er gallant DeRuyter and Van Tromp, who made the little republic
among the marshes and canals that yield tribute to the Zuyder Zee,
famous the world over. England glories in her Blake, her Collingwood,
and most of all, in her Nelson, the model naval hero of all her
history; and we cannot suppress our admiration of the daring of the
reckless John Paul Jones, the matchless patriotism of Lawrence, and
the gallant bearing and extraordinary success of Perry, Bainbridge,
Decatur, and the elder Porter; while in the War of the Rebellion the
heroic Foote, Dupont, Winslow, D. D. Porter, and Rogers, covered their
names with glory.

But among all these illustrious names there is none which so
thoroughly awakens our enthusiasm, or so readily calls forth our
applause, as that of Farragut. With all of Nelson's courage and
daring, he had more than his executive ability and fertility of
resource, a wider and more generous intellectual culture, and a more
unblemished, _naive_, frank, and gentle character.

He bore in his veins some traces of the best blood of Spain, his
father, George Farragut, having been a native of Citadella, the
capital of the island of Minorca, and a descendant of an ancient and
honorable Catalonian family. The father came to this country in 1776,
and united most heartily in our struggle for independence, attaining
during the war the rank of major. After the conclusion of the war,
Major Farragut married Miss Elizabeth Shine, of North Carolina, a
descendant of the old Scotch family of McIven, and settled as a farmer
at Campbell's Station, near Knoxville, Tenn. Here, on July 5, 1801,
his illustrious son was born. The father seems to have been not
altogether contented with a farmer's life in that mountainous region,
for not long after we hear of him as a sailing-master in the navy, and
an intimate friend of the father of Commodore David D. Porter, who
then held a similar rank. Young Farragut inherited his father's love
for the sea, and though brought up so far inland, among the Cumberland
Mountains, he had hardly reached the age of nine and a half years,
when the longing for a sailor's life possessed him so strongly, that
his father consented; and after some little delay, a midshipman's
warrant was procured for him.

His first cruise was under the command of Captain (then
master-commandant) Porter, who, in July, 1812, was promoted to the
rank of captain, and soon after sailed in the Essex for the South
American coas