to persevere in their resistance. After the action was over, he gave up both his cabins to the wounded; and, following their captain's example, the officers gave up their cots for the same humane purpose. Had the daylight and calm continued two hours longer, the Africa must either have sunk or surrendered. As it was, her disabled state sent the ship back to Carlscrona to refit. One salutary effect of the restriction imposed by Great Britain on neutral commerce was, that it obliged France to carry on, in the best manner she could, her own trade with her colonies. Hence the frigates and corvettes, of the latter power, instead of, when they got to sea, roaming about the ocean to capture or destroy the merchant vessels of the former, ran straight for Guadaloupe or Martinique, deeply laden with troops, ordnancestores, and provisions, and, in consequence, were less likely to escape from a chasing force.

On the 11th of August, at 8 h. 30 m. A. M., latitude 45° 58' north, longitude 5° 4' west, the British 18-gun ship-sloop Comet, Captain Cuthbert Featherstone Daly, observed three strangers in the north-north-east. These were a small French squadron, which had sailed from Lorient on the 9th, bound to Martinique with a supply of flour for the colony, and consisted of the 18-gun ship-corvette Diligente, Captain Jean-François Lemaresquier, and 16-gun brig-corvettes Espiégle and Sylphe, Captains Joseph François-Léon Maujouen and Louis-Marie Clément, all armed, we believe, with French 24-pounder carronades, and long sixes for bow-chasers.

At 9 A. M. the Comet, having approached nearer to the strangers, made them out to be three enemy's corvettes; and, considering it likely that if he altered his course they would chase and overpower him by their united superiority, Captain Daly boldly stood on. Whether alarmed by the frigate-built appearance of the Comet, or that he considered himself bound by his orders to hasten to his destination, the French commodore tacked from the Comet, and, with his two consorts, made all sail to the north-north-east. At noon the Diligente, having much outsailed the two brigs, tacked again and stood to the southward.

Feeling no hesitation about attacking the two brigs, Captain Daly made all sail in chase of them. At 3 h. 30 m, P.M. the Espiégle, which was the headmost brig, tacked, and passed to windward of the Comet at the distance of about two gunshots. At 5 P.M. the Sylphe, in pursuit of which the Comet continued, hoisted French colours and commenced firing her stern-chasers. At 5 h. 20 m. P. M., having got within pistol-shot of her, the Comet opened her fire; and at the expiration of 20 minutes, being much disabled, and having, out of her crew of 98 men and boys, lost one midshipman and five men killed, and two midshipmen and three men wounded, the Sylphe hauled down her colours.

In this very gallant affair on the part of Captain Daly, the

Comet had not a man hurt; but her main and maintop masts were badly wounded, and her sails and rigging cut. The Sylphe a fine brig of 343 tons, was afterwards added to the British navy under the name of Seagull. Lieutenant James Tomkinson, first of the Comet, was much commended by Captain Daly in his official letter, and became a commander, as the lists inform us, in March, 1810. To the additional credit of the crew of the Comet on this occasion, they consisted chiefly of newly-raised men.

The Espiégle afterwards succeeded in joining her remaining consort, and the two vessels proceeded in company to the westward. On the 16th, however, they were fallen in with by the British 38-gun frigate Sibylle, Captain Clotworthy Upton. After a chase of some continuance, the Diligente by her good sailing escaped; but the Espiégle was captured, and, under the name of Electra, became added to the British navy.

Proceeding alone to her destination, the Diligente met no further obstruction until the 6th of September, in latitude 17° 50' north, longitude from Greenwich 58° 20′ west. On this day, at 6 A. M., the British 18-gun brig-sloop Recruit, Captain Charles Napier, standing close hauled on the starboard tack with the wind from the east by north, discovered the Diligente in the north-east, going free on the larboard tack, or in the direction of the island of Martinique. The Recruit immediately tacked, and made all sail in chase; and at 7 h. 30 m. A. M. fired two shot at the strange ship, and hoisted her colours. At 8 h. 15 m. A. M. the Diligente tacked to preserve the weathergage, and in less than a quarter of an hour afterwards hoisted a French ensign and pendant.

