Chapter XXIII

The following, copied from the _Northern Whig_ of December 3d, 1822, is a correct account of the capture of the piratical vessels by Lieutenant Commandant Allen, who lost his life during the engagement:

"It becomes our painful duty to record the death of Lieutenant
William Howard Allen, of the United States Navy. He commanded
the United States Schooner Alligator, and on the 11th of
November last, while leading his brave tars in the Alligator's
boats to attack a nest of pirates near Matanzas, was shot by
them in the head and breast, and survived but four hours.
Undaunted, even in death, he cheered his men, and had the
consolation of witnessing the surrender of one of the piratical
vessels, and the re-capture of five merchantmen before he
expired. He was buried on the succeeding day at Matanzas, with
military honors.

"Lieutenant Allen was a native of this city, (Hudson,) was born
on the 8th of July, 1790, entered the navy in the 20th year of
his age. He was Second Lieutenant on board the Argus, in the
summer of 1813, and during the bloody conflict between the
Argus and the Pelican, the command of the former devolved for a
time upon him. W. H. Watson, the First Lieutenant of the Argus,
a brave and worthy officer, speaks of his conduct in high and
merited terms. He was also in the Congress Frigate during her
cruise in the Chinese Seas.

"He was attached to his profession, courted glory, and feared
no danger. In the last war he saw much service; and whether in
war or peace, never failed to do his duty.

"We shall conclude our brief observations with the following
remarks, which have been kindly furnished us at the particular
request of a number of the friends of Lieutenant Allen, and
which were the conclusion of a discourse delivered from the
pulpit, by the Reverend B. F. Stanton, on the Sunday succeeding
the day on which the afflictive news of the death alluded to
arrived here.

"After a reference had been made to the frequent instances in
which, for a few years past, the inhabitants of Hudson have
been suddenly and unexpectedly deprived of some of their most
respected and valued fellow citizens, it was observed, that, in
addition to all the previous calamities of the nature which we
had experienced, we have recently been called upon by the
righteous Providence of Him whose 'path is in the great deep,
and whose footsteps are not known,' to contemplate another,
which, in some of its features, perhaps, is the heaviest of
all. I shall undoubtedly be readily understood, by most of my
hearers, to refer to the tidings which have lately reached us
of the lamented death of Lieutenant William H. Allen, a native
of this town, and an officer in the United States Navy.

"It is not any design on this occasion to attempt to do justice
to his memory by pronouncing his eulogy. This will probably be
done by abler pens and more eloquent tongues. My aim at present
is merely to advert to a few of the leading traits in his
character, and to call on those who hear me to listen to the
monitory voice of Heaven which addresses us in this afflictive
dispensation. As a son he was filial, as a brother he was kind
and affectionate, as a gentleman he was amiable and
accomplished in his manners, as a friend he was trusty and
sincere, as a man he was humane and generous: he had a soul
that was indignant at meanness and vice! In his morals, I
believe, he was free from those defilements which are too often
known to tarnish the reputation of those in his profession, and
to which they are so peculiarly liable: In his religious
sentiments, if I am not mistaken, he was a candid believer in
divine revelation: As a lover of his country, he was ardent and
ever eager, when summoned by her call, to be foremost in her
defence; and as an officer he was active, faithful, skilful,
and courageous. In the engagement that terminated his naval
career, he occupied a post most pregnant with danger, and
though mortally wounded in the early part of it, he still
animated his valiant tars, while the life-blood was fast ebbing
from its seat, to persevere till the victory was gained. By
these encomiums, however, it is not intended that he was
exempted from a participation in that polution of our nature
which is common to every individual of the human family. Though
he was possessed of excellencies which _we_ may be allowed to
admire and applaud; in the sight of infinite purity, like every
other human being, he was a ruined sinner,

"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.]"

After the arrival of the piratical schooner at Norfolk she was condemned and sold to a citizen of that place, who gave her the name of Allen, in remembrance of the brave but unfortunate commander who lost his life in capturing her. Some time after she was purchased by Messrs. H. & D. Cotheal and A. D. Hallett, the former owners of the Price, and I was employed to take the command of her, and proceed to the Island of St. Andreas, and from thence to Chagres.