them into the British navy, where they were compelled
to serve as sailors or marines. It was a cruel and unjust way of getting
men, and the Americans resisted it wherever they could. In this
particular fight several men were killed and wounded, and the press-gang
thought it best to let the _Eliza_ alone.

When the lad was seventeen he was twice seized by press-men and taken to
serve in the British navy, but both times he escaped. Then he joined the
American navy as a midshipman.

Young Porter soon showed what was in him. In the naval war with France
he was put on a French prize that was full of prisoners who wanted to
seize the ship. For three days Porter helped to watch them, and in all
that time he did not take a minute's sleep.

Afterward, in a pilot-boat, with fifteen men the boy hero attacked a
French privateer with forty men and a barge with thirty men. Porter,
with his brave fifteen, boarded the privateer and fought like a hero.
After more than half its crew were killed and wounded the privateer
surrendered. In this hard fight not one of Porter's men was hurt.

That was only one of the things which young Porter did. When the war
with the pirates of Tripoli began, he was there, and again did some
daring deeds. He was on the _Philadelphia_ when that good ship ran
aground and was taken by the Moors, and he was held a prisoner till the
end of the war. Here you have an outline of the early history of David
Porter.

When the War of 1812 broke out, he was made captain of the _Essex_. The
_Essex_ was a little frigate that had been built in the Revolution. It
was not fit to fight with the larger British frigates, but with David
Porter on its quarter-deck it was sure to make its mark.

On the _Essex_ with him was a fine little midshipman, only eleven years
old, who had been brought