Daily National Intelligencer

Extract of a letter from Lieut. DAYTON, late of the U. States brig Vixen, to his friend in this city, dated Philadelphia, 11th May, 1813.

"We arrived in the Delaware on the evening of the 1st inst. in the Rebecca Sims; the Delaware being blockaded by his B. Majesty's ship Pictou, the Rebecca Sims was ordered to N. York; the officers and part of the Vixen's crew, which was in the ship, were taken on board the Pictou and detained as hostages for officers and men of the Pictou who were taken in some of her boats. I went to Philadelphia got her officers and men, took them down in a flag of truce, when they were exchanged for the Vixen's. The Commodore detained Mr. Stevens, Carpenter and Thomas King as British subjects."

The Vixen, it will be recollected, was captured in November last by the British frigate Southampton, Captain Yeo. Both vessels were wrecked shortly afterwards on the desert island of Conception; at which time most of the crew of the Southampton throwing off the control of their officers, refused to do duty. On this occasion the intrepid exertions of our brave tars, aided by their officers, were chiefly instrumental in saving the movable property on board the frigate. So sensible was Sir James Yeo of the generous conduct of the American sailors, that he drew them up on the island, and publicly thanked them in the warmest terms. The crews of both vessels were afterwards taken off the island by the brig Rhodian and carried to Jamaica, from whence part of the crew of the Southampton were sent to England to be tried for mutiny, and that of the Vixen thrown into confinement, where they remained until the first of April, when a part were liberated on their parole, and were proceeding home at the time of their unjust arrest by Capt. Beresford. We mention the above circumstances as well to do justice to the generosity of our gallant seamen, as to shew the absence of this virtue in our enemy. Mr. Stevens and Thomas King, the former a warrant and the latter a petty officer of the United States Navy, and both of them American citizens, are detained by the commander of the Pictou on the charge of their being British subjects.