died of his wounds. This ship's masts and yards, at the close of the action, were all standing; but her hull, a mere shell in point of scantling, and at which principally the Amphion had directed her shot, was pierced through and through. The hull of the Flore was also the part in which she had suffered the most; and her loss of men, which was known to include her captain badly wounded, must have been tolerably severe. At 4 P.M. the Favourite, having been set on fire by her surviving crew, blew up with a great explosion. Both the Corona and Bellona were very near sharing her fate, and placed in considerable jeopardy the lives of all that were on board of them. As soon as Lieutenant O'Brien arrived on board the Bellona to take possession, he interrogated the gunner as to the state of the magazine. The latter privately informed him, that Captain Duodo, at the commencement of the action, had ordered to be placed in a small bower-cable tier two or three barrels of gunpowder; intending, as soon as all hopes of further resistance were at an end, to set fire to the train, and, if not blow up the ship, to intimidate the British from taking possession, and thus enable the survivors of the crew to effect their escape. But Captain Duodo's wound came opportunely to prevent the fructuation of his diabolical design; and the officers of the Bellona themselves probably had, for their own safety, watched very narrowly the movements of their captain. Lieutenant O'Brien visited the cable-tier, saw the barrels of gunpowder, and, placing one of his men as sentry over them, proceeded to the cabin; where lay the mortally wounded projector, wholly unconscious of the discovery of his plot. Captain Duodo expressed his gratitude, in the strongest manner, for the attention paid by the British officer to a "beaten foe," but said not a word about the powder; nor were his dying moments disturbed with the slightest allusion to the circumstance. The Corona was much nearer destruction. At 9 P.M., when in tow by the Active, the prize caught fire in the main top; and the whole of her mainmast, with his rigging, was presently in flames. The Active immediately cut herself clear, and the Corona continued burning until 11 h. 30 m. P.M.; when, owing to the prompt and energetic exertions of Lieutenants James Dickinson of the Cerberus, and George Haye of the Active, and their respective parties of seamen, the flames were got under, but not without the loss of the ship's mainmast, and, unfortunately, of some lives. Four seamen and one marine of the Active were drowned, and Lieutenant Haye was severely burnt; as were VOL. V. R midshipman Siphus Goode and two seamen belonging to the Cerberus. In reviewing the merits of the action, although we might easily show that, in point of force, the Amphion and Cerberus were both inferior, and the Active herself not more than equal, to any of the four 40-gun frigates on the opposite side, and that the Bellona and Carolina were either of them a decided overmatch for the Volage, we shall consider that the seven larger ships agreed with each other in force, and that the three smaller ones did the same. There were also, it will be recollected, one Venetian 16-gun brig, one armed schooner, one xebec, and two gunboats, mounting altogether 36 guns, and perhaps equal, in the light winds that prevailed, to a second Bellona or Carolina, or, at all events, to a second Volage. The number of men in the British squadron appears to have been about 880, and the number in the Franco-Venetian squadron, at the lowest estimate, 2500. Hence the British had opposed to them a force in guns full onethird, and in men nearly two-thirds, greater than their own; and the whole of that force, as far as the number and appearance of the vessels could designate its amount, was plainly discovered, as the Amphion and her three consorts advanced to the attack. But the foe was met, the action fought, and the victory won; and fresh and unfaded will be the laurels which Captain Hoste and his gallant companions gained at Lissa. "At The extraordinary circumstance, of a naval official account emanating from the pen of a colonel of infantry, would, of itself, justify a slight investigation of its contents; and really, if every officer, commanding a detachment of troops on board a French frigate, could make up so good a story as Colonel Alexandre Gifflenga, it would be well for the glory of the French navy that he, and not the captain of the ship, should transmit the particulars of the action. For instance, Colonel Gifflenga says: daylight we perceived the English division, consisting of a cutdown ship of the line and three frigates." The colonel then wishes to make it appear that, owing chiefly to the lightness of the breeze, the attacking ships went into action one by one. He proceeds: At half-past ten, the masts of the Favourite having fallen, Ensign Villeneuve announced to me that he could no longer steer the ship. We at that moment struck upon the rocks off the island of Lissa. I ordered the people to be debarked: I took possession of several vessels, and caused the frigate to be blown up." "Je m'emparai de plusieurs bâtimens et je fis sauter "The English, in the utmost distress," adds the la frégate." 66 colonel," entered the port of St. George, after they had set fire to the Corona and one of their frigates: the cut-down line-ofbattle ship, after being wholly dismasted, ran upon the rocks of the island, and in all probability was lost. The result of this action is the loss, on our part, of two frigates, and, on the part of the English, of one frigate and one cut-down ship of the line. It is the opinion of the sailors, that, if Captain Dubourdieu had kept his squadron together, we should have got possession of two English vessels, although the enemy had two cut-down · ships of the line." To show that these extraordinary statements really form part of the colonel's letter, we subjoin the whole of the original passage:--"Les Anglais sont entrés dans le port de St. Georges dans le plus mauvais état, et après avoir mis le feu à la frégate la Couronne et à une de leur frégates: la vaisseau rasé, démâté de tous ces mâts, était échoué sur les roches de l'île. Il doit s'être perdu. Le résultat de ce combat est, pour nous, la perte de deux frégates qui ont péri, et pour les Anglais la perte d'une frégate et d'un vaisseau rasé. L'opinion de tous les marins est que, si le Capitaine Dubourdieu avait bien rallié sa division, nous prendrions deux bâtimens anglais, quoique l'ennemi eût deux vaisseaux rasés." It is not a little extraordinary that Colonel Gifflenga's "vaisseau rasé," was at this time within five or six of being the smallest ship of the numerous class of British 38-gun frigates; but she was larger, undoubtedly, than either of the two 32-gun frigates associated with her. The Active measured 1058, the Amphion 914, the Cerberus 816, and the Volage 529 tons. Yet the Active was a smaller ship than the Corona, which measured 1094 tons, and than either the Favourite, Danaé, or Flore; not one of which, we believe, measured less than the Corona. Why, therefore, the Active should have been so avoided during the battle, and so magnified in force after it was over, we cannot conceive. The fire on board the Corona accounts, in some degree, for what is stated respecting that ship; and had any one of the British ships merely touched the ground, there would have been a pretext for the colonel's assertion on that nead; but no accident of the kind occurred. In stating, at the commencement of his letter, that the British had one "cutdown ship of the line," and at the end of it, that they had two, the writer reminds us of that prince of braggarts Falstaff and his men of buckram. Leaving the letter of Colonel Alexander Gifflenga to the contempt it merits, we shall make a few admissions, which, even in |