This done, Captains Brisbane and Lydiard pulled straight for the shore, and, landing together, proceeded, at 7 h. 30 m. A.M., to storm Fort Amsterdam. The vigour of the assault was irresistible. Some of the British breaking open the sea-gate with their crowbars, while others escaladed the walls, the fort, although garrisoned by 275 regular troops, was carried in about ten minutes; as, shortly afterwards, and with equal quickness and facility, were one or two minor forts, the citadel, and the town. On the return of Captains Brisbane and Lydiard to their respective ships, a fire was opened upon Fort République, which fire the fort might have silenced in half an hour; and 300 seamen and marines were landed to attack it in the rear, which service they would have found a very difficult one to execute. By 10 A.M., however, or a little after, the British flag waved on the walls of Fort République; and, by noon, the whole island of Curaçoa had capitulated to the British arms.

This unparalleled morning's work was achieved with no greater loss to the British than two seamen killed and five wounded belonging to the Arethusa, one killed and two wounded belonging to the Latona, and seven wounded belonging to the Anson; total, three killed and 14 wounded; and the only spar shot or carried away was the spritsail-yard of the Arethusa. The loss on the part of the Dutch was much more severe. The Halstaar had her captain and two petty-officers killed, and three others badly wounded; the Surinam, one seaman killed, her commander (dangerously), one lieutenant, one midshipman, and one seaman wounded; and the schooner Flying Fish (ViligendeVis) one killed and one wounded; total, five killed and eight wounded, exclusive of the loss on shore, represented to have amounted, in killed and wounded together, to nearly 200 men. The Dutch ships were bravely defended; and so probably would have been the forts, had not the hour and the suddenness of the attack completely scared the drowsy garrisons, and the occupation of the harbour by the enemy's ships prevented the junction of a considerable reinforcement which had assembled at Otra-Bandy. The capture of a valuable Dutch colony, by four British frigates and their ships' companies, was an exploit of which even four British sail of the line, and a dozen transports with troops, might have been proud. Captain Brisbane, the planner and leader of the enterprise, was knighted by his sovereign, and all four captains received medals commemorative of the brilliant service they had performed. Nor were the most distinguished of the subordinate gallant participators overlooked. Lieutenants

John Parish, first of the Arethusa, and Thomas Ball Sullivan, first of the Anson, both of whom assisted at the storming of Fort Amsterdam, were made commanders.

As soon as war was declared by Denmark for the attack upon her capital and the seizure of her fleet, her powerful enemy proceeded to gain possession of the Danish colonies. Accordingly, on the 16th of December, an expedition, the naval force under the command of Rear-admiral the Honourable Sir Alexander Cochrane, and the military under that of General Bowyer, sailed from Carlisle bay, Barbadoes, and on the 21st anchored off the island of St. Thomas. A summons was then sent in to the Danish governor, Colonel Van-Scholten; who after a short parley acceded to the terms, and the island and its dependencies were on the same day formally surrendered to Great Britain. On the 25th the island of Santa-Croix followed the example of its neighbour. No ships-of-war were found in the harbours of either island, but a great many merchant-vessels, nearly the whole of them under the Danish flag.

South America.

In our last year's account of the proceedings in the Rio de la Plata, we left Commodore Sir Home Popham and Brigadiergeneral Backhouse in the possession of Maldonado harbour, and of the small island of Gorreti near its entrance. On the 5th of January Rear-admiral Stirling, in the Ardent 64, with a small convoy, arrived at Maldonado, to supersede Commodore Sir Home Popham. The rear-admiral also brought out Brigadiergeneral Sir Samuel Auchmuty to take the command of the troops. On the 13th Maldonado was evacuated without opposition, and a small garrison only was left in Gorreti. It was now determined to invest Monte Video, a strong town, mounting on its different batteries 160 pieces of cannon, and respectably garrisoned; and the following was the British naval force ready to co-operate in the attack:

Accordingly on the 16th, in the morning, the ships having assembled off the island of Flores, a landing was effected in a small bay a little to the westward of the Caretas rocks, and about eight miles to the eastward of the town. The strength of the breeze, and the intricacy of the navigation, rendered it very difficult for a covering force to approach near enough to be of much use; but the frigates, under the directions of Captain Lucius Hardyman of the Unicorn, got so close as to command the beach, had any opposition been offered by the body of troops in view on the heights.

On the 19th the army, including about 800 seamen and marines under the orders of Captains Ross Donnelly and John Palmer (the latter of the ship-sloop Pheasant), moved forward, and in the evening the ships-of-war and transports dropped off Chico bay; near to which, and at about two miles from the town, the troops encamped, having during the march had a slight skirmish with parties of the enemy. Such was the shallowness of the water in front of Monte Video, that the ships could lend no effectual co-operation in the siege, beyond landing a part of their men, guns, and stores, and cutting off all communication between Colonna and Buenos Ayres. On the 25th the general opened his breaching-batteries, and the lighter vessels of the squadron opened a distant cannonade. The siege continued, with doubtful result, until the 2nd of February, when a breach was reported practicable. In the evening a summons was sent to the governor, to which no answer was returned; and on the morning of the 3rd, before day, the breach was most gallantly stormed, and the town and citadel carried. The loss sustained by the army, from its first landing to the termination of the siege, amounted to 192 killed, 421 wounded, and eight missing.

