to every disadvantage; and who alone baffled the daring. attempt of the enemy.

On the fifth of May, the Fleet left St. Jago, and having made the island of Trinidada, proceeded for the Cape, which was the great object of the Commodore's attention. The Jason, Active, Lark, and Rattlesnake, were sent forward to reconnoitre; and, on the 20th of June, all the East-India Ships except four, received permission to part company, and to proceed on their voyage.

On the 10th of July the Ships, sent to reconnoitre, joined with an outward-bound Dutch East-India Ship, they had captured; who brought the intelligence that Mons, de Suffrein with his squadron, and troops, had safely arrived in False Bay, and immediately garrisoned The Cape for the Dutch she also informed the Commodore that five homeward bound Dutch East-India Ships were at anchor in Saldana Bay.

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The Squadron turned into Saldana Bay, in a line of battle ahead, on the 21st of July; and opening the Flagstaff-Point discovered the five sail at anchor. The Dutch, on seeing our Ships stand in, cut their cables, and drove ashore; one of them was set on fire, and destroyed, the remainder, by great exertions, were saved.

The British Fleet left Saldana Bay on the 25th; and having doubled the Cape by the 27th, General Meadows repaired on board Captain Alms's Ship the Monmouth'; who then receiving orders to part company, saluted the Commodore, and proceeded without delay to the East Indies, with the Hero, Isis, St. Carlos, and all the armed, and other transports, ordnance Ships, victuallers, and four Indiamen; making in all about twenty-four sail. Owing to contrary winds, calms, and currents, it was the 21st of August before he made Port Felix in the island of Madagascar; and the second of September before the Monmouth, with part of the Squadron, came to anchor in Joanna Road, with the crews in a very weak, and sickly state, from their long passage,

and the scarcity of water: by the sixth all the Ships were safe at anchor.-On the island of Joanna, from the Ships of war alone, six hundred seamen, and marines, were landed, who' were down with flux or scurvy, only ten of whom died. By the 24th of September, the whole of the sick were re.. embarked, when the Squadron weighed, and sailed for the island of Bombay, on the west coast of the hither peninsula. of India. The season being too far advanced, and falling in with a strong current setting to the south-west-instead of making the coast of Malabar, Captain Alms, on the 16th of November, found himself driven towards that of Arabia Felix, in the latitude of north. Captain Alms, having thus lost his passage, and finding the water and provisions fall short, determined to explore the Coast, in order to discover some secure place for an anchorage. He accordingly, on the 18th of November, detached Captain Smith in the Manilla armed tender, on this essential duty; who in three days returned with a favourable account of Moribatt Bayo may

In consequence of this intelligence, Captain Alms, beat up with his whole Fleet, having previously allowed the Captains, of the East-Indiaman, to part company; and on the 26th of November anchored in Moribatt Bay +, with some of his Ships, the rest followed with all possible expedition. In

The scarcity of water would have been a more fatal çalamity had not Captain Alms ordered stills to be used by the Ships, by means of which a large quantity of fresh water was procured from that of the sea. The quantity thus produced in the Monmouth, amounted to about one hundred and twenty gallons a day; and much more might have been procured, had not the distillation been checked by the idea that the fuel for culinary uses would be too much reduced.—although this mode of obtaining fresh water, is now more generally known, and our Ships in general are furnished with stills, it is right to add, that Captain Alms, in a letter to the Admiralty, gave an ample account of the great benefit, which had thus been obtained.

Moribatt, on the coast of Arabia, is about nine leagues to the east from Dofar, and is the best road on all the Coast for the easterly Monsoons. There are no certain Tides on the Coast, though the water will sometinies rise, and fall, seven or eight feet; but it generally flows as the wind blows, and changes its course with the Monsoons Its latitude is 16 deg. 45 min. N. and longitude 55 deg. 25 min. E.-Malham's Gazetteer

this Bay Captain Alms found water, though not of the bestkind, yet sufficiently good to alleviate the scarcity on board; but finding no supply of provisions, except a few goats, and a small quantity of dry dates, he put the whole Squadron on half allowance. 54 ng kon**

e Having completed the watering of a part of his Squadron, and seriously considered, that if he did not join Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes by the middle of February, Monsieur de Suffrein would be on the Coromandel coast; and in conjunction with the French Ships, already in the Indian Seas, would form, a superior forces. Captain Alms, without loss of time, consulted with General Meadows, on what could best be done for the public service-when, they both were of opinion to leave the one hundredth regiment, and the remainder of the convoy, at Moribatt, under the command of Captain Smith of the St. Carlos, with orders to follow as soon as possible to Bombay. Taking therefore in his own Ship the ninety-eighth regiment, Captain Alms sailed on the fifth of December, with the Hero, Isis, Manilla Tender, Royal Charlotte, and Raikes; and on the 6th of January (1782) anchored with all of them, except two which had separated in the passage, in Bombay harbour; with only four days provisions, at half allowance, in the Monmouth...

