This visit gave rise to the attachment between himself and your mother, which terminated in their marriage about eighteen months afterwards.

Your father joined us in New-York. He was in his nineteenth year, and the most manly youth, and most elegant gentleman that I ever

saw.

Mrs. Bingham, of Philadelphia, used to send him invitations to her parties, and he often went from New-York to that city to them! Yet he was neither debauched, nor dissipated. He was regular, studious, above low company of any sort," the great vulgar or the small;" his "apparel," according to Lord Burleigh's advice, was "costly, not fine ;" and you might see in his old attendant, Syphax, whom he carried with him to New-York, that his master was a gentleman. Columbia College was not yet recovered from the shock of the revolution; it was just emerging out of chaos. The Pro fessor of Humanity, (Cochrane, now in the college of Nova-Scotia,) was an Irishman, educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and a most accomplished scholar. With him I entered as a private pupil, paying eight dollars a month, (out of my own allowance for clothes, &c.) for the privilege. I had devoted the fall vacation at Princeton, (1787,) to an attempt at regaining my Greek; and now (July, 1788,) burning with the thirst of knowledge, (which I was not permitted to slake at the fountain of Nassan,) and emulous of literary distinction, I sat seriously to work, and was greatly encouraged by my tutor, who was, or affected to be, amazed at the rapidity of my progress. To my irreparable loss, he left college about two or three months after I had entered myself as his private pupil. Your father's return to Virginia left me without a friend. "Where," you will ask, "was my uncle Theodorick?" Alas! my poor brother differed in every respect from your noble father. Of all things in the world, he detested most a book. Devoted to pleasure and "fun," as he termed it, he not only set me a bad example, but, with his dissolute companions, absolutely prevented me from reading. Often have they forced the door of my study, and tossed the books over the floor, sometimes out of the window. In two years, he undermined his constitution, and destroyed his health forever; and after lingering a long time a mere skeleton of himself, he died at Bizarre, just before the birth of your brother St. George. My guardian-for under the impulse of the ascendancy he had acquired over me, I had chosen Mr. Tucker as such--was so scanty in his supplies, that I became necessitous; of course, unhappy; and (why should I conceal it?) grad. ually fell into the habits and way of life of my unfortunate brother-with this difference, that I continued to read, but books of amusement only, enervating and almost destroying my intellectual powers, and vitiating my taste. Your father was married on the last day of the year 1789; and, in the summer following, Theodorick and I left New-York'for Virginia. In consequence of my mother's death, her husband left Matoax, to reside in Williamsburgh, where Edmund Randolph, just appointed AttorneyGeneral of the United States, at that time lived. He proposed to Mr. Tucker, that I should study law under him; accordingly I went to Philadelphia in the month of September, 1790, the year of the removal of Congress from New York. I had seen the old Congress expire and the new one rise like a Phoenix from its ashes. I saw the coronation (such in fact it was) of General Washington in 1789, and heard Ames and Madison, when they first took their seats on the floor of the House of Representatives. Congress met at Philadelphia, and Mr. Randolph was too much engrossed by politics and his own necessities, to think of me. He too