At 8 h. 30 m. A. M. the two vessels, the Recruit on the larboard, and the Diligente on the starboard tack, passed each other within pistol-shot, and exchanged broadsides. On this occasion Captain Napier was wounded, but not, we believe, so as to oblige him to quit the deck. At 8 h. 40 m. both vessels, having passed out of gun-shot, tacked, and again exchanged broadsides. The Diligente then wore, with the intention of raking the Recruit astern; but the brig wore also, and brought her antagonist to close action with the larboard guns. At 9 h. 20 m. A.M. the second lieutenant (Moses De Willetts) was wounded. In this way, broadside to broadside, the action continued until 11 h. 30 m. A. M.; when the Recruit had her mainmast shot away. While this lay over the stern the brig continued the action with her foremost guns, and made several attempts to board her antagonist; but the Diligente every time sheered off. The French ship then backed her mizen topsail, and, shooting up under the brig's stern, raked her. As the Diligente stood along her starboard beam, the Recruit returned this fire; but the Diligente reserved her next broadside, until, bearing up athwart the bows of her disabled antagonist, she

was enabled to bestow it with more effect. The Diligente then stood along the brig's larboard beam, with the intention probably of running round her a second time; but a well-directed fire from the Recruit blew up a part of the ship's quarter, and cut away her stern-boat filled with small-arm men. Immediately on this the Diligente put her helm up, and ran away before the wind.

The Recruit quickly set about clearing the wreck, refitting her rigging, rebreeching and remounting her carronades, many of which had upset, and preparing herself to renew the action with the French ship; who then lay upon her lee beam repairing her damages. At 2 P. M., having got ready to engage, the Recruit bore up to close; but the Diligente, setting courses, topsails, and topgallantsails, hauled to the wind on the starboard tack. At 4 P.M. the Recruit got up a jury mainmast and set a royal upon it, and hoisting her fore topsail, endeavoured again to close; but every effort was in vain, and by 7 h. 30 m. P. M. the Diligente had run herself completely out of sight.

Notwithstanding the very serious nature of her damages, the Recruit does not appear to have had more than one man killed, and a few, besides the captain and second lieutenant, wounded. The brig was of course obliged to make the best of her way into port to get a new mainmast, and on the 10th she anchored in Carlisle bay, Barbadoes. The extent of the loss which the Diligente sustained has not been made public; but we must suppose it to have been very heavy, to excuse Captain Lemaresquier for having abandoned the action after he had knocked away his antagonist's mainmast. He, indeed, takes care to assign a sufficient reason for his retreat; no less than that several enemy's vessels were in sight, although not a sail of any kind, except the Diligente herself, could be discovered from the Recruit. His opponent the French captain takes to have been "le Curieux, de 20 carronades de 32,"* and says: "Ce dernier a été totalement désemparé, et n'a échappé que parce que la Diligente, ayant une mission importante et voyant plusieurs bâtimens ennemis, n'a pas dû s'exposer en poursuivant son avantage, à ne voir couper le chemin de sa destination." This destination the Diligente reached in safety, and, at the surrender of Martinique a few months afterwards, was one of the few French national vessels that fell into the hands of the conquerors. The Diligente was a ship of 371 tons, and became added to the British navy by the name of St.-Pierre, the port in which she was found by her captors.

On the 29th of September, at 6 A. M., Pointe Antigua, island of Guadaloupe, bearing south-west, the British gun-brig Maria, of twelve 12-pounder carronades and two long fours, with 65

* See vol. iv., p. 347. The brig was at this time lying at an anchor in the harbour of Halifax, Nova-Scotia.

men and boys, commanded by Lieutenant James Bennett, saw and chased a sail bearing south-east by south, in the hope to cut her off from the land, towards which the vessel, supposed to be a French letter of marque, was then steering. Instead, however, of being a letter of marque, the stranger was the ship-corvette Département-des-Landes, now mounting 16 carronades, 24pounders, and four long 8-pounders* on the main deck, and two brass 6-pounders on the quarterdeck, besides a large swivel on the forecastle, with a crew of at least 160 men and boys, commanded by Captain Joseph-François Raoul.