When we consider the very precarious state of this officer's health, and also remember that he was now in his fiftyfourth year, greatly enfeebled by an asthmatic disorder, with which he had long struggled; we cannot but admire that zeal for the Service, and that high principle of doing his duty to the last, which enabled him to preserve such, continued presence of mind, with an unsubdued spirit of perseverance, Hardly arrived at Bombay, he immediately made every exertion to join Sir Edward Hughes: the brackish water procured at Moribatt, was got out of the hold; the Bends, and other parts of the Ship that wanted, were caulked ; the masts, and yards of the Monmouth, which had been wounded in the action at Port Praya, were shifted; the rudder of the Isis was unhung; the main yard of the Hera

was fished, and five of her lower deck gun carriages repaired ; as much provision, as could be obtained, was taken on board the Squadron, the watering of the Ships of War was completed and thus prepared, he sailed with them only, and joined Sir Edward in Madras Road on the evening of the ninth, and landed General Meadows, with the troops, at Madras. This event, which proved of so much importance to the British Fleet under Sir Edward Hughes, Captain Alms, like a true seaman, would never attribute to his own judg ment, but solely to Divine Providence the accomplishiment of such a voyage, at so late a season of the year, when distressed for every necessarý article, astonished professional men who were acquainted with those seas.

On the 15th of February, only five days after Captain Alms's arrival with the reinforcement of three Ships of the Line, and a Sloop, Mons. de Suffrein, his old antagonist, appeared off Madras, with a Squadron consisting of twelve Tine-of-battle Ships, six frigates, eight large transports, and six captured vessels ;-he anchored about four miles without The Road. The Squadron, under Sir Edward Hughes, consisted of nine sail of the Line *

-170At four P. M. on the 15th, Mons. Suffrein weighed, and stood to the southward; Sir Edward immediately threw out the signal to weigh, and stood after the enemy. On the -16th, at day-break, the signal being made for a general chace to the south-west, the Isis, Captain Lumley, + captured the Lauriston Store Ship; and at the same time Captain Alms, in the Monmouth, gave chace to a frigate of 44 guns, and was coming up with her fast, when Sir Edward, observing that the French Squadron had put before the wind, to protect their transports, and that four of their best sailing line-ofbattle Ships had got within two or three miles of his sternmost ones, threw out the signal to recall the chace.a

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Superbe, 74, the Flag Ship; Captain, W. Steevens. Exeter, 64, Commodore Richard King; Captain, Henry Reynolds.

In the course of this chace, six sail, five of which were English, taken by Suffrein when to the northward of Madras, were recaptured...

During the Action that ensued on the 17th of February, the Exeter, Commodore R. King's Ship, was nearly cut off by five Ships of the enemy: one shot under his Jee-bow another on the Exeter's beam -another on her lee-quarterand two others were astern, occasionally giving her raking broadsides; thus, as Sir Edward himself expressed it, she was reduced almost to the state of a Wreck. Captain Alms, in the Monmouth, led the Squadron on the larboard tack; but as the Enemy, who had the wind in their favour, never: advanced beyond the centre of the British Line, neither the Monmouth, nor any other Ship ahead of the Admiral, had any material share in the Action of the 17th. As the evening. closed, and after the two Squadrons had separated, Captain Wood of the Hero, hailed the Monmouth, and told Captain Alms, it was the Admiral's order that he should find out THE COMMODORE, and stay by him; giving every assistance in his power. Captain Alms accordingly steered for the Exeter, stayed by her during the night, and the next morning taking her in tow, continued to do so, until the 24th; when the whole Squadron anchored in the outer harbour of Trinco. male, in the island of Ceylon. On the 4th of March the Admiral left this station, and on the 12th anchored with the Squadron off Madras +.

On the 6th of April, the signal for a sail in the south-west quarter was made by the Hero; on which her signal was thrown out to chase; and soon afterwards the Monmouth's. The strange Ship, finding she could not escape, hauled in shore the Monmouth sailing faster than the Hero, got up first, and forced the strange Ship to run ashore. Captain

Now Sir Richard King, Admiral of the White, created a Baronet on the 7th of July, 1792. During this action a shot struck the head of his Captain, (Reynolds,) and blew his brains over the Commodore, who never flinched. On being told by his Master, towards the conclusion of the action, that two more of the enemy's Ships appeared to be coming up; aud being asked, when they were nearly within gun-shot, what he would do with The Ship, answered coolly-Fight ber, Sir! till she sinks.

On the 30th of March, Sir Edward Hughes, was reinforced at sea, by the Magnanime, 64 guns, Captain Charles Wolesley, and the Sultan, 74 guns, Captain James Watt.