northward. Had our guns all cast loose ready for firing, and cruised for the vessel two or three days, when I was informed by the captain of the brig Spy that he had relieved the Flying Fish, and that she had gone north of the equator. I then proceeded to Ambriz; and supposing that the Flying Fish had really gone north, I wrote the following letter to her captain, which I read to Hon. Captain Hastings, and requested him to forward it to Captain Paty :

666

"SIR,-On the morning of the 2d of July, as you approached us, a musket was fired from the brig under your command, which was returned by a similar fire from this vessel.

"I regarded the occurrence as a mistake on your part arising from the obscurity of the night, and supposed that you would avail yourself of the earliest opportunity to explain it.

"Subsequently, as the vessels passed each other, you made no offer of explanation.

"I therefore now call upon you for an apology, explaining the circumstances which led to your exceptionable course toward a national vessel of the United States.'

"Captain Hastings informed me that Captain Paty was cruising but a short distance to the northward, and I could see him myself. He asked me if Commander Paty fired after I did. I told him no; if he had, I would have opened our battery upon him. I then left Captain Hastings and cruised for the Flying Fish several days, and at length fell in with the object of my search. I sent the purser, Mr. Watmough, on board to ask an apology and an explanation, telling him if it were not promptly made, to hand my letter to Commander Paty. The commander, on receiving Mr. W., at once expressed his regrets that he had fired first, and said he would go on board and see Captain Foote, which he did; and in my cabin apologized fully, and stated that as we had accidentally come up in the wind and were going round, he thought we were trying to get clear of him; and, suspecting that we were a slaver, fired to bring us to, and he stopped when we fired. He said all that he could have said, and fully satisfied me that he regretted the affair, and was ready to make any amend in his power; and this, together with our having returned his musket-fire, satisfied me."

September 28, 1850.-"One year ago to-day I was ordered to the command of the Perry. Much has been endured and accomplished. I do not regret having accepted the command; still no one can imagine what

I have been through. In God may my trust be for guidance; and I hope, if it be his will, that on the next anniversary I shall be at home with those I most love."

July 14, 1851.-"Our men, or at least a large part of them, wish to have their grog on account of their bad treatment for hard service and good conduct, and the officers also are in a great state of excitement and indignation. In fact, if we had done nothing we should have fared better. But I am satisfied to go without credit, as I did not act on that principle, but a higher one.

"After staying ten days at Porto Praya, I took the store-keeper aboard, who was almost dead with fever, and sailed for Madeira. I ran through the islands some distance, and went near the wreck of the Yorktown. We beat some six or eight vessels in sailing. I feel jaded, worn out, disheartened, and truly tired, sad, and weary.' Oh, I am glad that nearly forty-five years of my life have passed. God grant that I may be prepared for a better world."

September 17, 1851.-"I feel great relief on the dark blue sea, away from the sultry coast of Africa, its dangerous reefs and pestilential vapors."

October 25, 1851.-"Last night at sunset saw nine islands, one of them one hundred and ten miles distant. The atmosphere was perfectly clear -a rare phenomenon."

December 12, 1851.-"Thus adieu to the coast of Africa. I hope from my heart to realize the goodness of our heavenly Father in directing me thus far in my course of duty. I shall never perhaps in life be called upon to act again so responsible a part on my own judgment."

These extracts might be multiplied. In their groanings and bitter cries they show the man's inmost spirit. They prove him to be jealous of his country's honor, but noble withal

"As the flint bears fire,

Which much enforced shows a hasty spark,

And straight is cold again."

They prove him indomitable in sickness, in weariness, in the incompetence and opposition of subordinates, in every difficulty,

peril, and discouragement. He had a "system," and he carried it out. He had principles, and he stuck to them "off soundings." He might have erred in over-zeal, but never in cowardly laxness. These extracts prove him to be a first-rate seaman and a most energetic commander. They prove, more than all, that his motives were high and unselfish. He loved the reputation of doing a great deed; he was vividly sensible to the fame it brought, but duty was deeper with him than fame; and from the manner in which he ever afterward spoke of and dwelt upon this African service, it was evidently the thing that gave him most pleasure in life. He had done some good. He had aided the cause of humanity. He had "let the oppressed go free." And however the approval of his superiors in rank caused him lively gratification, and however much he enjoyed the public praise which he had deservedly won, he cherished more than all the simple thought that he had done his duty to his Master, and wrought deliverance for his suffering poor.

CHAPTER IX.

LITERARY LABORS.

THE beginning of the year 1852 found Lieutenant Foote at home with his family in New Haven; and for a period of more than four years he remained ashore, being the longest time up to that date that he had spent on land since he had been in the service. It was a time of general inactivity in naval matters, disturbed only by a little breeze now and then on the fishery question, but not enough to produce a serious movement in the way of naval preparation or reform. Congress had an economical fit; there was much talk about reducing the Navy, naval boards and bureaus were cut down, salaries of officers were discussed, and promotion was slow. Under these circumstances the active mind of Foote sought employment in writing, and in lecturing to public bodies upon temperance and kindred themes. His old friend Commodore Smith thus writes to him: "I congratulate you on your success in your lecture. Being perfectly familiar with the subject, your genius had full scope. No doubt while on the way you made good preparation for the meeting; in traveling one has time to charge his battery for the occasion. You could tell the old Jacks how the high officials who legislate for them are disposed to kill King Alcohol." The following is the newspaper report of this, or of a similar lecture:

"Captain A. H. Foote, of the United States Navy, apologized for his lack of preparation for speaking.

"He sketched the character of seamen in the Navy, as affected by various causes under his own observation. He remembered when every seaman was allowed a half-pint of whisky, and he himself proposed the reduc

tion of the allowance to one gill, which was at last effected, and money being paid in place of grog to such as did not draw it, the amount consumed became much reduced. The greatest barrier to the improvement of the moral and spiritual condition of the sailor was intemperance. That sailors would not work without their grog was a great mistake. He had had command in ten vessels of war: for the first six there were no religious services, and they had the 'liquor-rations;' in the remainder they had religious services, and in two of them every man had voluntarily given up his rations of spirits. There were not better organized or more orderly and efficient crews on the ocean. He regretted that while merchantmen were doing away with the grog allowance, our government continues to deal out intoxicating drinks to sailors in its employ, and he called upon the press to present the condition of affairs in the strongest light possible."

The following is also a newspaper report of a lecture he delivered before the American Colonization Society:

Captain Foote of the United States Navy then addressed the audience at length, stating what he knew of Liberia, from having visited it and spent considerable time there and on the coast of Africa. He spoke highly of President Roberts, and said that when he was in Washington the President asked him how President Roberts succeeded; and he was about to say, in reply, as well as any president; but he thought that would institute too direct a comparison, and he therefore said as well as governors generally. The trade of Liberia amounts to half a million annually. No white man is eligible to office there. Iron ore is found at a distance of twenty miles from the coast in abundance, which is malleable without smelting. The climate is healthy for blacks, and the state of morals such that on one occasion, a short time since, while walking home from church in the city of New Haven in company with a gentleman who had spent some time in Liberia, his friend remarked that he knew no place where the Sabbath was so well observed as it was in New Haven, except at Monrovia, in Liberia. He visited President Roberts often, and had seen the whole people in their various avocations, and he was struck with the great change which they exhibit for the better. There is no person whom he would more cordially welcome to his hospitality and home than President Roberts. He spoke of the interest Great Britain had taken in the colony, and of the fact that its independence has been acknowledged by her as well as by France, Prussia, and Brazil, while we refuse still to ac