CHAPTERPAGE
I. Introducing Myself[17]
II. The Coast of Chili[34]
III. Oliver Benson's Scheme[57]
IV. Among the Whalers[80]
V. The New Fleet[103]
VI. A Call for Volunteers[126]
VII. An Island Port[149]
VIII. Nukuheva[172]
IX. An Old Enemy[195]
X. Among the Typees[218]
XI. A Naval Station[241]
XII. At Valparaiso[264]
XIII. The Britishers[287]
XIV. The Battle[311]
XV. On Parole[334]

ILLUSTRATIONS.

PAGE
"It was only necessary that the crew should reach out and pull us on board"Frontispiece [28]
"He forced the iron rods from their sockets in short order"[77]
"Soon we were out of reach of the grape, and then we ran across the ship's bow"[158]
"The party came in, waving green palm-leaves"[244]
"Nearer and nearer came the Phœbe"[295]

PROLOGUE.

The manuscript of this story was written by Ezra McKnight, a cousin of that Stephen Decatur McKnight of Hartford, Connecticut, who was captured after the action between the Essex and the Phœbe and Cherub, and with a companion named James Lyman went to Rio de Janeiro as exchanged prisoners of war. From that port, according to Lossing, these two shipped for England in a Swedish vessel, and, although the ship arrived in safety, her captain never gave any account of his prisoners, nor was it known what had become of them. That they were murdered would be the natural inference, since in event of their being treacherously sent to England some record must have been found regarding them.

He who wrote the story of the cruise of the Essex which follows here, searched long but vainly for some clew to the fate of his brave cousin; in fact, after leaving the United States Navy it was his lifework to discover the fate of that brave lieutenant who was the only officer uninjured on board the Essex after that unequal conquest was cowardly forced upon her by Captain Hillyar of the Phœbe, whose vessel and life had once been spared by Captain Porter.