With Porter in the Essex. Otis James
lieutenant to go back at once with an order for the Peruvian to run under our lee, and then send an officer on board to apologize for having dared to fire at an English man-of-war.
How that fellow scurried back! He never so much as suspected that we were other than what had been represented, and in the shortest possible space of time another lieutenant, wearing so much gold lace that he looked like a brazen image, came up the gangway ladder grinning and bowing like an ape.
Captain Porter received him on the quarter, but never so much as invited him into the cabin, and Phil and I crowded well aft to hear what we allowed would be a mighty interesting conversation.
The lieutenant reported that his ship was the Peruvian privateer Nereyda, armed with fifteen guns, and carrying a full crew. They were cruising for Americans, he said, and had already captured two, – the Walker and the Barclay; but the British letter of marque Nimrod, a whaler, had driven their prize crew from the Walker and taken possession of her. The Peruvian had mistaken us for the Nimrod, and fired for the purpose of showing that they did not count on having their prizes taken from them in such an unceremonious fashion.
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