embezzled the funds which Mr. Tucker entrusted to him for my use. Had they been faithfully applied, they were inadequate to my decent support-only $400 per annum. For what cause I know not, Mr. Randolph put into my hands, by way of preparation for a course of law, Hume's metaphysical works. I had a great propensity for that sort of reading. The conduct and conversation of Mr. Tucker and his friends, such as Colonel Jones and Beverly Randolph, (every other word an oath) had early in life led me to regard religion as the imposi tion of priesteraft. I soon became a deist, and, by consequence, an atheist. (I shudder whilst I write it; although my intentions were pure, and I was honestly seeking after truth.) I say by consequence," because I am convinced that deisin necessarily leads, by the fairest induction, to that conclusion. My late friend, Joseph Bryan, was placed by Major Pierce Butler, then in the Senate from SouthCarolina, also under the direction of Mr. Randolph, to read law. The Attorney General had no office, and we were to read at our rooms such books as he pointed out. After getting almost through the first book of Blackstone, Bryan and myself abandoned a profession, for which neither of us had been qualified by a regular education, and commenced men of pleasure,plunging into the "gaiety that fills the mouth with blasphemy, the heart with wo." July, 1792, I returned to Virginia, from want of means for remaining in Philadelphia. In this town, on my way to Williamsburgh, I was taken ill with the scarlet fever, and brought to the brink of the grave. So few charms had life for me, so strong was the disgust that I had taken to the world, that I was indifferent as to the issue of the disease. Reaching Williamsburg, I saw for the first time, Mr. Tucker's new wife. I shall never forget the chilling coldness of my reception. In a few days I set out for Bizarre, and was once more restored to the society of the fondest of brothers. The events that soon followed, are those which I have already related to you, and which you say, most truly, can never be forgotten. In July, 1793, I again returned to Philadelphia, at my guardian's instance, to while away the time of my minority; and after encountering the horrors of the yellow fever, (which broke out a few days after my arrival, and drove my friend Bryan to Georgia,) I passed the winter less unpleasantly than the two former which I had spent there, and left the right-angled city in April or May, 1794. In June I came of age. The crop of that year was destroyed, and also that of 1795, by the flood. My guardian shewed me no accounts, paid me nothing for the profits of my estate during a minority of nineteen years, and I myself overwhelmed with overseeis', blacksmiths', and sheriffs' claims, of several years standing. This reconciled me to the sale of Matoax, urged by your father. I made his house (at his request) my home, and lived the life of a mere lounger.

*

The society of your father, the conversation and company of T. Thompson, (for I was half my time in Petersburg,) did not rouse my literary ambition. I rode about from one race field to another; and whilst at New-Market races, my earliest friend, (your father excepted,) Henry Middleton Rutledge, son of Edward Rutledge, and nephew of the celebrated John Rutledge of South-Carolina, called at Bizarre, on his way to Charleston, and not finding me at home, left a letter, informing me of his intended voyage to Europe. I knew Rutledge in NewYork; we were in College together, and I burned with desire to see him once more. My guardian had always frowned upon my wish to trav el; and now I had not the means of indulging the inclination to any extent. I borrowed, how

ing June, he received the command of the frigate Essex, which was built in this town and presented to government by the merchants of Salem. About this time, the regency of Tripoli, emboldened by the success of the Algerines, commenced hostilities against the United States; to oppose which a squadron of frigates, among which was the Essex, was sent to the Mediterranean. Here he continued for thirteen or fourteen months, but did not fall in with any of the Tripolitan cruisers.

He returned to New-York in July, 1802, and in May, 1803, was appointed to the command of the Philadelphia. In July he sailed in her to join the Mediterranean squadron, then under Commodore Preble. He was here employed in blockading the harbor of Tripoli, and, on the 31st of October, gave chase to a strange ship that was seen running for the harbor of Tripoli, The chase was unsuccessful, and the Philadelphia was returning, when, as she was going at the rate of six or seven knots, she ran upon rocks about four miles and a half from the town. As soon as she had grounded, the gunboats came out to attack her; but while she continued upright, with the few guns that could be brought to bear, she kept the enemy at a distance; but she soon lay over so much on one side that she could not use her guns. At length, after sustaining the enemy's fire for five or six hours, a council of war of all the officers unanimously advised a surrender. The magazine was therefore drowned; the arms and every article of value thrown overboard; the ship scuttled, the pump choaked, and the colors were then hauled down.

The frigate was plundered of every thing that could be got at, when the Tripolitans went on board. They took from Capt. Bainbridge his watch and epaulets, and the cravat from his neck; but with much struggling and difficulty he saved the miniature of his wife. The officers and crew, however, were pretty well treated, as prisoners of war, after they were landed in Tripoli. Several attempts were made to escape, but all were unsuccessful. The prisoners were often obstinate, uncomplying, and mischievous; yet the Tripolitans who had charge of them were rarely provoked to punish them. They used often to say, that the Americans were the most difficult to manage of any people they had ever seen.

