Page:Niles' Weekly Register, v1.djvu/43

THE WEEKLY REGISTER.

Vol. I.] BALTIMORE, SATURDAY, September 21, 1811. [No. 3.

"—I wish no other herald,

" No other speaker of my living Actions,

" To keep mine honor from corruption

" But such an honest chronicler."

Shakspeare — HENRY VIII.

Printed and published by H. Niles, Water-street, near the Merchants' Coffee-House, at $5 per annum ===President and Little Belt.=== (The affair (every thing is an "affair" now-a-days) of the President and Little Belt, appearing to as- sume great importance in England, we have thought proper to record the official papers relative to it: so that, at once, our readers may see the whole nature of the contention, giving credit -where credit shall appear to be due.]

Copy of a letter from Commodore Rodgers to the Secret an/ of the Nary. U. S. FRIGATE PRESIDENT, Of Sandy Hook, May 23, 1811.

Sir — I regret extremely being under the necessi- ty of representing to you an event that occurred on the night of the 16th inst. between the ship under my command and his Britannic Majesty's ship of war the Little Belt, commanded by captain Bing- ham: the result of which has given me much pain, as well on account of the injury she sustained, as that I should have been compelled to the measure that produced it, by a vessel of her inferior force. The circumstances are as follows: On the 16th

inst. at twenty-five minutes past meridian, in seven- teen fathom water, Cape Henry bearing S. W. dis- tant fourteen or fifteen leagues, a sail was discover- ed from our mast head in the east, standing towards us under a press of sail. At half past one the svm- metr>of her upper sails (which were at tnis time distinguishable from our deck) and her making sig- nals, shewed her to be a man of war. At forty-five minutes past one, p. m. hoisted our ensign and pen- dant: when, finding her signals not answered, she wore and stood to the southward. Being desirous of speaking her, and of ascertaining what she was, I now made sail in chase; and by half past three

p. m. found we were coming up with her; as, by this time, the upper part ofher stern beg..n to shew itself above the horizon. Ti e wind now began, and continued gradually to decrease, so as to pre- vent my being able to approach her sufficiently be- fore sun-set, to discover her actual force, (which 1 he position she preserved during the chase was calcu- lated to conceal) or to judge even to what nation she belonged; as she appeared studiously to decline shewing her colors. At fifteen or twenty minutes past seven p. m. the chase took in her studding sails, and soon after hauled up her courses, and hauled by the wind on the starboard tack; she at the same time hoisted an ensign or fl..g at her m.zen peak, but it was too dark for me to discover what nation it re- presented; now, for the first time, her broadside was presented to our view; but night had so far progressed, that although her appearance indica- ted she was a frigate, I was unable to determine her actual force.

At fifteen minutes before eight p. w. being about a mile and half from her, the wind at the time very ligh, I direc ed captain Ludlow to i.ake a position to windward of her and on the same tack, within Q short speaking distance. This, however, the com- mander of the chase appeared, from his manarj. vres, to be anxious to prevent, as he wore and hauled by the wind on different tack:;, four times successively, between this period and the ime of our arriving at the position, which I had ordered to be taken. At fifteen or twenty minuies past eight, being a little forward of her weather beam and dis- tant from seventy to a hundred yards, hailed "what ship is that?" to this enquiry no answer was given, but I was hailed by her commande-, and asked "what ship is that?" Having asked the first question, I of course, considered m self entitled, by the common rules of politeness, to the first an- swer; after a pause of fifteen o twenty seconds, I reiterated my first enquiry of "what ship is that?" and before I had time to take the trumpet from my mouth, was answered by a shot, that cut off one of our main-top back stays and went into our main- mast — at this instant captain Caldweii (of marines) who was standing very near me on the gangway, having observed "sir, she has fired at us," caused me to pause for a moment, just as I was in the act of giving an order to fire a shot in return; and he- fore I had time to resume the repetition of the in- tended order, a shot wa actually fired '.' om the se- cond division of 'his ship, and was scarcely out of the gun before u was answered from our a/sumed enemy by three oihers in quick succession, and soon after the rest of i.is broadside and musketry. When the first shot was fired, being under an im- pression, that it might possibly have proceeded fiom accident, and without the orders of the comr.an- der, I had determined at the moment to fire only a single shot in return, but the; immediate repeii ion of the previous unprovoked outrage induced me to believe that the insult was premeditated, d hat from our adversary being, at that I feme, as ignouaiit of cur real force as I was of his, he .' ugh* this, perhaps, a favorcble opportunity of acquiring, pro- motion, although at the expence of violating our neutrality 7, and insulting our flag; I accordingly, with that degree of repugnance incident to fee ig equally determined neither to be the aggressor, or suffer the flag of my country to be insulted wit' im- punity, gave a general order to fire; the eflec of which, in from four to six minutes, as near as I can judge, having produced a partial silence of his guns, I gave orders to cease firing, discovering by the feeble opposition that it mu-tbe a ship of very inferior force o wha I had supposed, or that some untoward accident had happened to her.

My orders in this instance however (although they proceeded alone from motives of humanity and a determination not to spill a drop of blood unneces- sarily) I had, in less than four minutes, some rea- son to regret, as he renewed his fire, of which two 32 pound shot cut off one of our fore-shrouds and injured our fore-mast. It was now that I found myself under the painful necessity of giving- orders