men, three great guns, 12 swivels, 27 muskets, 32 cutlasses, 18 half-pikes, 13 pistols, 153 round shot, 137 grape shot, and 100 shells, with, of course, a proportion of powder and of musketcartridges; all without the slightest casualty.

On the same evening, the two British frigates, accompanied by the three prize gun-boats, in charge of the three lieutenants, Thomas Fortescue Kennedy, Charles Elphinstone, and George Rutherford, anchored off the island of Corrigidore; and on the next morning, the 15th, they quitted the bay, and, the Sibylle with one, and the Fox with two gun-boats in tow, stood to the southward, in the hope to precede, if possible, any information that they were among the islands. On the night of the 19th, one of the two gun-boats towed by the Fox, in a heavy squall, broke adrift. The Fox immediately brought to and continued to fire guns and show lights during the whole night; but all in vain, the gun-boat having foundered with the loss of all her crew, consisting of Lieutenant Rutherford, one midshipman (Mr Nicholson), nine seamen, and one boy. At daylight, on the 20th, the frigates made sail and coasted Mindora, Pany, Negros, and Magindano, without any occurrence worth notice."

On the 22nd, at daylight, being within a few miles of Samboangon, on the island of Majindinao, a settlement which they purposed to lay under contribution for water, wood, and refreshments, the frigates hoisted Spanish colours; but, while steering towards it, the Sibylle grounded on the north-west point of the small island of Santa-Cruz. The Fox and the two gun-boats then stood on; but, at 6h. 20 m. A.M., being becalmed, were obliged to anchor just abreast of, and at a distance of about a mile and a half from, the fort of Samboangon. At about this time the Sibylle got off; but the state of the tide, coupled with the want of wind, prevented her from joining. A boat now approached the Fox from the shore, and, when within hail, inquired the name and other particulars of the frigate. Receiving no satisfactory answer, the Spaniards pulled back to the shore, which, although several muskets were fired at them, they reached in safety. At 6 h. 30 m. A.M. the British vessels hoisted their proper colours, and the Fox and the two gun-boats opened a fire upon the fort, which was returned as well by the latter as by a two-gun battery to the westward, but owing to the distance, with very little effect. At 8 A.M. a fresh breeze sprang up from the land, and aided by the tide, then running at the rate of three knots to the westward, drove the Fox off the bank on which she had anchored.

YOL. II.

R

At noon, a fresh breeze springing up from the westward, the Sibylle and Fox, accompanied by the two gun-boats, made all sail towards the fort. At about 2h. 5 m. P.M. the Sibylle fired an 18-pounder at the western battery to try the distance, and in five minutes more, being abreast of the fort of Samboangon, brought to and commenced the action. Shortly afterwards the Fox began firing at the western battery; and, at 3 P.M., being abreast of, and about half a mile distant from it, and about threequarters of a mile from the fort, dropped her anchor astern, but rather inside, of her consort. The Fox and the western battery, which mounted 12 or 14 guns, were soon as hotly engaged as the fort itself and the Sibylle. The fire from the battery abreast of the Fox being both heavy and well-directed, while the shot from the latter seemed to produce little or no effect, Captain Malcolm, at 3 h. 20 m. P.M., accompanied by the first-lieutenant of the Fox, in conformity to directions previously received from Captain Cooke, proceeded, in three of the Fox's boats (and which were soon followed by three from the Sibylle), to endeavour to effect a landing to the westward of the battery.

As the boats approached, a shot from the battery struck and went through the Fox's cutter, killing two seamen, and wounding a master's mate (Mr. Davis), two seamen, and one marine. Fortunately, the cutter, when she swamped, was in shoal water and close to a sandbank; upon which, Captain Malcolm and the remainder of the crew presently landed. Here the captain found, as well the surviving men of the cutter, as the crew of the launch, that had grounded on the same bank, and intended pushing for the shore; but deep water being found inside the bank, and a strong party of men observed posted on the beach, the attempt was abandoned, and the party, at about 3 h. 30 m. P.M., returned to the ships. At 3 h. 40 m. a shot from the battery cut away two strands of the Fox's cable. Having received other considerable damage on board, the Fox now cut the remaining strand of her cable, and stood out of gun-shot to the southward. The Sibylle about the same time cut her cable, and removed further from the fort.

Of this fort and the adjoining batteries, the strength had evidently been much underrated by the commanding officer of the two frigates; one of which, the Sibylle, had her master (Richard Stanning) and one marine killed, and one wounded. It was the other frigate, however, which, owing to her nearness to the western battery, bore the brunt of the attack. One shot, as already stated, cut the Fox's cable: another passed through

the mizenmast, about 12 feet from the head; another carried away the supporters of the wheel, and another the bits on the quarter-deck; about 28 others struck the ship's side. Her main stay and six of her lower shrouds, were also cut away, and her running-rigging and sails much injured. With respect to the loss sustained on board, the Fox had two seamen killed, the captain's clerk and 10 seamen wounded; making, with the loss in the cutter, a total of four killed and 15 wounded.

