"Return, my lads, the fight renew!"—
So call'd bold Pearson to his crew;
But call'd, alas! in vain;
Some on the decks lay maim'd and dead;
Some to their deep recesses fled,
And hosts were shrouded in the main.
Distress'd, forsaken, and alone,
He haul'd his tatter'd standard down,
And yielded to his gallant foe;
[Bold Pallas soon the Countess took],—
Thus both their haughty colors struck,
Confessing what the brave can do.
But, Jones, too dearly didst thou buy
These ships possest so gloriously,
Too many deaths disgrac'd the fray:
Thy barque that bore the conquering flame,
That the proud Briton overcame,
Even she forsook thee on thy way;
For when the morn began to shine,
Fatal to her, the ocean brine
Pour'd through each spacious wound;
Quick in the deep she disappear'd;
But Jones to friendly Belgia steer'd,
With conquest and with glory crown'd.
Go on, great man, to scourge the foe,
And bid these haughty Britons know
They to our Thirteen Stars shall bend;
Those Stars that, veil'd in dark attire,
Long glimmer'd with a feeble fire,
But radiant now ascend.
Bend to the Stars that flaming rise
In western, not in eastern, skies,
Fair Freedom's reign restored—
So when the Magi, come from far,
Beheld the God-attending Star,
They trembled and ador'd.
Philip Freneau.
Another remarkable action was that between the Hyder Ali and the General Monk. The latter, a cruiser mounting twenty nine-pounders, had been harassing the American shipping in Delaware Bay, and the merchants of Philadelphia finally equipped the Hyder Ali, an old merchantman, with sixteen six-pounders, put Joshua Barney in command and started him after the British ship.
BARNEY'S INVITATION
[April, 1782]