"Sprung from the man whose guilty fall,
"Corrupts our arce and taints us all."
But neither the personal excellencies which so strongly endeared him to those who knew him, the affections of his numerous friends, nor the wants of his country, could render him impervious to the shaft of death. No, his generous spirit is fled. Though brave, he has fallen a victim to the king of terrors, who conquers all. A band of piratical marauders, whose iniquitous occupation is the plunder of the seas, and whose perfidies and cruelties, which are audaciously committed on the broad highway of nations, are continually augmenting, and in our opinion, loudly call for the interfering arm of national government, to extirpate, if possible, these freebooters, from the face of the earth; a horde of these unprincipled miscreants, who are the stigma of the human kind, have deprived his country of his valuable services. He has lain down and will rise not. 'Till the heavens be no more he shall not awake, nor be raised out of sleep. His mangled remains are deposited in a land of strangers, and far from his family and his home. He will no more return to alleviate, by his presence, the severe and long continued afflictions of 'the mother that bare him,' to meet the embraces of the fond sisters that loved him, and to receive the gratulations of the inhabitants of this place, who were proud to claim him as their fellow-citizen. Yes, his generous spirit has gone! The war song has died away upon his ear. By the thrilling notes of the clarion, which once prompted him to deeds of valor, he is now unmoved! His body is silent and still in 'the narrow house of all living.' He reposes, with others of his valiant compeers, to await 'the sound of the archangel and the trump of God.' But it is the consolation of surviving friends to reflect, that, though he sleeps, and they shall behold him no more, he has fallen in the arms of victory, and in the common cause of his country and of mankind. His memory will be for ever embalmed in the tenderest recollections of his acquaintances. His loss will be deplored as a national calamity; and we would reverently trust, that, before his spirit took its returnless flight, as he had been educated in the principles of the Christian faith, and knew to whom a sinner has to go, if his soul is ever saved, from his bloody bed of glory he raised his dying eyes and his supplicating voice to that God who is no respecter of persons, but who is rich in mercy unto all that call upon him, in whose presence the rich and the poor alike meet together; with whom the high and the low, the noble and the ignoble, stand upon the same level, in the effulgence of whose holiness the lustre of the hero is dimmed, who permits none to glory before Him, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, and with whom alone can avail the sacrifice of a broken and a contrite heart."
From the New-York Evening Post.
"With emotions of indignation and unavailing grief, we find from the following article, that one of our bravest American officers and most valuable citizens, Lieutenant Commandant Allen, has fallen by the merciless hands of the sea-robbers who for several years have roamed the seas unchecked, fearlessly plundered our vessels, and remorselessly assassinated their crews with every species of barbarity that hellish ingenuity could invent."
From Relf's Philadelphia Gazette.
"Melancholy Tidings.—We have to-day to record an event which must excite in the breast of every American, and we may venture to add, in that of every civilized man, emotions of profound regret and indignation—Lieutenant Commandant Allen, one of the rising stars in our national galaxy, has fallen by the hands of unprincipled pirates. In the earnest and honorable execution of his duty to his country and to mankind, this gallant and accomplished young officer has become the victim of a gang of desperate buccaneers; but in this, as in most of the occurrences of our naval warfare, he died in the lap of victory. This melancholy intelligence was received this morning from an intelligent gentleman, passenger in the Mary Ann, Captain Cory, from Havanna, (now below,) and is furnished to us in these words:
"About the 9th, two masters of American vessels came to Havanna for the express purpose of raising money for the ransom of their vessels, bound to Havanna, which with two other Americans (bound to New Orleans) had been recently captured by two piratical schooners near Key Romain, and left at anchor in that neighborhood waiting their return. Captain Allen, of the Alligator, on coming into port next day, being informed thereof, started, without coming to anchor, in search of the pirates, whom on that or the next day he discovered in the channel of Matanzas. The Alligator drawing too much water, two boats were manned and stood for them; an action ensued, in the early part of which Captain Allen received two musket balls, one in the head, the other in his breast, and soon died, encouraging his men to do their duty; which they nobly performed, for after a short contest the pirates abandoned their vessel and swam to the shore. The vessels were taken possession of by the victors and carried into Matanzas.
"They mounted one gun each, amid-ship, with forty men each, well armed, and considerable plunder on board. Our informant does not know what became of their prizes.
"The Mary Ann has despatches on board from the American Agent at Havanna, furnishing official information in relation to this disastrous occurrence.
"Since the above was in type, (says The Evening Post,) the following letter was handed us, confirmatory of the melancholy truth of the account, with further particulars. We cannot but express our unqualified admiration of the gallantry of spirit that impelled the undaunted Allen, undismayed by the bloody signal of no quarter, which waved aloft, to attack an armed vessel, with a desperate crew in an open boat, and with only a few men. His virtuous indignation bore away all prudent reflections, and he rushed into the jaws of death itself to rescue or avenge his fellow citizens. Captain Allen is a native of Hudson, in this State, where his mother and sisters now reside. May we not hope that the vessels in our harbor will unite in giving at least one outward testimony of their mourning for his loss, by raising their flags half-mast high to-morrow.
"Matanzas, November 11, 1822.
"To Messrs. G. G. & S. Howland,
"My dear Sirs:—The gallant Allen is no more! You witnessed the promptitude with which he hastened to relieve the vessel which I informed him had been captured off this port. He arrived just in time to save five sail of vessels, which he found in possession of a gang of pirates, three hundred strong, established in the Bay of Lejuapo, about fifteen leagues east of this. He fell, pierced by two musket balls, in the van of a division of boats, attacking their principal vessel, a fine schooner of about eighty tons, with a long eighteen-pounder on a pivot, and four guns, with the bloody flag nailed to the mast. Himself, Captain Freeman, of marines, and twelve men, were in the boat much in advance of his other boats, and even took possession of the schooner after a desperate resistance which nothing but a bravery almost too daring could have overcome. The pirates, all but one, escaped by taking to their boats and jumping overboard, before the Alligator's boats reached them. Two other schooners escaped by the use of their oars, the wind being light.
"Captain Allen survived about four hours, during which his conversation evinced a composure and firmness of mind, and correctness of feeling, as honorable to his character and more consoling to his friends than even the dauntless bravery he before evinced.
"The Alligator arrived here to-day, in company with the prize, and five re-captured vessels. Arrangements are making with the governor, with the concurrence of the commander of the Spanish Brig of war Marte, [of whose conduct the officers of the Alligator speak in the highest terms,] to inter him with the honors of war to-morrow morning. It is certain that the pirates are but little weakened by this contest, and there is reason to fear that our commerce with this Island and New Orleans will be almost annihilated, unless an effectual force is stationed here to prevent it. But the best comment I can make is to add a list of vessels re-taken, and to state that many of the men are missing, and probably have been murdered. Should any of our vessels of war arrive, please state these facts, and leave no efforts untried to procure some additional force to come immediately here.
"In great haste, your's very truly,
"Francis Adams.
"Loss in Alligator's two boats—Captain Allen and two oarsmen killed; two men mortally wounded; three severely.
"[By an arrival at Philadelphia we learn that the United States Schooner Alligator had arrived at Matanzas with the pirate schooner and the vessels re-taken from the pirates, (the Ship William & Henry, of New-York, Brig Iris, of Boston, and Brig Sarah Marael, of New-York, bound to New Orleans; Schooner Sarah, of Boston, for Mobile, Schooner Mary Ann, of Salem, for Matanzas,) are all ordered for Charleston. The pirate schooner has arrived, it is said, at Norfolk.]"