M. Emeriau, having, as he states, been apprised by the signalposts that a British fleet of 12 sail of the line was in the offing, put to sea with "16 sail of the line and two frigates." In a few hours, however, the French admiral returned into port; and this proved to be the last exploit of the Toulon fleet during the year 1811.

Is it not a little surprising that, out of upwards of 56 sail of the line in commission at the different ports of the French empire, namely, 18, including three Dutch ships, in the Scheldt, seven in the Texel, two in Cherbourg, two in Brest, four in Lorient, three in Rochefort, 16 in Toulon, and four at least in the ports of Genoa, Spezzia, Venice, and Naples, not one squadron, nay, not one line-of-battle ship, should have ventured out of sight of her own harbour? What prevented Vice-admiral Emeriau from going fairly to sea on the 20th of November? Where had the glory of the “great nation" hid itself? Where were the Duguay-Trouins, the De Grasses, and the Suffrens, when on the 6th of December, 1811, a French admiral, with 16 sail of the line, allowed himself to be driven back into port by a British admiral with 12? And yet, if report be true, Buonaparte had an object, a grand object, in view-no less than that of getting a powerful fleet to the East Indies, and thereby possessing himself of the immense territories belonging to Great Britain in that quarter of the globe.

Light Squadrons and Single Ships.

On the 24th of March, at daylight, Barfleur lighthouse bearing south by east distant 12 or 13 miles, the British 74-gun ship Berwick, Captain James Macnamara, observed a large sail directly between herself and the lighthouse, running along the shore. This was the French 40-gun frigate Amazone, Captain Bernard-Louis Rousseau, making another attempt to get from Havre to Cherbourg. The 74 immediately gave chase, and compelled the frigate to haul in for a small rocky bay, about a mile to the westward of the lighthouse; where the Amazone anchored with the loss of her rudder. Thinking an attack by boats practicable when the tide suited, Captain Macnamara called in from the offing by signal the 38-gun frigate Amelia, Captain the Honourable Frederick Paul Irby, and the 16-gun brig-sloops Goshawk and Hawk, Captain James Lilburn and Henry Bourchier. At 8 A.M., the lee tide making strong, the

See p. 108.

Berwick, to avoid the rocks and shoals surrounding her, came to an anchor about two miles to the northward of the Amazone; as, upon their junction, did the Amelia, Hawk, and Goshawk.

At noon the 38-gun frigate Niobe, Captain Joshua Wentworth Loring, joined from the westward. At 4 P.M., the flood-tide making, and Captain Macnamara having relinquished the plan of attack by boats on account of the rapidity of the tides, the squadron got under way; and the Niobe, followed by the Amelia and Berwick in succession, stood in as close to the French frigate as the safety of the ships would admit. The latter being surrounded by rocks and shoals, their fire could only be bestowed in the act of wearing, and was consequently partial and of little effect. At 6 P.M. the British hauled off, with the loss of one man killed and one wounded on board the Amelia, and the standing and running rigging of all three ships much cut.

On the 25th, at daylight, Captain Macnamara stood in again with his squadron, for the purpose of renewing the attack; but the French captain rendered that step unnecessary, by setting fire to his ship; and the Amazone, a fine new frigate of the largest class, was soon burnt to the water's edge.

On the 8th of May, at 9 h. 30 m. A.M., the British 18-gun brigsloop Scylla (sixteen 32-pounder carronades and two sixes), Captain Arthur Atcheson, being close in with the Isle of Bas, discovered to leeward, and immediately chased, the French gunbrig Canonnier, of 10 long 4-pounders, one 24-pounder carronade and four swivels, with 77 men, commanded by Enseigne de vaisseau Jean-Joseph-Benoit Schilds, having under her protection a convoy of five small vessels, which she had just sailed with from Péros and was conducting to Brest.

At 11 h. 30 m. A.M. the Scylla overtook, and commenced firing at, the Canonnier and her convoy. At 11 h. 45 m., being then within the Triagos and Portgalo rocks, off Morlaix, and finding that it was the intention of the French commander to run his vessel and convoy on shore, Captain Atcheson resolved to lay him on board. The Scylla, going at the time eight knots, accordingly did so; and in about three minutes her officers and crew carried the Canonnier, with a loss on their part of two seamen killed, and one midshipman (Thomas Liven) and one marine slightly wounded. As a proof that the French brig made a creditable resistance, she lost her commander, one midshipman, the boatswain, and three seamen killed, and one midshipman and 10 seamen wounded, five of them dangerously. One only of the

convoy was secured, a sloop laden with grain: the remaining four got within the rocks and ran themselves on shore.

On the 24th of August, at 1 P.M., as the British 38-gun frigate Diana, Captain William Ferris, and 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Semiramis, Captain Charles Richardson, were standing towards the Cordouan lighthouse from Basque roads, five sail were descried inside of the shoals at the mouth of the river Gironde. Four of these were small merchant-vessels, which the fifth sail, the French (late British) gun-brig Teazer, mounting twelve 18pounder carronades and two long 18-pounders, with 85 men, commanded by Lieutenant de vaisseau Jean-Alexandre Papineau, had escorted from Rochefort and was now taking to a place of security, on account of not being able, as represented, to weather Maumusson.

