captains: whereas, in the french navy, even an 1815. enseigne de vaisseau is deemed eligible to bear an order; and, in a navy-list of a recent date now before us, the names of several of that class appear with an honorary distinction affixed to them.

Farte's

Elba,

convey.

Helena

The sudden return to France, of Napoléon from Buona the island of Elba, again sent lord Exmouth (the return new title which, since the 14th of May, 1814, had from been deservedly bestowed upon sir Edward Pellew) surrento the Mediterranean; but, before the admiral had der,and well got to his station, the battle of Waterloo was auce fought, and shortly afterwards the cause of all this to St.new commotion surrendered himself into the hands of the British. The registers and histories of the period will give the particulars of these important events. It will be enough for us to state, that Buonaparte embarked from Elba on the 24th of February in an armed brig, landed on the afternoon of the 1st of March in the gulf of Juan, near Cannes, and on the 21st entered the capital of France amidst the greetings of at least 200000 of the inhabitants. The battle of Waterloo was fought, as need scarcely be stated, on the 18th of June; and on the 15th of July, finding he could not evade the british cruisers and get to the United States, Buonaparte surrendered himself to captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, of the Bellerophon 74, lying in Basque roads. The latter ship immediately conveyed her important charge to Torbay, and then to Plymouth; where the Bellerophon arrived on the 26th. On the 7th of August the ex-emperor was removed to the 74-gun ship Northumberland, captain Charles Bayne Hodgson Ross, bearing the flag of rearadmiral sir George Cockburn, K. C. B. On the 8th the Northumberland sailed for the island of StHelena, and, on the 16th of October, there safely disembarked the "general" and his few attendants. Europe being thus freed, all parties felt seriously inclined for peace; and on the 20th of November treaties were entered into at Paris between the different powers.

and

cap

Melpo

1815. During the short interval of renewed war, that had June. preceded the execution of these treaties, one or Rivoli two naval occurrences happened, which require our attacks notice. On the 30th of April, a few miles to the northward of the island of Ischia, the british 74-gun tures ship Rivoli, captain Edward Sterling Dickson, after mène. a running fight and brave defence of 15 minutes, captured the french 40-gun frigate Melpomene, captain Joseph Collet, from Porto-Ferrajo to Naples, to take on board Napoléon's mother. The frigate was very much cut up in hull, masts, and rigging, and had six men killed and 28 wounded. The Rivoli, on the other hand, had only one man mortally, and a few others slightly wounded.

Pilot

falls in with

On the 17th of June, at daylight, the british brig sloop Pilot, of 16 carronades, 32-pounders, and two Légère. sixes, captain John Toup Nicolas, being about 50 miles to the westward of Cape Corse, observed and chased a ship in the east-north-east. This proved to be the french buonapartean corvette Légère, of 20. carronades, 24-pounders, and two 12-pounders on the main deck, with four or six light guns, probably brass 6-pounders, on the quarterdeck, capitaine de frégate Nicolas Touffet. At 2 P. M. the Légère hauled towards the Pilot, and, hoisting a tri-coloured pendant and ensign, fired a gun to-windward. At 2 h. 30 m., after some manoeuvring on both sides to get the weathergage, the Pilot placed herself close on the Légère's weather beam, and hoisted her colours. Observing that the corvette was preparing two to make sail to pass ahead, and being at the same engage. moment hailed, "Keep further from us," the Pilot

The

vessels

A

fired a shot through the Légère's foresail. broadside from the french ship immediately fol lowed, and the action commenced within pistolrange. The brig's shot, being from her lee guns and directed low, evidently struck the hull of her opponent in quick succession, while the Légère's shot passed high, and chiefly disabled the Pilot's rigging and sails.

By 4 P. M. the fire of the Légère had considerably

makes

Pilot

abled

to fol

slackened, and at 4h. 30 m. she hauled up her main- 1815. sail, and backed her mizen topsail, in order to drop June. astern. Captain Nicolas endeavoured also to shorten sail ; but, having had every brace, bowline, and Légère clue-garnet cut away, the Pilot unavoidably shot off, ahead. The brig, then, as the only alternative, put leaving her helm up to fire into her opponent's bows. Of too disthis movement on the part of the Pilot, the Légère took immediate advantage, by hauling close to the low. wind, and making off with all the sail she could carry. The yards of the Pilot being wholly unmanageable, her main topgallantmast over the side, her maintopsail yard shot away in the slings, and her stays and the chief part of her standing as well as running rigging cut away, the brig was not in a condition for an immediate pursuit. In about an hour, however, the Pilot got another maintopsail yard across, and the sail set, and by 7 P. M. was going seven knots by the wind in chase of the french corvette, then bearing on her weather bow about six miles distant. The Pilot continued the chase until the 18th, at daylight; when, to the mortification of all on board, it was found that the Légère had eluded them in the night.

