Hopkins

between Buenos Aires and San Fernando. In
1864 Argentina sent him as consul general to
New York in the hope of obtaining a new line of
steamships between New York and the Plate
River, but the United States government refused
to recognize him. In 1878 in a memorial, The
Extension of the Proposed U. 5\ and Brazil
Steamship-Line, from Rio de Janeiro, to Buenos
Aires, he pointed out the decline of trade be-
tween the United States and South America
owing to the lack of transport facilities and urged
Congress to help the situation by letting a favor-
able contract for carrying the mails. In 1888,
on one of his trips to interest business men in the
economic opportunities of South America, he
made speeches at Chicago, Springfield, Ohio,
and at New York (An Address delivered . . .
before the Chamber of Commerce of the State of
New York at its 120th Annual Meeting, held
May 3,1888, 1888). At the time of his death he
was in Washington as secretary of the Argen-
tine delegation to the intercontinental railroad
commission. On Mar. 24, 1858, he married at
Charleston, S. C, Jeanne Arnaud de la Coste,
who died Oct. 9, 1883, and on Apr. 27, 1888, in
New York, he married Marie Antoinette (de la
Porterie) de Renthel, Marquise de Sainte Croix
Molay.

[Correspondence from members of the family; MS.
autobiographical sketch in the possession of W. Nelson
Smith of Reading, Pa., who also supplied a copy of
Buenos Aires Standard, July 20, ^1864; the archives of
the State Department; biographical details in all the
writings mentioned; C. A. Washburn, The Hist, of
Paraguay (1871), vol. I; Los Angeles Times, June 28,
1891; Washington Post, June n, 1891.] K.E.C.

HOPKINS, ESEK (Apr. 26, ipiS-Feb. 26,
1802), commander-m-chief of the Continental
navy, was bora and grew up on a farm in the
hilly, sparsely settled neighborhood known as
Chopomisk or Chopmist, which was in 1731 set
off from the town of Providence to make the
present town of Scituate, R. I. His parents, Wil-
liam and Ruth (Wilkinson) Hopkins, had nine
children. Like most of his brothers, Esek, too,
began to follow the sea shortly after his father's
death in 1738. On Nov. 28, 1741, he married
Desire Burroughs, the daughter of a well-to-do
ship-master of Newport. To them were born ten
children, the eldest of whom was John Bur-
roughs Hopkins [g.z>.]. At the time of his mar-
riage Esek was a strong, tall, fine-looking man,
energetic, dominant, out-spoken, and aggressive.
Before the Revolution, as a successful sea-cap-
tain, he made trips to every quarter of the globe
and, like many other New England seamen, com-
manded a privateer during the war between
France and Great Britain, in which he brought
home some rich prizes. Between voyages he

Hopkins

took a keen interest in local politics and served
several times as a deputy to the General As-
sembly. About 1772 he abandoned the sea and
retired to his farm in North Providence, but
when, in the spring of 1775, the General As-
sembly of Rhode Island felt it necessary to pro-
tect the coast against the approaching war with
Great Britain he came at once to the front He
was familiar with naval affairs, he was used to
command, and his brother, Stephen Hopkins
[g.v.], formerly governor, was the most promi-
nent figure in Rhode Island. On Oct 4, 1775,
Esek Hopkins was put in charge of all the colo-
ny's military forces with the rank of brigadier-
general. With his customary energy he set about
doing everything possible in the way of hastily
improvising defenses.

At this time the Continental Congress, in
which Stephen Hopkins was an influential mem-
ber of the Marine Committee, decided to organize
a fleet to protect American commerce and on
Dec. 22,1775, confirmed the committee's appoint-
ment of Esek Hopkins as commander-in-chief of
the new navy. In January 1776 he left Provi-
dence for Philadelphia to take charge of his little
fleet of eight small ships, hastily altered to meet
their new requirements. His directions from
Congress were explicit: he was to proceed south-
ward and attack the vessels of the enemy off the
Virginia and Carolina coasts. Unfortunately ice
in the Delaware delayed him a month. At the
end of that time, with conditions altered and
sickness prevalent among his men, he chose to
adopt a different course. He sailed to the Ba-
hamas and attacked the island of New Provi-
dence, where he knew the British had a supply
of ammunition which the colonists sorely needed.
The venture was on the whole successful. New
Providence with its military stores was taken,
and on the return voyage a British armed schoon-
er and a brig were captured. Yet, in an encounter
with the British ship Glasgow in Long Island
Sound, the American vessels received severe
damage and were unable to prevent the enemy's
escape. This failure, due to inexperience and
lack of esprit de corps on the part of the offi-
cers, aroused much adverse criticism which was
the beginning of a growing dissatisfaction. On
reaching port large numbers of the men had to
be dismissed because of illness, and their places
could not be filled The delay in government pay
and the competition of privateers, which offered
higher wages and larger shares of prize money,
made it impossible for Hopkins to man the two
new ships which had been built in Providence.
Meanwhile the fleet of which so much had been
expected was accomplishing nothing. In June

209