Aware that a direct attack upon these vessels, situated as they were amidst shoals and heavy batteries, would be attended with the sacrifice of many lives, Captain Ferris resolved to attempt accomplishing his object by stratagem. Accordingly, at 4 h. 30 m. P.M., having hoisted French colours, and the Diana a commodore's pendant and a French jack at the fore, the signal for a pilot, the two British frigates stood boldly in towards the mouth of the Gironde. The Teazer immediately hoisted her colours, and fired a gun to leeward, the signal for a friend. The two frigates promptly repeated the gun, and at 6 P.M. tacked. The battery at Pointe de la Coubre now fired a few shot; but Captain Papineau, as the Teazer ran past the battery, hailed the commandant, and informed him that the two frigates were the Pallas and Elbe from Rochefort. The battery, on this, ceased firing; and at 6h. 30 m. P.M. a pilot-boat came alongside the Diana. The Frenchmen were soon handed out of her, and their boat secured astern. At 7 P.M., which was just as it got dark, the Diana and Semiramis anchored off Pointe de Grave, between the Cordouan and Royan; under the batteries of which latter place and of Verdon lay the Teazer, in company with the brig-corvette Pluvier, of 14 carronades, 24-pounders, and two sixes, commanded by the captain of the port, Capitaine de frégate MichaelAugustin Dubourg, and stationed there for the protection of the different convoys passing along that part of the coast.

The Teazer's convoy having anchored about four miles up the river, Captain Ferris, at 7 h. 30 m. P.M., despatched seven boats, to attempt cutting the vessels out; three from the Diana, under the orders of Lieutenants Francis Sparrow and George B. Roper, and master's mate William Holmes, and four from the Semiramis.

under Lieutenants Thomas Gardner, Percy Grace, and Robert Nicholson, and master's mate Timothy Renou. The tide prevented the execution of this service until very late in the night; and at daylight on the 25th the boats and the captured vessels, five in number, were still up the river, at the mouth of which lay the two French men-of-war brigs. Captain Ferris now determined to attack the two brigs with the ships; and accordingly, at 6 A.M., the two frigates, using the same artifices as before, got under way and steered for Verdon road. As a proof that the deception fully succeeded, Captain Dubourg went on board the Diana in his boat, and did not discover his mistake until he had ascended the quarter-deck.

While the Semiramis stood towards the inner brig, the Pluvier, the Diana laid the outer one, the Teazer, close alongside, the frigate's lower yards carrying away the brig's two topgallantmasts. In an instant Lieutenant Robert White Parsons, first of the Diana, attended by Lieutenant Lewis Pryse Madden of the marines, Mr. Mark G. Noble the boatswain, and about 30 seamen and marines, sprang on board, and, without the loss of a man on either side, carried the brig. Lieutenant Parsons then caused the prisoners to be put below without the force of arms and consequent destruction of life; thereby evincing a humanity which did him much honour. One of the Diana's seamen was afterwards accidentally lost overboard.

The moment she discovered what had befallen the Teazer, and saw the Semiramis approaching to put the same plan in practice upon herself, the Pluvier, now commanded by Lieutenant de vaisseau Page St.-Vaast, cut her cables and made sail for the beach; where she grounded near to the battery of Royan. The Semiramis chased until she got into five fathoms water; then anchored with a spring, so as to bring her broadside to bear upon the brig and her bow guns upon the fort, within grape-shot distance of both. After a few minutes' engagement, and just as the boats were about to pull alongside the Pluvier to carry off her crew, numbering 136 officers and men, Lieutenant Gardner, with the barge, pinnace, and cutter, rejoined his ship from the service of capturing the convoy. These boats were immediately sent to attack the brig; and, after receiving the broadside of the Pluvier, Lieutenant Gardner boarded and carried her, with no greater loss, on the British side, than himself and two seamen wounded.

The prize being fast on shore, the ebb-tide running rapidly, and the Semiramis in only 25 feet water, Captain Richardson

found it necessary to take out of the Pluvier the remainder of her crew and burn her; a service soon executed. The Semiramis then stood out to join the Diana, who had anchored in the Gironde out of gun-shot, in company with the Teazer and the five vessels late under her charge; one of which, the transport Mulet, mounted eight swivels, with a crew of 42 men, and was laden with ship-timber. At 1h. 30 m. P.M. the Pluvier exploded; and thus was consummated an enterprise, planned with judgment, and executed with skill and gallantry.

After lying tolerably quiet for several years, the famous Boulogne flotilla began again, this autumn, to be seized with fits of restlessness. It consisted at this time of 16 prames, or ship-rigged gun-vessels, mounting 12 long 24-pounders, with 112 men each; 28 brigs, with false keels, mounting from three to eight long 24s, and occasionally a large mortar, with from 70 to 80 men each; eight schooners of 10 guns and 40 men each, and between 200 and 300 gun-boats, rigged chiefly as luggers, some with one, others with two, long 18 or 24 pounders and 26 men each.

On the 19th of August, at 2 P.M., the island of St. Marcouf bearing west by north distant six leagues, the British 16-gun brig-sloop Hawk, Captain Henry Bourchier, observed from the mast-head a convoy of French vessels steering for Barfleur. All sail was immediately made in chase; and, on her near approach, the Hawk discovered that the convoy was under the protection of three gun-brigs and two large luggers, the latter carrying from eight to 10 guns, and the former from 10 to 16, and apparently well armed. These five armed vessels immediately hauled out from their convoy, with the evident intention of giving battle to the British brig, and the latter hove to in readiness to receive them.

At 3 h. 30 m. P.M., Pointe Piercue bearing north-west halfwest distant four miles, the action commenced within half pistolshot, and continued with great spirit on both sides, until the Hawk succeeded in driving on shore two of the brigs and the two luggers, with 15 sail of their convoy. While in the act of wearing to prevent the third brig from raking her, the Hawk took the ground; whereby that brig and a few of her convoy, although they had previously struck, effected their escape. During an hour and a half that the Hawk was employed in lightening herself of booms, spars, anchors, and a few of her guns, she lay exposed to incessant discharges of artillery and musketry from the shore. Having got again afloat, the Hawk anchored to repair her damaged rigging; and Captain Bourchier