The distance from the shore at which the ships were obliged to anchor, the constant high wind and heavy swell, and the distance which the guns, when landed, had to be dragged over a heavy sandy road, rendered the duty of the seamen particularly arduous. For these and other services,, so many were required, that the daily number of men absent from the squadron, including the division embodied with the army, was about 1400; and the Diadem herself was frequently left with only 30 men on board. The loss sustained by the navy on shore amounted to six seamen killed, one sub-lieutenant (George Stewart), three midshipmen (the Honourable Charles Leonard Irby, Henry Smith, and John Morrison), and 24 seamen and marines wounded, and four seamen missing.

So low was the stock of powder reduced by the protracted length of the siege, that, when the breach was made, no greater quantity remained on board the ships-of-war, transports, and fleet of English merchantmen in company, than would have furnished two days' further consumption. None of the few Spanish vessels-of-war found in the harbour were of much value. A corvette of 28 guns was burnt by the crew. There were two or three other unserviceable corvettes, and some schooners-ofwar; also 21 gun-boats. The remaining vessels were merchant

men.

In the course of May a reinforcement of about 5000 British troops arrived, under Brigadier-general Crawfurd: who thereupon superseded Sir Samuel Auchmuty. On the 15th of June Brigadier-general Crawfurd himself was superseded by Lieutenant-general Whitelocke, and Rear-admiral Stirling, by Rearadmiral George Murray, whose flag was on board the 64-gun ship Polyphemus, Captain Peter Heywood. An attack upon Buenos Ayres was to be the next object of the expedition. The small share which the navy, on account of the shallowness of the approaches by water, was enabled to take in the disgraceful campaign that ensued, relieves us from the task of recording particulars. It may suffice to state, that on the 28th of June a landing was effected, without opposition, within 30 miles of Buenos Ayres; that on the 5th of July an attack was made on the town; that the British troops, under Brigadier-general Crawfurd, were overwhelmed by numbers, and compelled to surrender, with the loss of 2500 men in killed, wounded, and prisoners; and that on the 6th the commanding officer of Buenos Ayres, General Liniers, offered to deliver up all prisoners, if the attack was discontinued and the British would consent to evacuate the river Plata in two months.

These terms were immediately submitted to to by General Whitelocke; and thus ended all the hopes of the British in this quarter. The Buenos-Ayrean campaign had not, however, passed wholly without benefit: it showed the folly of relying upon the specious representations of traders and renegadoes, respecting the dissatisfied state of the people of any country which they had visited or fled from. It showed, also, the advantage of noticing, in a proper manner, the first symptom of shyness that an officer discovers. Had some little qualm of this kind, which notoriously affected Lieutenant-colonel Whitelocke at St. Domingo, stripped him of his uniform, Lieutenantgeneral Whitelocke would not have been present at Buenos

Ayres, to sacrifice a gallant army and cast a slur upon the British name.

East Indies.

Being desirous to ascertain if the information was correct, that the two Dutch 68-gun ships, which had escaped from Batavia in the preceding year,1 were at Gressie, or Griesse, on the river Sourabaya, at the eastern extremity of Java, and distant about 540 miles from the capital of the island, Rearadmiral Sir Edward Pellew, in the month of June, despatched from Madras the 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Caroline, Captain Peter Rainier, and 12-pounder frigate Pysché, Captain Fleetwood Broughton Reynolds Pellew, with orders to reconnoitre the port. On the 29th of August the two frigates arrived off Point Panka, the eastern extremity of Java, and, by a ship from Batavia captured on the 30th, ascertained that the Pluto and Revolutie were not merely lying inactive at Gressie, but they were in too bad a state to admit of repair.

Having executed the primary object of their mission, the two frigates stood to the westward; and at midnight the Pysché alone, the Caroline having parted company in chase, anchored off the port of Samarang, which lies about 200 miles nearer to Batavia than Sourabaya. At daylight on the 31st the Pysché weighed and stood into the road. The boats, having in the mean time been got ready, were despatched, under the orders of Lieutenant Lambert Kersteman, assisted by midshipman Charles Sullivan, to bring out the vessels at anchor in the road. This service Lieutenant Kersteman gallantly executed, towing out, from under a heavy but ineffectual fire opened upon the boats by the batteries of the town, an armed schooner of eight guns, and a large merchant-brig.

The early part of the morning having discovered two ships (one evidently a cruiser) and a brig at anchor outside, the Pysché, as soon as she had collected her boats and destroyed their two prizes, made sail after the strange vessels, which by this time had weighed and were endeavouring to escape. At 3 h. 30 m. P.M., finding the frigate was overtaking them, the three vessels bore up and ran themselves on shore about nine miles to the westward of Samarang, opening upon the Pysché a well-directed fire. This, on anchoring in three fathoms, the latter returned, but, on account of the distance at which the

1 See p. 181.