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HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY. 289 :

concluded ; but, I trust, when our distance from home, with the
little chance we had of receivins; such evidence, are taken
into consideration, I shall not be thought to have decided prema-
turely."
This is a sorr\' attempt to escape the just reprobation which
Captain Warrington's conscience warned him would be visited
upon his conduct by every right- feeling and brave officer of
either the British or x\inerican Services. James, in his " His-
tory of the Naval Occurrences of the War between the United
States and Great Britain," completely demolishes the sophistries
by which Captain Warrington sought to excuse his cowardly
—
attack upon a vessel of sucli inferior force : " The British and
American accounts of this rencontre," he says, " differ mate-
rially as to one fact; the knowledge of Captain Warrington, at
the time he approached the 'Nautilus' with a hostile intention,
that peace had been signed between Great Britain and the
United States. We will, in the first instance, suppose the
American officer to have been unacquainted with the circum-
stance, till, as he admits, he was hailed and asked if he knew of
it by the ' Nautilus's' commander. After that, would not a
humane man, would not a brave officer, have deferred firing till
he had ascertained the fact? But Captain Warrington says
— " I considered the assertion, coupled with his arrangements
for action, a finesse on his part to amuse us, till he could place
himself under the protection of the fort.' It was, then, an
' assertion,' as Lieutenant Boyce states ; happy inconsistency!
and a most important assertion too, concluding with ' I have
Mr. Madison's proclamation on board.' Had not the 'Nautilus'
'shortened sail' and 'hove to f Did that appear as if her
commander wished to place himself under the protection of the
fort'^ and that fort, instead of being at 'a short distance,' was
Was it not time for Lieutenant Boyce to make
five miles oflF.
' arrangements for action' when he saw a ship like the ' Pea-
cock' bearing down upon him, with ports ready opened? Let
us suppose for a moment that, just as the American commander
was listening to the hail from the ' Nautilus,' she became
suddenly transformed into H.M. ship ' Volage,'* Captain War-
rington would then have promptly hailed in turn with the best
speaking trumpet in the ship : thanked Captain Drury for his
politeness ; and been the first to urge the folly not to say
wickedness, of w^oundingand killing each other, while any doubt
existed about peace liaving been signed. ]3ut it was a vessel
he could almost hoist on board the ' Peacock ;' he therefore called
out, ' Haul down your colours instantly.' This reasonable
demand. Lieutenant Boyce very properly considered, as an
imperious and insulting mandate, and fully alive to the dignity
* The ' Volage,' carrying tbirty-tliree guns, and a complement of one liundrod
and seventy-one men, was, at this time, cruising in the East Indies.
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VOL. I.