carried, without the slightest casualty, the French cutter privateer Tape-à-Bord, of four long 6-pounders and 46 men, commanded by Citizen Hemigueth.

On the 4th of May the British 38-gun frigate Seahorse, Captain the Honourable Courtenay Boyle, while cruising off Cape de Gata, received intelligence that a Spanish convoy, laden chiefly on government account with gunpowder, ordnance, and naval stores for the gun-boats at Malaga, Ceuta, and Algeziras, was upon the coast. Keeping close alongshore, the Seahorse, at 2 P.M., discovered the convoy from her masthead, and at 5 P.M., observed the vessels haul into San-Pedro, an anchorage to the eastward of Cape de Gata, under the protection of a fort, two armed schooners, and three gun and mortar launches.

Covered by the fire of the Seahorse, her first-lieutenant, George Downie, in the six-oared cutter, assisted by Midshipman Thomas Napper, in the four-oared boat, went in and gallantly boarded and brought out an ordnance-brig, laden with 1170 quintals of powder and various other stores, and commanded by Don Juan Terragut, a master in the Spanish navy. The Seahorse, in the mean time, had, as it was believed on board, sunk one of the gun-launches, and damaged, if not sunk, several of the convoy. Finding that the gun-boats, by their well-directed fire, were constantly striking her, having already had her maintopgallantmast, and several braces and bowlines shot away, and one man killed, and wishing to get from the coast while the breeze and daylight lasted, the Seahorse discontinued the engagement and stood out to the offing.

On the 27th of May, the British 12-pounder 36-gun frigate Seine, Captain David Atkins, while cruising off Aguadilla, island of Porto-Rico, despatched her barge, under the command of Lieutenant of marines Thomas Bland, in pursuit of an armed schooner; which, after some resistance, but no loss on either side, was captured, and proved to be the Concepcion, mounting two long 6-pounders, with a crew of 10 men, besides several passengers, who escaped in a small boat. About three weeks afterwards the same enterprising officer, assisted by Midshipman Edward Cook, being on a cruise in the barque and away from the ship, destroyed a Spanish sloop, and captured, after an action of three-quarters of an hour, a second Concepcion, a large felucca, bound from Porto-Rico to Cadiz with a cargo of cocoa and cochineal, and armed with two long 4-pounders and 14 men ; of whom five were severely wounded. No loss whatever was sustained by the barge.

On the 1st of June the British 38-gun frigate Loire, Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, being off the coast of Spain, discovered and chased a small privateer, standing into the bay of Camarinas, situated to the eastward of Cape Finisterre. The weather becoming quite calm after dark, Captain Maitland despatched the launch and two cutters, with 35 officers and men, under the command of Lieutenant James Lucas Yeo, assisted by Lieutenant of marines Samuel Mallock, master's mate Charles Clinch, and Midshipmen, Massey Hutchinson, Herbert and Matthew Mildridge, to endeavour to bring the vessel out. Owing to the intricacy of the passage, the boats did not reach the point of attack until break of day on the 2nd ; when, instead of one, they found two privateers, and these moored under a battery of 10 guns. Ordering the launch, commanded by Mr. Clinch, to board the smaller vessel, Lieutenant Yeo, with the two cutters, gallantly attacked and carried, without loss, the other; which was the Spanish felucca Esperanza, alias San-Pedro, armed with three long 18-pounders, four 4-pounder brass swivels, and 50 men. Of her complement, when mustered, 19 were found missing, including several that had been killed by the pike and sabre, the only weapons, to prevent discovery on the part of the battery, used by the British. The launch attacked her opponent, a lugger of two 6-pounders and 32 men, with equal success and freedom from loss.

The weather being still perfectly calm, the two prizes close under the guns of the battery, which, since the moment of their capture, had opened an ill-directed fire upon the British, and the distance from the ship precluding all chance of assistance, Lieutenant Yeo was obliged to abandon the small vessel to secure the other. This he at length effected, with the loss of only three men slightly wounded. In his way out with the felucca, Lieutenant Yeo took possession of three small merchant-vessels, laden with wine for the combined squadron at Ferrol.

Receiving information, from some of the Spanish prisoners probably, that a French privateer of 26 guns was fitting out at Muros, and nearly ready for sea, and being acquainted, by having formerly entered it on service, with the navigation of the bay, Captain Maitland resolved to attempt the capture or destruction of the vessel. Accordingly, on the 4th, at 9 A.M., having prepared the Loire for anchoring with springs and settled the plan of attack, Captain Maitland stood into the bay, with the sea-breeze, having in tow the boats, containing 50 officers and

men, under the command of Lieutenant Yeo, assisted by Lieutenants of marines Samuel Mallock and Joseph Douglas, and master's mate Charles Clinch.

As the Loire hauled round the point of Muros road, a small battery of two long 18-pounders opened a fire upon her. A few shot were returned; but, perceiving that the battery, from its commanding situation, would considerably annoy the ship, Captain Maitland directed Lieutenant Yeo to push for the shore and spike the guns. That active officer, with his men, quickly departed, and the Loire stood on. As she opened the bay, the frigate discovered at anchor within it a long corvette, pierced with 13 ports of a side, apparently ready for sea, and a brig pierced with 10, in a state of fitting; but, as neither of them fired, they were considered to be, and were, in fact, without their guns. This circumstance enabled the Loire to bestow the whole of her attention upon a fort of 12 long 18-pounders, which now opened to view within less than a quarter of a mile of her, and which immediately commenced a well-directed fire at the frigate, almost every shot striking her hull. Perceiving that, by standing further on, more guns would be brought to bear upon her, and that the Loire would still be at too great a distance to fire her guns with any effect, Captain Maitland ordered the helm to be put down; and, as soon as she had run a little closer in, the frigate anchored with a spring, and opened her broadside. So completely, however, were the Spaniards in the fort covered by their embrasures, that the frigate's fire, although well directed, was comparatively ineffectual. After a few minutes of this unequal warfare, during which the Loire had nine of her seamen wounded, three of them dangerously (one having his leg above the knee, and another the calf of his leg, shot off), the fire from the fort ceased; and, as a reason for it, the British union was just then making its appearance above the walls.