A treaty of peace between the United States and Tripoli was concluded in 1805, and on the third of June the prisoners were liberated, after a confinement of thirteen months, and soon after sailed for America. Capt. Bainbridge was received rather as a returning conqueror than as a vanquished prisoner, and was acquitted of all blame by a court of inquiry held at his request.

From 1806 to 1812, he occupied himself part of the time in the merchant service, and the remainder of the time was employed in various naval duties. In 1812, he was appointed to the command of the Navy Yard at Charlestown; and on the arrival at Boston of Capt. Hull, after his victory over the British frigate Guerriere, he having applied for a furlough, Commodore Bainbridge was permitted to take command of the Constitution.

"In a few weeks he sailed, in company with the sloop of war Hornet, Capt. Lawrence, on a cruise to the East Indies. After parting company with Capt. Lawrence, he was running down the coast of Brazil, when, on Thursday, the 29th of December, he discovered, about nine in the morning, two sail, one of which was standing off shore towards him. He immediately made sail to meet the strange ship, and finding, as he approached her, that she did not answer his private signals, proceeded out to sea in order to separate her from her companion, and draw her off the neutral coast. About one

o'clock, having reached what he considered a proper distance from the shore, he hoisted his ensign and pendant, which was answered by English colors, and perceiving that she was an English frigate (the Java, captain Lambert) he took in the royals, tacked, and stood for the enemy. The Java immediately bore down, intending to rake, which the Constitution avoided by wearing. The enemy being now within half a mile to windward, and having hauled down his flag, the Constitution fired a gun ahead to make him show his colors, and immediately poured in her whole broadside, on which English colors were hoisted, and the fire returned. On this the action became general, within grape and canister distance. In a few minutes the wheel of the Constitution was shot away; and in about a half an hour, Commodore Bainbridge finding that his adversary still kept too far off, determined to close with him at the risk of being raked. He thererore luffed up so close to the Java, that, in passing, her jib-boom got foul of the Constitution's mizen rigging; and having now gained a nearer position, he poured in so well-directed a fire, that in ten minutes he shot away the Java's jib-boom and part of the bowsprit; in five minutes more the foremast went by the board-her main topmast followed-then the gaft and spanker boom, and lastly, the mizenmast went nearly by the board. At five minutes past four, one hour and fiftyfive minutes from the commencement of the action, the Java's fire was completely silenced, and her colors being down, commodore Bainbridge supposed that she had struck; he therefore shot ahead to repair his rigging; but while hove to for that purpose, discovered that her colors were still flying, although her mainmast had just gone by the board. He therefore bore down again upon her, and having got close athwart her bows, was on the point of raking her with a broadside, when she hauled down her colors, being a completely unmanageable wreck, entirely dismasted, without a spar of any kind standing. On boarding her, it was found that captain Lambert had been mortally wounded, and that the Java was so much injured, that it would be impossible to bring her to the United States. All the prisoners and the baggage were therefore brought on board the Constitution, a service which it required two days to perform, there being but a single boat left between the two frigates. On the 31st she was blown up, and the Constitution put into St. Salvador. The Java carried forty-nine guns, and upwards of four hundred men: she was bound to the East-Indies, and had, in addition to her own crew, upwards of one hundred supernumerary officers and seamen, for different ships on the East-India station.

"Her loss was sixty killed; and among these was captain Lambert. Of the wounded, the accounts varied from one hundred and one (which were ascertained positively) to one hundred and seventy.

"On board the Constitution, nine were killed, and twenty-five wounded, among whom was the Commodore himself.

"This victory was scarcely less honorable to commodore Bainbridge, than the generosity with which he exercised the right of a conqueror. While on board, the prisoners were treated with the most respectful attention. Immediately on their landing at St. Salvador, they were set at liberty on parole, and received every article of their baggage; and particularly a service of plate belonging to general Hislop, was carefully preserved and restored to him. These proofs of honorable courtesy were not lost on the prisoners, who expressed their gratitude in a manner creditable to themselves as to the victors."

The decayed state of the Constitution and