the shore; she was totally lost. The schooner made her escape. The Racoon had one lieutenant and forty men away in prizes, leaving only eighty on board.

Captain Bissel's next encounter with the enemy was still more desperate, and crowned with more perfect success.

In the month of October following, while off Cumberland harbour, he observed ten sail of vessels to windward: these were coming from Portau-Prince, of the evacuation of which he had just received intelligence. He chased and came up with a brig, a schooner, and a cutter, full of men: the brig struck on the firing of the first or second broadside; an officer with a small party was sent to secure her, while the Racoon was engaged with the other two, which approached with an apparent determination to board. Captain Bissel allowed them to approach so near as to be sure of his guns doing execution: the cutter steered for his bow, the schooner for his quarter; these vessels he engaged for an hour, and by superior seamanship and coolness prevented their boarding him. At length the cutter, being a perfect wreck, surrendered, and the schooner made off, but ultimately both were secured. After this, the Racoon went in chase of the brig, which she had first taken; the few men put on board of her, had been overpowered by the prisoners, who had run the vessel on shore, and she was totally lost, but the Racoon received her people back in safety. It is remark

able, that on the side of the British no one was killed, and only one person, the master, wounded. The enemy's vessels had on board three hundred and thirty soldiers and seamen, of whom a large proportion were officers. They were all armed vessels, and came out for the express purpose of taking the Racoon by boarding: they had about forty killed and wounded

For these repeated instances of gallantry and superior skill, Captain Bissel was deservedly made post into the Creole; and in the month of December, 1803, sailed with a convoy from Jamaica, to proceed to England. Captain Serrell, in the Cumberland, of seventy-four guns, was the senior officer in charge of the convoy. When a few degrees to the north-west of the Bermudas, the frigate sprang a dangerous leak, many of her butts started, and her bolts were found to be so loose as to be pulled out by hand. What excuse can be made for the surveying officers at Port Royal, who, if they knew their duty, were guilty of murder, in reporting such a ship fit for a winter passage to England? A gale of wind soon discovered to the exhausted crew that the pumps alone would keep her above water only for a few days. The prisoners cheerfully worked at them, and the crew fothered the ship with a topsail under her bottom. At length, after eight days of severe labour, Captain Serrell, of the Cumberland, ordered a survey of the ship, and she was found incapable of continuing the voyage. The prisoners and sick were first withdrawn, after which the

ship's company left her, and lastly the captain; the guns and every heavy article had been thrown overboard, and one hour after the last boat quitted the Creole, she went down. Her gallant commander saved from this disaster, was reserved for one more terrible and more fatal.

While these events were passing on the Jamaica station, the army and navy were not idle to windward.

Demerara and Essequibo surrendered to Lieutenant-general Grinfield and Commodore Hood, on the 19th of September, 1803, and the colony of Berbice capitulated on the 23rd, to Lieutenantcolonel Nicholson and Captain Loftus Otway Bland of the Heureux.

The settlements from that moment became British colonies, and are now the most valuable of our possessions in the West Indies.

Commodore Hood returned to Martinique, which, having been given up to the French at the peace of Amiens, was now well garrisoned, and in a most efficient state of defence. Captain Crozier, with a party of marines, attacked their batteries, blew up one in Ance D'Arlette, and threw their guns over the cliff: Captain Crozier was severely wounded.

A schooner privateer, with her prize, was lying at anchor in the harbour of Marin-bay, while Captain Graves, in the Blenheim, was cruising off there, and he determined to cut her out. The harbour is very strongly defended by forts, particularly one

called Dunkirk, on the starboard hand: this was taken by storm, by Lieutenants Beattie and Boyd, of the royal marines, with a party of their men, who entering the fort with fixed bayonets, the enemy instantly cried for quarter. The capture of this place ensured in some degree the success of the remainder of the enterprise.

The boats, led by Captain Ferris of the Drake, pushed on, and took the schooner by boarding; she mounted four carriage guns, and had on board only forty-four men at the time of her capture, many having escaped to the shore. The guns of Fort Dunkirk, six twenty-four pounders, and eighteen three pounders, were spiked; the carriages and ammunition thrown into the sea. One British seaman was killed, and four wounded. Lieutenant Domet, in the Vigilant tender, burnt a schooner in Ance de Serron, and destroyed the battery of Chateau Margot, of three eighteen pounders, and came off without the loss of a man.

In the month of February, Lieutenant Carr, in the Eclair schooner, of ten guns and sixty men, engaged the Grande Decidé, a French privateer, of twenty-two nine pounders and two hundred and thirty men; the action having lasted three-quarters of an hour, the enemy fled.

Mr. Salmon, master of the Eclair, with the surgeon and ten men, in a six-oared cutter, boarded a schooner privateer, under the batteries of Guadaloupe, and brought her out. She mounted one brass nine pounder, and had fifty men.

About the same time the boats of the Emerald frigate, commanded by Captain James O'Brien, were sent into the road of St. Pierre, Martinique, to cut out a schooner, lying under cover of the batteries. Lieutenant (now Captain) Thomas Forrest, who conducted the enterprise, laid the enemy on board; and though she was moored with a chain to the shore, and he had to sustain the fire of the fort, he brought her out: she proved to be La Mosambique, of ten guns and sixty men. Lieutenant Forrest had only twenty men with him. We regret that it is not in our power to devote more space to the numerous instances of valour displayed by our young officers, on this and other foreign stations.

From what has been seen of the vigilance and success of our cruisers, and the miserable state of the French garrisons, mowed down by sickness, famine, and the sword, their evacuation of St. Domingo was an event that might have been anticipated. They still held Cape François, Cape Nicholas Mole, and the city of St. Domingo; the former was blockaded by Commodore Loring, in the Bellerophon, who, in November, 1803, received proposals of capitulation from General Rochambeau. The enemy, though in the deepest distress, were not less extravagant in their demands; they required a free passage in their own ships of war to France! This of course was refused, and they soon after surrendered to the British forces, as the only means of saving themselves from destruction.