to burn the mills belonging to Mr. A. Clark.They were opposed by a few patriots from the Florida shore, when the boats tacked about to retreat; at this moment, about 30 men attacked them from an ambush on the opposite shore.The enemy was thus placed between two fires, which continued to gall him until he reached a part of the river, where, by keeping the centre, he was beyond the reach of the fire from both shores. The enemy lost upwards of 100 men. The Americans had only one man wounded.

The U. S. ship President, Com. Decatur, sailed on a cruise from New-York, the 14th January, 1815. The ship, in going over the bar, grounded, and suffered so much in consequence, as evidently to affect her sailing; and was the cause of her subsequent capture, by a superior force of the enemy. At 5, A. M. on the 45th, the President fell in with the enemy's squadron, consisting of the Majestic, razee; Endymion, Pomone, Tenedos, and Despatch brig.. The injury done to the President, when she grounded off the Hook, prevented her outsailing the enemy's fleet. The Endymion (mounting fifty guns, 24 pounders, on the main deck) having approached within gun-shot, commenced a firing at 5, P. M. more with a view to delay than to try strength with the President. The latter, however, was enabled to bring her guns so far to bear, as to silence the Endymion, and to put her, by 8 o'clock, fully out of combat, so much crippled, that she could, with great difficulty, be worked, or kept afloat. The near approach of the other ships, obliged the President to abandon a vessel, that must, if not supported by her consorts, have surrendered. The Pomone and Tenedos, came up and engaged the President at

the same time, the Majestic being also within gun-shot. It being useless and imprudent to engage so overpowering a force, Com. Decatur struck his flag, and went on board the Majestic, where he delivered his sword to Capt. Hays, the senior officer of the squadron, who politely returned it. The written parole granted to Com. Decatur, specified his having surrendered the President to a British squadron; thus silencing those who wished to have it understood, that the Commodore struck his flag to a single ship. The prize money, arising from the capture of the President, was divided among the crews of the squadron, by which she was captured.

The loss on board the enemy could not be ascertained; that of the President consisted of 24 kiiied, and 50 wounded. Among the killed, were Lieutenants Babbit, Hamilton, and Howell.

Commodore Decatur, in his official report, wrote that a considerable number of his killed and wounded was from the fire of the Pomone; and that the Endymion had on board, in addition to her own crew, 1 lieutenant, 1 master's mate, and 50 seamen, belonging to the Saturn; and when the action ceased, was left motionless and unmanageable, until she bent new sails, rove new rigging, and fished her spars; nor did she join the squadron until six hours after the action, and three hours after the surrender of the President."

The U. S. frigate Constitution, Capt. Stewart, sailed from Boston, in December, 1814. When off Madeira, on the evening of the 20th Febru· ary, 1815, she fell in with his Britannic majesty's ships Cyane and Levant, which she captured, after an action of 40 minutes.

The Cyane is a frigate built ship, mounting carriage guns, viz. 22 32-pound carronades on the gun-deck, 8 18-pound carronades on the quarter-deck, 2 18-pound carronades, and 2 long 9's, on the forecastle, with a complement of 180 men. The Levant mounted 21 carriageguns, viz. 18 32-pound carronades, 2 long 9's, and a shifting 12-pounder, on the top-gallant forecastle, with a complement of 156 men. The enemy's vessels suffered severely in spars, rigging, and sails. The Constitution received little injury, having but 4 men killed, and 10 wounded. The Cyane had 7 killed, and 17 wounded; the Leyant, 9 killed, and 17 wounded. On the 12th March, the Constitution and her prizes, fell in with three British frigates. The frigates kept together, in chase of the Constitu- ' tion, lest, by separating they might be captured in succession. The Constitution outsailed and escaped the enemy's squadron; the Cyane arrived at New-York; and the Levant was attacked and taken by the British squadron, in the harbour of Porto Praya, in the Island of St. Jago, in violation of the neutrality of the port, and contrary to the laws of nations. The Constitution arrived safely in the United States.

On the 19th July, 1813, the U. S. brig of war Syren, of 16 guns, was captured after a chase of 11 hours, by his Britannic majesty's frigate Medway. During the chase the Syren threw overboard all her guns, boats, anchors, cables, and spars.

On the 25th May, 1815, the President of the United States informed Congress, that his majesty the Emperor of Russia, had offered his mediation, in order to facilitate a peace between. Great-Britain and the United States, that the

offer was accepted by the President, and that three citizens had been commissioned to treat accordingly.

On the meeting of Congress in December following, the President, in his message to both houses, informed them, that Great-Britain had declined negotiating under the mediation of Russia.

Notwithstanding this refusal of the British government, to accept the Russian mediation, the British ambassador, at the court of St. Petersburg, directed a letter, in September, to the Russian government, intimating a desire to treat immediately with the American plenipotentiaries.

Lord Castlereagh, secretary of state to his Britannic majesty, enclosed a copy of the above note in a letter of the 4th November, to the secretary of state of the United States, at the city of Washington, proposing that the two governments would enter into direct negotiation, for a termination of the war, on terms that would be mutually advantageous; and that the negotiations would be entered into at Gottenburg or London. The proposition was promptly acceded to by the American governmeut, fixing on Gottenburg as the place of negotiation.

The senate confirmed, on the 19th January, 1814, the nomination, by the President, of John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, and Jonathan Russell, as ministers to treat for peace with British commissioners at Gottenburg. It was afterward agreed, that the treaty should be held at Ghent.

So indecisive and equivocating was the con-duct of British ministers, that many persons doubted whether any commissioners would be

appointed on the part of Britain; and, when appointed, it was pretty generally believed that the appointment was merely pro forma, without any intention to agree to reasonable terms of peace.

The British government appointed, as their commissioners, Lord Gambier, Henry Goulburn, Esq. and William Adams, Esq. These personages arrived at Ghent the 6th August.

At the first meeting with the American commissioners, terms were offered on the part of England, so degrading and offensive to the United States, that it was impossible to accept them; and, as some of them were offered in the form of a sine qua non, there remained not a hope of a speedy negotiation of hostilities.

The news, when arrived in the United States, roused at once the pride and the energy of the nation; and produced an union of sentiment, that presaged future glory and success.

It was now evident, that the negotiations at Ghent, hung on those then pending before a congress of the ministers of several potentates, assembled at Vienna, for settling a general peace in Europe.

It is easy to conceive, that the task to be performed by the congress at Vienna, was difficult. Wrapped up in state secrecy, and influenced by state intrigues, the course of negotiation at Vienna, was, in a great degree, withheld from the public eye. The continued armaments of European powers, and the military parade with which the Duke of Wellington appeared in Belgium, even before the Emperor of Elba ceased to be a pensioner of Louis XVIII, led to the suspicion, that the rights of European sovereigns must be settled by a new effusion of the blood of their subjects.

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