At 9 P.M. the two frigates anchored about six miles to the eastward of Samboangon town. On the 23rd, in the morning, by which time the Fox had fished her mizenmast and repaired the most material of her damages, the two frigates got under way and stood to the northward. On the same evening, the two gun-boats after all the stores had been taken out of them, were destroyed, as being unfit to proceed on the voyage to Canton. On the 27th, the frigates being much in want of water which they had been compelled to relinquish taking by force at Samboangon, put into the harbour of Pullock, situated to the northward of Majindinao. On the 31st, at daybreak, threo boats from each frigate were sent to bring away the last load. At 9 A.M. some of the men belonging to the Sibylle's boats (those of the Fox had come on board) were perceived running to the beach and making signals. Instantly all the boats, manned and armed, of both frigates, led by their respective captains, pulled towards the shore. Here two seamen were found killed by the natives, one mortally wounded, and nine missing, supposed to have been carried into the woods. The remainder of the party, including Lieutenant Majeur, who commanded it, were fortunately rescued. Every effort to recover the men having failed, Captain Cooke ordered the village of the natives to be set on fire, and their corn cut down, and then weighed and set sail for Mindanao. On arriving here, Captain Cooke was promised by the sultan that he would use his influence to recover, if they were alive, the missing men. The sultan eventually fulfilled his promise, and the men were restored, but not in time for the Fox and Sibylle to bring them away, Captain Cooke being obliged to hasten on to Canton, to be ready to convoy the homeward-bound trade.

On the 8th of March Tippoo Saib's two ambassadors, with about 150 colonial volunteers (here was a reinforcement for a sultan who could bring into the field 70,000 horse and foot!) sailed in the Preneuse for Mangalore. On the 20th of April, having two days before received intelligence that two Indiamen

were at Tellicherry, taking in a cargo of pepper, Captain L'Hermite looked into the port, but, finding only one ship there, doubted the accuracy of his information, and cruised off the coast for a day or two under English colours.

A periague, which the Preneuse captured on the morning of the 21st, having assured the French captain that the ship in sight, however formidable in appearance, was nothing but an Indiaman, the Preneuse, disguised still as an English frigate, stood for the road of Tellicherry. In his way thither Captain L'Hermite fell in with another Indiaman steering for the same anchorage. The Preneuse now reduced her sails and yawed about, so as to let this ship enter the road first. At about 2 h. 30 m. P.M., while this manoeuvre was practising, a thunderstorm came on; and at 3 P.M. the Preneuse was struck with lightning. The electric fluid entered at the frigate's main truck, and running down the mast into the hold, re-ascended to the main deck, killed one man, and wounded 15 or 16, and then passed out at one of the ports. Towards 4 P.M., just as the Indiaman had cast anchor, within about 100 fathoms of the one already in the road, the Preneuse steered between the two, and changing her colours to French, fired a broadside into each. The ship that had just anchored fired a broadside in return, cut her cable, and loosed her sails, with the intention of running on shore. The other ship, owing to her position, could only return one or two guns in short, the two vessels were captured. One proved to be the Woodcot of 802 tons, Captain Andrew Hannay, the other the Raymond, of 793 tons, Captain Henry Smedley; both armed, and the latter, with a detachment of company's troops on board.

Having taken of the commandant of Tellicherry a receipt for his prisoners, 600 in number, and the half described as Europeans, Captain L'Hermite manned his two prizes and despatched them to the Isle of France, and then proceeded on his mission to Mangalore. Here the frigate arrived on the 24th of April, and, quitting the road on the 26th, steered for Java. At Batavia Captain L'Hermite arrived in the middle of June, and found there Rear-admiral Sercey; who had recently arrived in the Brûle-Gueule, with the intention of making the Dutch island his temporary head-quarters. We will now see how far the Vertu and Régénérée, with their valuable charge, have got on their voyage home.

Before we quit the eastern hemisphere to accompany the 1 Victoires et Conquêtes, tome viii., p. 304.

French frigates Vertu and Régénérée on their voyage to Europe, we will give some account of a very melancholy ship-loss, with which the Straits of Banca were this year visited. On the evening of the 23rd of July the Resistance, which ship we mentioned as making her appearance off Manilla, anchored in the Straits, to await the approach of a Malay sloop, which Captain Pakenham had detained, on a suspicion that she was Dutch property, and which he was now about to restore to the Malay captain. On the 24th, at 1 A.M., the sloop joined, and dropped anchor under the stern of the ship. It appears from the narrative of a seaman of the Resistance named Thomas Scott, one of the few survivors of the awful catastrophe which ensued, that, as he was sleeping on the larboard side of the quarter-deck, he was suddenly awakened by a fierce blaze that seized his clothes and hair, and which was succeeded, in an instant, by a tremendous explosion, from the shock of which, as he afterwards conjectured, he became utterly senseless for several minutes. From the appearance of daylight about an hour after he had been blown up, Scott supposed the accident to have happened at about four o'clock in the morning. The whole number of survivors, including Scott, appears to have been 13, of whom the highest in rank was a quartermaster. The number that had perished amounted to about 314 officers, seamen, and marines, three English women married on board, one Malay woman of Amboyna, and 14 Spanish prisoners taken in a prize; total 332 souls.

The subsequent sufferings of Scott and his companions, as related by himself, were very great. On recovering a little from the stupor into which the shock had thrown him, he found himself half-suffocated with water, floating and struggling for his existence, in company with several other persons. He made shift, as did 12 of those near him, to reach the hammocknetting of the ship on the starboard side, which was just above the water. At the dawn of day the people belonging to the sloop, then not out of hail astern, and who must have heard the shouts of the wretched beings that were clinging to the wreck, weighed anchor, and, callous to every impulse of humanity, stood over to the island of Borea. It would appear from this, either that no prize-crew had been placed on board the sloop, but merely the master taken out of her, or that the British, notwithstanding it was one o'clock in the morning when the sloop joined, had been withdrawn from her, and her own people put in possession.