eutral trade with England was under the ban, and the
Yankee shipmaster was in danger of losing his vessel if he sailed to or
from a port under the British flag. It was out of the frying-pan into
the fire, and French privateers welcomed the excuse to go marauding in
the Atlantic and the Caribbean. What it meant to fight off these greedy
cutthroats is told in a newspaper account of the engagement of
Captain Richard Wheatland, who was homeward bound to Salem in the ship
Perseverance in 1799. He was in the Old Straits of Bahama when a
fast schooner came up astern, showing Spanish colors and carrying
a tremendous press of canvas. Unable to run away from her, Captain
Wheatland reported to his owners:

"We took in steering sails, wore ship, hauled up our courses, piped all
hands to quarters and prepared for action. The schooner immediately took
in sail, hoisted an English Union flag and passed under our lee at a
considerable distance. We wore ship, she did the same, and we passed
each other within half a musket. A fellow hailed us in broken English
and ordered the boat hoisted out and the captain to come aboard, which
he refused. He again ordered our boat out and enforced his orders with a
menace that in case of refusal he would sink us, using at the same time
the vilest and most infamous language it is possible to conceive of.
... We hauled the ship to wind and as he passed poured a whole
broadside into him with great success. Sailing faster than we, he ranged
considerably ahead, tacked and again passed, giving us a broadside and
furious discharge of musketry, which he kept up incessantly until the
latter part of the engagement. His musket balls reached us in every
direction but his large shot either fell short or went considerably over
us while our guns loaded with round shot and square bars of iron were
plied so briskly and directed with such good judgment that before he
got out of range we had cut his mainsail and foretopsail all to rags and
cleared his decks so effectively that when he bore away from us there
were scarcely ten men to be seen. He then struck his English flag and
hoisted the flag of The Terrible Republic and made off with all the sail
he could carry, much disappointed, no doubt, at not being able to give
us a fraternal embrace. We feel confidence that we have rid the world of
some infamous pests of society."

By this time, the United States was engaged in active hostilities with
France, although war had no