We will now quit the frigate awhile, and attend to the party on shore. Lieutenant Yeo, whom we left proceeding to storm the battery on the point, landed under it; but, as he and his men advanced to execute the service, the Spaniards in the battery, amounting to 18, including eight artillerymen, abandoned their guns and fled. Scarcely had the British seamen time to spike the two 18-pounders, when, at the distance of about a quarter of a mile, and close to the entrance of the town of Muros, was descried the fort, whose destructive cannonade upon the frigate has already been related, and which had just

VOL. IV.

D

then commenced its fire. Notwithstanding that it was a regular ditched fort, and appeared a very strong one, relying upon the bravery of his followers, and, in a case of such imminent danger to the ship, readily incurring the responsibility of exceeding his orders, Lieutenant Yeo resolved to attempt its immediate reduction.

Not suspecting an attack by land, and being wholly occupied in firing at the frigate, the garrison had left open the outer gate of the fort. Through this a French sentinel, having fired his musket, retreated, and was quickly followed by the van of the storming party. At the inner gate the garrison, headed by the governor, stood ready to oppose the British; but Lieutenant Yeo, setting a noble example to his men, sprang forward, and, attacking the governor sword in hand, laid him dead at his feet, breaking his own sabre by the force of the blow. The contest now became most severe; the greater part of the officers, who had advanced with the governor, shortly experiencing a similar fate from such of the British as the narrowness of the entrance had permitted to be at hand to second their gallant leader. The boldness and vigour of the assault was irresistible, and the remainder of the garrison, although numbering, at that time, 90 or 100 effective men, fled to the farther end of the fort; from the embrasures of which many of them leaped upon the rocks, a height of about 25 feet. Shortly after this, the survivors within the fort laid down their arms, and the British colours were hoisted on the flagstaff.

Considering the force opposed to them, which at the beginning of the attack consisted of 22 Spanish soldiers, several Spanish gentlemen and townsmen, volunteers, and about 100 of the crew of the French privateer Confiance, at anchor in the harbour, the British were fortunate in escaping with only six slightly wounded; Lieutenant Yeo, Mr. Clinch the master's mate, three seamen, and one marine. The loss on the part of the garrison was extremely severe: the governor of the fort, a Spanish gentleman who had volunteered, the second captain of the Confiance, and nine others were killed; and 30, including nearly all the officers of the privateer, were wounded.

The character of this achievement, as it here has been detailed, is too obvious to need elucidation by any remarks that can be offered. Yet we cannot quit the subject without showing, to what an extent the brave man's attributes, modesty and humanity, were possessed by the officer who had so distinguished himself on the occasion. Not a word is to be found in Lieutenant

Yeo's letter respecting the personal conflict between himself and the Spanish governor. It is Captain Maitland who discloses the fact, and who states that he derived it from the testimony of the prisoners, and of those who accompanied his first-lieutenant to the attack. As a proof that the tenderest sympathy may exist in the boldest heart, we here quote the concluding words of Lieutenant Yeo's letter to Captain Maitland: "To their credit as Englishmen, as well as (to the credit of) their profession, the instant the fort was in our possession, they (the seamen and marines) seemed to try who could be the first to relieve and assist the poor wounded prisoners, who were lying in numbers in different parts of the fort; and I had the pleasure to see their humanity amply repaid by the gratitude the unfortunate men's friends expressed when they came to take them away."

The twelve 18-pounders being spiked and thrown over the parapet, the carriages broken, and the embrasures, with a part of the fort, blown up, the British taking with them 40 barrels of powder, two small brass cannon, and 50 stands of arms, retired from the scene of their exploits to their boats on the beach, and soon pulled back to the Loire. Captain Maitland, meanwhile, had, by an officer and boat's crew, taken quiet possession of the two unarmed French privateers, also of a Spanish merchant-brig in ballast. The Confiance was a ship of 490 tons, and had carried 24 guns on a flush deck; probably long 6-pounders, or 18-pounder carronades ; her ports being too close together and too small for any higher caliber of long gun or carronade. The brig was the Bélier, the same probably that, in the spring of 1803, carried out despatches to Rearadmiral Linois in the East Indies.2 Her guns, stated to be 18-pounder carronades, were also on shore; and the vessel herself was quite in an unprepared state, having only her lower rigging overhead.

As soon as possession had been taken of these vessels, Captain Maitland sent a flag of truce to the town, with a message to the effect that, if the inhabitants would deliver up such stores of the ship as were on shore, they should receive no further molestation. This proposal was readily agreed to; and the British brought off all the stores of the Confiance, except her guns; which, as the embarkation of them would have occupied some

1 The guns are called by Captain Maitland twelves and nines; but he evidently

had not seen them, nor is it clear that those had who made the report.

2 See vol. iii., p. 208.