As the wind baffled and continued light, the enemy still persevered in the chase, but at daylight the nearest vessel was hull down astern and to leeward. Under the circumstances it was deemed prudent to use every exertion to lose sight of the English frigates; and the wind falling light, the Constitution's sails were wet down from the skysails to the courses. The good effects of this care were soon visible, as at six A.M. the topsails of the enemy's nearest vessels were beginning to dip. At a quarter past eight, the English ships all hauled to the northward and eastward, fully satisfied, by a trial that had lasted nearly three days and as many nights, under all the circumstances that can attend naval manoeuvres, from reefed topsails to kedging, that they had no hope of overtaking their enemy.

The chase off New-York brought the Constitution largely before the public mind. It is true that this exploit was not one of a character to excite the same feeling as a successful combat; but men saw that the ships and crews that could achieve such an escape from a British squadron, must both of them have the right stuff for a glorious marine. Among the other amiable political misrepresentations of that day, it had been boldly asserted in the opposition prints, that the ship had gone to sea without the necessary supply of powder; and the assertion had been so audaciously and perseveringly made, as is most apt to be the case, with this class of moralists, who usually make up the deficiencies in their facts by the vigor of their assertions, that the public had been more than half disposed to anticipate some early disaster to this particular vessel, when the news arrived of her successful struggle with the only collected force the enemy then possessed in the American seas.

It was the good fortune of Old Ironsides to destroy two of the illusions of that portion of the people of this country, which had faith in English superiority in all things, then a numerous and devout class of believers, by first demonstrating that a Yankee man-of-war could get away from her enemy when there was occasion for the attempt, and that she could deal roughly with him, when the motive for avoiding an action did not exist.

It is worthy of remark that the English abandoned the chase of the Constitution, at eight in the morning, and that at half past eight the busy old craft seeing a stranger on her starboard bow, made sail in chase, to ascertain her character. The vessel proved to be an American brig. At ten, another vessel was chased and brought to, which also proved to be an American. At noon of the same day, having no further use for it, the boarding cutter was hoisted up, and the ship stood to the eastward, going into Boston a few days later, or near the close of the month.

Hull remained a very short time at Boston. It was the intention of the department to remove him from his ship, in order to give him the Constellation, in exchange with Bainbridge, the latter ranking him; and it has been sometimes imagined, that he was resolved to get another cruise out of his old craft, ere he was compelled to give her up. It is now known that Capt. Hull's orders had gone to New-York, to which place he had been ordered, and that he did not get them before he sailed a second time. The order to relinquish the ship to Bainbridge must have been issued at Washington, just after Hull reached Boston, and the receipt of his report of the chase was dated the very next day. This last letter was dated July 29th, and closed with these words “Remain at Boston until further orders.” Luckily, Hull did not get this letter until he returned from his second cruise, sailing again on the 2d August.

The Constitution now stood along the coast to the eastward, as far as the Bay of Fundy, and thence off Cape Sable and Halifax, meeting with nothing. Passing near the Isle of Sables, she next went to the mouth of the St. Lawrence, where she made two captures of little value. On the 15th she chased a sloop of war with four merchant-men in company. The chases separated, one of them, a prize, being abandoned and set fire to. The sloop of war being to windward, the Constitution followed a ship, which proved to be an Englishman, with an American privateer prize-crew on board, that the sloop of war had brought to but had not taken possession of, in consequence of the appearance of the frigate. Another of the vessels was overhauled and recaptured, being an American, with an English prize-crew on board her. Mr. Madison6 was put in charge of this vessel. After this little success, the Constitution stood to the southward and eastward, seeing nothing of any moment, until the 19th, when she made a suspicious sail from the mast-head, a long way to leeward. This was on the 19th, the frigate then being in N. Lat. 41 deg, 41', and W. Long. 55 deg, 48', or less than 700 miles nearly east of Cape Cod. Having looked for his enemy in the vicinity of Halifax, without success, Hull was now [598] on his way to go off Bermuda, with a similar purpose, when he fell in with this vessel.