mage

each

The principal damages sustained by the Pilot have Daalready been described: her loss amounted to one and seaman killed, another. mortally wounded, and her loss on first lieutenant, (Keigwin Nicolas, the captain's side. brother,) purser, (Thomas Rowe,) 10 seamen, and two marines wounded. The damages of the Légère were almost wholly in her hull and lower masts; and her loss is represented to have amounted, out of a crew that probably was not less than 170 men, to 22 killed and 79 wounded, 64 of them severely. Even half this loss would show that the guns of the Pilot had been ably managed; and, indeed, the action throughout reflects very great credit upon captain Nicolas, his officers, and brig's company.

According to the following statement, which has

Im

ments

class

captain

1815. appeared in print, the Pilot was better provided against accidents by shot than any of her unfortunate sister-brigs; such as the Avon, Peacock, and others. prove. "On rejoining the Pilot, (end of 1814,) captain in the Nicolas applied to the admiralty to have that sloop brig altered agreeably to a plan he proposed; and by which sugges- a shot-hole could be immediately stopped, between ted by wind and water, in any part of the ship: and which, Nicolas in the former arrangement of the store and bread rooms, was impossible. This, it had been confidently asserted, was the principal cause of the capture of the Avon and Peacock. The admiralty not only complied with his request, but ordered all the 18-gun brigs then under repair at Portsmouth to be fitted on the same plan."* It is very probable that some improvement had also been made in the fastenings of the Pilot's carronades.

State of

politics

tinique

loupe.

4

The news of the landing of Napoléon in France soon became known at the two principal islands of at Mar- the French in the West Indies. At Martinique, and the governor, the comte de Vaugiraud, was favourGuade- able to Louis XVIII.; but the governor of Guadeloupe, vice-admiral the comte Linois, so often named in these pages, was a stanch buonapartist. The british naval and military commanders in chief at the Leeward islands were rear-admiral sir Philip Charles Durham, K. C. B., and lieutenant-general sir James Leith. Sometime in the month of June, of at the request of the comte de Vaugiraud, a body those of british troops landed at Martinique, to aid him in preserving the island for king Louis; and in the Louis month of August sir Philip Durham and sir James Leith, assisted by the french royalist comte, landed a body of troops on the island of Guadeloupe. On the 10th of August, after a skirmish, in which the british army lost 16 killed and about 50 wounded, the comte Linois surrendered the island by capitulation, and was afterwards, along with his adjutant-general,

Submission

islands

to

XVIII.

* Naval Chronicle, vol. xl. p. 427.

LIGHT SQUADS., &c.- -EXPEDITION TO NEW-ORLEANS. 517 conveyed to France by virtue of one of the articles 1815. of the treaty.

treaty

Eng

France.

The treaty of peace between France and the Terms allies, which was signed at Paris on the 30th of May, of the 1814, and interrupted for a short time as has already be been briefly noticed, was again signed at Paris on tween the 20th of November, 1815. Of this treaty, it will land be only necessary for us to state that, by the 8th and article, France received back from Great Britain. (not the first time that the latter has ceded by the pen what she had won by the sword) all her colonies, fisheries, factories, and establishments of every kind, as they were possessed by her on the 1st of January, 1792, in the seas, or on the continents, of America, Africa, and Asia; except Tobago and Sainte-Lucie, and the Isle of France, Isle Rodrigue, and the Sechelles.

LIGHT SQUADRONS AND SINGLE SHIPS.

In our account of the unfortunate "demonstration" Con

tem

upon

ans.

before the city of Baltimore, we mentioned, as one plated cause of the abandonment of the enterprise, and of attack the tepidness with which it had been conducted, an New " ulterior object" in the view of the naval commander Orlein chief. That ulterior object was the city of NewOrleans, the capital of the state of Louisiana. It stands upon the left bank of the river Mississippi, 105 miles, following the stream, and 90 miles, in a direct line, from its mouth. The population of the city, in 1814, was estimated at 23242 persons. The line of maritime invasion extends from Lake Pontchartrain, on the east, to the river Têche, on the west, intersected by several bays, inlets, and rivers, which furnish avenues of approach to the metropolis. But the flatness of the coast is every where unfavourable for the debarkation of troops; and the bays and inlets being all obstructed by shoals or bars, no landing can be effected, but by boats, except up the Mississippi; and that has a bar at its mouth, which shoals to 13 or 14 feet water. There