PERRY, ON LAKE ERIE.

BY THE HON. TRISTAM BURGES.

COMMODORE PERRY arrived at Erie on the 26th of March, 1813. He carried with him from Newport, 149 men and three boys, all of whom were volun

teers.

The fleet of Eneas, so Maro sings, when riding at anchor in the Tyber, and, in his absence attacked by the Rutulians, and likely to be burned, was, by a miracle of poetic mythology, changed into a shoal of dolphins, and went off sporting down the stream; and if so, they may, for aught we know, be at this time playing about the mouth of that river; or showing their bright sides to the sun, in other parts of the Tyrean sea.

Perry and his hardy Rhode-Island mariners, travelled up to the lake, for something not quite so poetic.

They were required to change the oaks, and the green pines and hemlocks, then standing on those shores, into a fleet of ships and vessels, and fit them out to encounter, and overcome, in battle, on those waters, a fleet then armed, equipped and manned with British sailors; men, who had never, before

that time, met an equal, in any fleet, on that ele

ment.

In this there was no poetry, nor any other miracle than bone labor, matchless skill, and unconquerable bravery.

Every Yankee is an axe man; and all the companions of Perry were of the full blood; and most of them the best of that blood, the Rhode-Island stock.

These, with a few more shipwrights, smiths, caulkers, riggers, and sailmakers, built and equipped this fleet; and launched the whole into the harbor of Erie, rigged and ready to sail, in about ninety days, after the first blow was struck.

They built from the stump, six vessels; the Lawrence, of twenty guns-two long twelves, and eighteen 24 pound carronades; the Niagara, of two long twelves, and eighteen 24 pound carronades; the Ariel, of four guns, 18's and 24's; the Scorpion, of two guns, thirty-twos; the Porcupine, of one gun, a thirty-two; and the Tigress, of one gun, a thirty-two.

During the same time, they repaired and made efficient, the Caledonia, of three guns, 24's and 32's; the Somers, of two guns, thirty-twos; the Trippe, of one gun, a thirty-two, and the Ohio, of like force, but not in the battle.

At the mouth of the harbor of Erie, there is a bar; and on this, the water was then so shallow, that the vessels could not be floated out over it. They had been built in this place, because, in no other on the lake, could they be secure from the enemy.

To carry them out over the bar, in the face of this enemy, superior in force, had they all been furnished with guns, and, as it must be, entirely unarmed, was a labor which tasked the Yankee invention, no less than the valor, of the young Commodore and his associates.

They were loaded on the backs of camels, and carried out over the bar into deep water. An Arab, who, from the back of his camel, on the desert, had, at a safe distance, looked at the French and English fleets, in the bay of Abouker, would not believe a word of all this story.

It is literally true. These camels were of simple mechanism, and American manufacture. They were long, broad, deep boxes, made of planks, like scows, and perfectly water tight; with holes to fill, and sink, and pumps to exhaust them of water, and raise them so as to float with their upper edge high above the surface. These, placed on each side, and connected by strong beams, on which the vessels

being placed when they were sunk; thus raised the vessels up above the bar, when the camels were pumped out, and rose again by their own buoyancy.

The guns of the fleet had been mounted in batteries on the shore; and the militia, under General Mead, then encamped in the neighborhood, were embodied, and united with the seamen in defending these vessels, while they were thus travelling over the bar, on the backs of these able bodied camels.

Thus, in the face of an enemy, superior in force, this fleet was built, put afloat, and equipped. The enemy, however, before they were ready to make sail, withdrew to the harbor near Malden; and retired under the guns of the British fortress.

The British vessels were stout built, with thick bulwarks of solid oak; but the American were built in a hasty manner, and intended merely to carry guns and men; and bring them down along side of their adversary.

How long the British fleet might have kept their shelter, in the harbor of Malden, is not known. Exigences called them out; the want of provision, in the British army, compelled them to put out, and attempt to clear the lake of the American fleet; so that they might, with safety, run down to Long Point, their depot of stores, and provision the camp.

The British fleet had a veteran commander, the American, a young sailor. Barclay had conquered with Nelson, at Traffalgar; Perry had probably never seen the combined movement of ships, in a fleet, formed in line of battle.

The two fleets might be equal in number of men ; but all, in the British, were seamen, or marines, or soldiers; while many, in the American, were militia, or new levies, from the ranks of the army.

In number of vessels, we exceeded by three; the enemy had a superiority of ten in the number of guns. The vessels of the enemy were impervious to the shot of our carronades; but their long guns hulled the thin sides of our vessels, through and through. Let Him be praised who has told us that "the battle is not always to the strong."

On the night of the 9th of September, 1813, the American fleet lay moored at Put-in-Bay, on the southwest shore of Erie. At daylight on the 10th the enemy were discovered from the mast head of the Lawrence, far up the lake in the northwest. This was, by signal, immediately communicated to the fleet; and, at the same time, the signal was given to get under weigh.

Commodore Perry, soon after, hoisted his broad pennant on board the Lawrence, inscribed with the