foot-warmer. I drew it to me rather unceremoniously, at which she remarked that I ‘ought to feel myself highly complimented, and should not be offended.’ To which I replied, ‘Madame, it might be so considered in your country, but not in mine.’ ”
In the spring of 1819 Farragut made another cruise in the Mediterranean, and was made acting lieutenant on the brig “Shark.” In 1820 he was ordered home for his examination, and sailed in a merchantman. On the voyage they were sighted and chased by a Colombian war vessel, which the frightened captain supposed to be a pirate. Farragut therefore took command of the ship, mustered the crew, and prepared for resistance. When a small boat from the man-of-war came alongside, he had a grindstone and a barrel of tar ready to drop into it and sink it if they should prove to be pirates. He passed his examination, but not well enough to satisfy himself, and went to Norfolk, Va., where he fell in love with Miss Susan C., daughter of Jordan Marchant, whom he married three years later.
In May, 1822, he was ordered to sea in the sloop-of-war “John Adams,” which conveyed the newly appointed U. S. representatives to Mexico and Guatemala. On this cruise he met Gen. Santa Aña (afterward president of Mexico) at Vera Cruz, and made his first acquaintance with the Gulf where his fame was to be won forty years later. After his return he obtained orders to sail in the schooner “Greyhound,” of Com. Porter's fleet, which was preparing for a cruise against freebooters of the West Indies. They had numerous encounters with the pirates, and on one occasion Farragut was sent ashore at the Isle of Pines, in command of a detachment who, after making their way through swamps and thick chaparral, found the caves and concealed houses of the robbers, drove them out, and set fire to everything that would burn. Soon afterward Farragut was made executive officer of Porter's flag-ship, the “Seagull,” which made a cruise to examine the reefs and shoals of the Gulf. In a subsequent cruise he obtained leave of absence and went to visit his friends in New Orleans, taking passage in a vessel that was carrying thither the first load of bricks for the construction of Fort Jackson, with which Farragut fought his first battle in the civil war. In July, 1823, he was assigned to the command of the “Ferret,” which convoyed merchantmen through the Gulf, to protect them from pirates. He had many cases of yellow fever on board, and treated them himself, the only death being that of a midshipman who refused his prescription because he was not a physician. He himself took the fever on his homeward voyage, and on his arrival was sent to the hospital in Washington, where he remained until his recovery.
In 1825 he was commissioned lieutenant, and ordered to the frigate “Brandywine,” Capt. Charles Morris, which in September carried Lafayette home to France, and after that made a cruise in the Mediterranean. On his return home in May, 1826, Farragut took his wife to New Haven, Conn., to be treated for neuralgia, and remained there four months, attending the lectures of the Yale professors. Those of Prof. Silliman especially interested him. After this he spent two years at Norfolk, Va. He was an accomplished cook, and prepared all the food for his invalid wife, and personally took a large part of the care of her. At the same time he established a successful school for boys on the receiving-ship “Alert.” When Samuel L. Southard, secretary of the navy, inspected this school, he gave it what Farragut calls “one of the few, the very few, compliments I ever received from the navy department or its head.”
In October, 1828, he was ordered to the new sloop-of-war “Vandalia,” which in December sailed for the Brazil station. The squadron went to Buenos Ayres, and was there when Rosas became dictator. In the autumn of 1829 it returned to Rio de Janeiro, where Farragut witnessed the marriage of the Emperor Dom Pedro I., and was presented at court. In December an affection of the eyes, which had long troubled him, compelled him to ask for leave of absence, and he went home in a merchantman, which on the way was chased by a pirate. Farragut found four carronades and twenty-four pounds of powder on board, mounted the guns, and got everything ready for a vigorous defence; but the merchantman outsailed her pursuer. In December, 1832, he was ordered to the “Natchez,” which in January, 1833, sailed for Charleston harbor, where she remained until the nullification troubles were over. The vessel was next ordered to the Brazil station. Of Farragut's qualities as executive officer at this time, one of those that sailed with him wrote: “Never was the crew of a man-of-war better disciplined or more contented and happy. The moment all hands were called, and Farragut took the trumpet, every man under him was alive and eager for duty. I remember well one occasion when he took the ‘Natchez’ out of the harbor of Rio, which at the entrance is quite narrow, against a head wind, by a manœuvre termed ‘box-hauling.’ There were several men-of-war in port, English and French, whose officers and crews were watching us closely. Many declared that the manœuvre could not be successfully accomplished, but it was done splendidly, without a balk or failure, and I shall remember to my dying day the glow of pride and satisfaction which we all felt.” In March, 1834, he took command of the schooner “Boxer,” which he thoroughly overhauled and repaired in the harbor of Rio. The “Boxer” was ordered home in the summer, and for four years the lieutenant was in Norfolk and Washington, serving on courts-martial, waiting for sailing orders, and taking care of his wife, who died in 1840. In August, 1838, he was given command of the sloop “Erie,” and ordered to Tampico, because of the prospect of war between France and Mexico. There he made minute observations of all the military and naval movements, particularly the bombardment of the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, and gave his conclusions in a long letter to Com. Barron, in which he wrote: “ If we who wander about the world do not keep those at home informed of the daily improvements in other navies, how can we hope to improve, particularly when we see men impressed with the idea that, because they once gained a victory, they can do it again? So they may; but I can tell them it must be with the means of 1838 and not those of 1812.”
He now spent two years more at home, serving on courts-martial and learning the carpenter's trade, till the spring of 1841, when he became executive officer of the “Delaware,” and in September he received his commission as commander. He sailed once more for South American waters, and in June, 1842, received command of the “Decatur.” He took every opportunity to travel in the countries whose ports he visited, and became specially familiar with South American affairs. The cruise ended in Norfolk harbor in February, 1843. There, in December of that year, he married Virginia, eldest daughter of William Loyall, a woman of superior character and cultivation, and no little literary ability, who survived him fourteen years. In April, 1844, he became executive officer of the “Pennsylvania,” and at the beginning of the Mexican war in
