tan corsair, which he named the ketch Intrepid. On board this ketch, of four guns and seventy men, he captured, by boarding, the frigate Philadelphia, of 54 guns, and seven hundred and fifty men. Thirty of the enemy were killed, and one hundred and twenty wounded, and the ship burnt under the Bashaw's castle, on the 16th of February. No Americans killed. In August, he commanded a division of gun-boats, and in No. 4, having but one gun, charged nine boats, having three guns and forty men each. Captured a large boat, and secured the prize. His brother, James, having been treacherously slain, he returned to the combat with a midshipman, and eight men, captured the Turk's boat who slew his brother, and shot him. In both prizes, thirty-three of the enemy were slain, while he lost not a man!

In the same year, he was appointed captain of the Constitution, to rank from February 16. In this ship he blockaded the enemy, awaiting negotiations ashore. He was also captain of the frigate Congress, and returned to America at the conclusion of the Tripolitan war.

In 1805, he was appointed superintendent of American gun-boats, teaching modes of attack and defence.

In 1807, after the affair of the Leopard, he was in the Chesapeake, as commodore of the southern squadron, watching foreign ships on the American coast, and enforcing the acts of congress.

In 1811, he was again commander of the United States; and,

In 1812, sailed in a squadron commanded by Commodore Rogers, in the war against Great Britain; and, on the 25th of October, captured the frigate Macedonian, of 49 guns.

In 1813, he was blockaded, with his squadron, in New London harbour, where it remained to the close of the

war.

In 1815, while in the President, with the sloops of war Hornet and Peacock, he met and beat the Endymion, but finally surrendered to a whole British squadron.

In the same year, in a war against the Barbary powers, having under his command the frigates Guerriere, Mace

donian, and Constellation, he captured the Algerine frigate, Mazouda, killed the captain and thirty men, June 17. Two days afterwards, captured a brig of twenty-two guns; arrived at Algiers on the 28th, and concluded a treaty on the 30th.

On the 31st of July, he arrived at Tunis, and demanded $46,000 indemnification; and on the 9th of August, demanded of the Bey of Tripoli $25,000. Arrived at Messina, and left the Neapolitan captives included by him in treaty the 2d of September. Corresponded with the king of Naples, whose thanks he received on the 8th. Arrived at Gibraltar, joining Commodore Bainbridge on the 18th; and on the 12th of November arrived in America. Appointed Navy Commissioner, a post which he filled with honour, till,

In 1820, he fell in single combat, on the 22d of March, adding nothing to national or individual honour.

THE subject of the following memoir was the son of Captain David Porter, and was born in Boston on the 1st of February, 1780. His father had been an officer in the American navy, during the revolutionary war; and after its conclusion was appointed to the command of the revenue cutter Active, and removed with his family to Balti

more.

The constitution of young Porter was delicate; but his mind was bent on the profession of a seaman. He made his first voyage with his father, to the West Indies, at the age of sixteen; and his second, as mate of a ship, from Baltimore to St. Domingo. In this voyage, his address, courage, and constitution, were put to the trial. He was twice impressed on board a British ship, and as many times effected his escape. Being destitute of money, he was obliged to work his passage home, in a cold season, without the clothing necessary to his health and comfort.

He afterwards obtained a midshipman's warrant, on board the Constellation, Commodore Truxton; and was in the action with the French frigate L'Insurgente. His conduct in this action procured for him the commission of a lieutenant, on board the same ship, under Commodore Barron. He went next on board the United States' schooner Experiment, under Captain Maley, cruising on the coast of Hispaniola, fighting the brigands, and annoying their harbours in his boat. In the Amphitrite, a pilot boat schooner, with five small swivels taken from the tops of the Constellation, and fifteen hands, he engaged a French privateer, mounting one long twelve pounder and several swivels, manned with a crew of forty men, and accompanied by a prize ship, and a large barge with thirty men. and armed with swivels. With this fearful odds

against him, and notwithstanding the loss of his rudder in the engagement, he made prize of the privateer and ship. without the loss of a man; though several were wounded, and his vessel much injured. Seven were killed on board the privateer, and fifteen wounded.

After his return from this voyage, he went to the West Indies again, as first lieutenant of the Experiment, commanded by Captain Charles Stewart. At this time, French privateers were particularly troublesome to the American commerce; but the appearance of the Experiment, and the vigour of her operations, struck such an awe into those commissioned bucaniers, as effectually to repress their depredations, and shut them within their own harbours. From the Experiment, both Captain Stewart and Lieutenant Porter were translated to the schooner Enterprise, on her going with the first squadron to the Mediterranean. The Enterprise engaged a Tripolitan corsair of very superior force, and after a most severe conflict, in which the Enterprise made great havoc among the enemy, and suffered little, was eventually the conqueror. On this, and on all other occasions, while on that station, whether in harbours or at sea, in open battle or on desperate enterprises, the valour, skill, and promptitude of Lieutenant Porter were conspicuous, and called forth the applause of his superiors and companions in arms. In one of these hazardous exploits he was wounded in the left thigh. He joined the frigate Philadelphia, Captain Bainbridge, at Gibraltar, in September, 1803. Off the harbour of Tripoli, on the 31st October, in fine weather, the Philadelphia gave chase to a Tripolitan armed ship, and, in the pursuit, ran foul of a rock. After ineffectual endeavours to float the ship, the whole crew and officers surrendered, and were carried prisoners to the city of Tripoli. There was a passage under the rooms where the officers were confined, through which the American sailors, employed on the public works, were in the habit of passing. From one of the rooms of this passage, a communication was opened with the sailors through a small hole in the wall. In an unguarded, or unlucky moment, this communication was discovered, and information given to the Bashaw. Suddenly the

officer having the charge of the castle, rushed into the room, and demanded who had the presumption to do the forbidden deed. To this demand Porter answered coolly, that he was the author. He was immediately dragged away; but to what fate, his friends neither knew, nor could be informed. In this state of uncertainty they remained, until relieved by the appearance of Porter. During this confinement, Lieutenant Porter found refuge from the irksomeness of restraint, in an habitual fondness for study. In his books, of which he procured a competent number, he enjoyed an agreeable society, always ready, and never intrusive or importunate. History, drawing, the French language, mathematics, and the theory of his profession, improved, while they amused his mind, and enabled him to think afterwards that his days of captivity had not been wholly lost, or painful, or unprofitable. What he thus acquired he was ready to communicate, and in this manner made others partakers in the alleviations which he had enjoyed.

After the establishment of peace with this regency, the American captives were set at liberty; and Lieutenant Porter with his companions returned to the pursuit of their several vocations and the performance of their respective duties.

At Syracuse, to which place they took shipping after their release, a court of inquiry was held on the causes of the loss of the Philadelphia, which resulted in the honourable acquittal of the officers of that ship. He was then appointed to the command of the brig Enterprise, and ordered to Tripoli. He availed himself of the latitude of his orders to visit the ruins of the Roman colony of Leptis Magna, and here the art of drawing, which he had cultivated while in prison at Tripoli, was called delightfully and profitably into use. The remnants of ancient magnificence called forth sublime and solemn emotions, afforded sensible evidence of the power and elegance of the wonderful nation with whom it once existed, and confirmed the impressions which the pen of history had created. The speculations and researches of Porter and his friends were rewarded with the discovery of neglected specimens