Just as the Maria had got within gun-shot of her opponent, a flaw of wind from the land took the brig aback. The weather almost immediately afterwards fell dead calm, and the Maria, in consequence, lay with her stern exposed to the broadside of the corvette; who, hoisting her ensign and pendant and raising her ports, poured into the British brig a most destructive raking fire. Before the Maria could get her sweeps to act, the Département-des-Landes was enabled to give her a second broadside; and, when the brig did sweep herself round, her fire was too insignificant to be of much avail, while the effect of that of her opponent was soon visible in the shattered state of the Maria's masts, yards, rigging, and hull. Owing to the latter's ensign-halyards having been shot away, her colours came down. On this the French captain asked if she had struck. Lieutenant Bennett replied "No." Presently afterwards this gallant officer received three grape shots into his body, and fell dead beneath the colours which he had rehoisted.

The action was still maintained with spirit, for several minutes, by the master, Mr. Joseph Dyason; when the Maria, being in a sinking state, and having lost, besides her captain, one midshipman (Robert O'Donnel) and four seamen killed and nine wounded, surrendered. One or two men slightly wounded appears to have been the extent of the loss sustained by the French corvette; and, considering the unmanageable state of her opponent at the commencement of the action, and her very inferior force, that was as much as could be expected. Scarcely had the Département-des-Landes taken possession of the Maria and removed the prisoners, than the prize-crew were compelled to run the vessel on shore to prevent her from sinking under them. Nothing could better testify the gallantry with which the Maria had been defended, and that against a ship in every respect but gallantry so decidedly her superior.

Mr. Dyason, who writes the official letter to Sir Alexander Cochrane, calls, or by the Gazette is made to call, his opponent, "le Sards." As the Département-de-la Manche French frigate was mostly, for shortness, called Manche;+ so the Départementdes-Landes, we have no doubt, was named by her officers and

For her armament in 1805, see vol. iv., p. 139. † See vol. iv., p. 337.

crew "les Landes." This accounts pretty well for the name given to the corvette in Mr. Dyason's letter; and our contemporary, having no better guide, is excusable for adopting the same name, or rather "le Sarde," a word, by the by, as here spelt, not French. But how happens Captain Brenton to call the Maria's opponent a "brig of war,"* when Mr. Dyason and Sir Alexander Cochrane had both officially stated that she was a ship? We know, too, from the French Captain's account, that she was the Département-des-Landes. This very corvette, it will be recollected, was one of Captain Mudge's "two frigates; and, if any person was justified in applying that term to the French ship, it was the officer who lay alongside of her in a brig of 172 tons. Nowhere, however, in Mr. Dyason's letter, nor in Sir Alexander Cochrane's, does the word "frigate" appear.

After carrying his prize into Martinique, Captain Raoul sailed again on his voyage to France. On the 9th of November, in latitude 21° north, longitude (from Paris) 64° west, the Département-des-Landes, according to the French accounts, fell in with an English brig of war, "carrying 32-pounder carronades, and, after an action of two hours, dismasted and would have taken the brig, but for the appearance of " two British frigates" advancing to her relief. Captain Raoul states his loss on this occasion at only two men killed and a few wounded. Although we have searched the logs of six or seven of the 18-gun brigs at this time cruising in the West Indies, we have not been so successful as to discover the brig engaged by the Départementdes-Landes. There were, however, three or four brig-sloops with 24-pounder carronades, and some gun-brigs with only 18pounders, stationed off the French islands. Having escaped from the two British frigates, the Département-des-Landes hastened towards Europe, and on the 8th of December was fortunate enough to reach the river of Bordeaux.

On the 10th of November, at 6 h. 42 m. P. M., while the British 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Amethyst, Captain Michael Seymour, with the wind at east-north-east, was standing from the north-west point of the island of Groix towards the main land of France, a battery at Larmour fired several shot apparently at her. In three or four minutes afterwards a sail was observed astern, running about west by south. The Amethyst immediately wore in chase, and presently fired two muskets to bring to the strange vessel, now discovered to be a large ship. The latter was, in fact, the French 40-gun frigate Thétis, Captain Jacques Pinsum, from Lorient bound to Martinique, with troops and 1000 barrels of flour, besides other stores. It was therefore the object of the Thétis to pursue her course, and she did so under all sail. We may here mention, that it was at this ship that the French battery had fired, not having received notice of her intended departure.

* Brenton, vol. iv., p. 272. VOL. V.

G

See vol. iv., p. 144.