1814     EPERVIER AND PEACOCK     291

wrongfully applied. The court of inquiry, which sat upon the Frolic's loss, " honourably acquitted " the officers and crew. One excuse was, that the lee guns of the American ship had been thrown overboard. So they were, but not until long after the Orpheus had begun chasing her. Captain Bainbridge might as well have urged, that he had no locks, pistols, &c., because he and his crew had destroyed and thrown them overboard just before possession was taken.

The master-commandant, who performed this exploit, is the brother of the commodore, who did so much for the national glory by capturing the Java ; and, from his great interest (a sway that even republics can feel), the former is now a captain. Let, then, Captain Joseph Bainbridge, if the subject be not a sickening one to him, turn over these pages, and count how many instances he can find of conduct like his own. Enough of such a character : suffice it, that the British became possessed, at an easy rate, of a finer 22-gun ship than any they had previously owned ; a vessel with excellent quarters, and of extraordinary large scantling. The Frolic, or Florida, as she was newly named, came into British possession very opportunely for elucidating the merits of the three actions which we have next to record.

On the 23d of February the British 18-gun brig-sloop Epervier, Captain Richard Walter Wales (sixteen 32, and two 18-pounder * carronades), cruising off Cape Sable, captured, without opposition, the American privateer-brig Alfred, of Salem, mounting 16 long 9-pounders, and manned with 108 men ; the British 38-gun frigate Junon, Captain Clotworthy Upton, in sight about 10 miles to leeward. On his way to Halifax with his prize, Captain Wales discovered that a part of his crew had conspired with the late crew of the Alfred, to rise upon the British officers, and carry one vessel, if not both, into a port of the United States. As the readiest mode to frustrate the plan, Captain Wales persevered against a gale of wind, and on the 25th arrived at Halifax. He immediately represented to the commanding officer of the port, the insufficiency of the Epervier's crew for any service; and, in particular, expressed his doubts about their loyalty, from the plot in which they had recently been engaged. However, the affair was treated lightly; and on the 3d of March the Epervier, without a man of her crew being changed, sailed, in company with the Shelburne schooner, for the " protection" of a small convoy bound to Bermuda and the West Indies.

Having reached her outward destination in safety, the Epervier, on the 14th of April, sailed from Port-Royal, Jamaica, on her return to Halifax ; and, as if the reputation of her officers'

* These Captain Wales had taken on board at Halifax, in lieu of the two long sixes and launch-carronade.

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