In early December 1812, Capt. James Lawrence of Burlington, in command of the sloop of war Hornet, and Commodore William Bainbridge of Princeton, commanding the frigate Constitution, were sailing off the coast of Brazil in search of British ships. With England’s trade with the European continent cut off by Napoleon, the island nation was dependent on imports especially from the West Indies and South America, and it was this weakness the Americans planned to attack.

Bainbridge and Lawrence had left Boston on Oct. 26 after Bainbridge had sent instructions to Capt.