Capt. Bourchier, of his Majesty's sloop Hawke, cruising off St. Marcou, on the coast of Normandy, to intercept the enemy's trade, descried a convoy of French vessels steering for Barfleur. He gave chace, and on approaching found that they were protected by three armed national brigs, carrying from 12 to 16 guns, and two large luggers. This very superior force did not hesitate to attack the English sloop, but their reception was such that two of the brigs and the two luggers, with 15 of their convoy, were driven on shore, and of the remainder many had struck, when the Hawke unfortunately grounded, which gave them an opportunity to escape. By proper exertions she was got off, and came to an anchor; and her boats being sent to bring away or destroy as many of the enemy's vessels on shore as was practicable, they succeeded in bringing off, under a heavy fire of musketry from the beach, a national brig, and three large transports, laden with shiptimber the rest were on their broadsides, and completely bilged. This service was performed with a very small loss. An enterprize in which both courage and stratagem were successfully employed was undertaken by his Majesty's ships Diana, Captain Ferris, and Semiramis, Capt. Richardson, lying off the mouth of the Gironde. Perceiving four sail of vessels, under convoy of a national brig of war on the inside of the shoals at the mouth of that river, Capt. Ferris, disguising the English ships so well that pilots were sent to their assistance on the supposition that they were French, brought them to anchor between the Corduan Lighthouse and Royan, on the evening of Aug. 24th, and dispatched armed boats to capture or destroy the convoy then lying about four miles distant up the river. At daylight he determined to attack the national brig, and another stationed for the protection of the river, still having kept up the deception so well, that the port captain, who commanded one of the brigs, came on board the Diana to offer his services, and did not discover his mistake till he was ascending the quarter deck. Capt. Ferris then laid the outer brig on board, and succeeded in taking her without loss on either side. She proved to be the late English gun-brig, Teazer, mounting twelve 18 pound carronades, and two long 18 pounders, with 85 men. In the meantime the Semiramis drove on shore, and burnt under the guns of the Royan battery, Le Pluvier, of 16 guns and 136 men. The captured merchant vessels were then brought out, and the business was terminated with complete success. During the visit of the French emperor at Boulogne, in September, an incident occurred which must have afforded him a mortifying proof of the insufficiency of his boasted armament in that place to cope with even the minor force of the British navy. Capt. Carteret, of the Naiad frigate, anchored off that port, writes that on the morning of the 20th,heobserved much bustle among the enemy's flotilla, moored along shore under their batteries, which seemed to indicate that some great affair was in agitation. About noon, Buonaparte, in a barge accompanied by MICHIGAN University of GENERAL HISTORY. several officers, was seen to proceed along their line to the centre ship, which immediately hoisted the imperial standard at the main, and lowered it at his departure, substituting for it a vice-admiral's flag. By his express orders, as was afterwards learned, seven praams, each carrying twelve long 24 pounders, and 120 men, and commanded by rear-admiral Baste, then stood out with the flood tide towards the Naiad, which awaited the attack at anchor, with springs on her cables. The praams, which had the option of choosing their distance, came up successively within gun shot, gave their broadsides, and tacked, and continued this mode of engaging, joined afterwards by ten brigs, for upwards of two hours without intermission. The Naiad, which had returned their fire, and had not a single man hurt, then weighed and stood off, partly to repair some small damages, but principally to endeavour to get to windward, that she might he enabled to close with the enemy. After a time she tacked and made all sail towards them; but it falling calm, the flotilla anchored under the batte-ries, eastward of Boulogne, and the Naiad resumed her former anchorage. On the following morning, the enemy's flotilla of 7 praams and 15 smaller vessels weighed and stood out, apparently to renew their former distant cannonade, The Naiad weighed, and getting well to windward, joined the armed brigs Rinaldo, Redpole, and Castillian, with the Viper cutter, which had come in the night to her support. They all lay to on the larboard tack, gradually draw 69 199 ing off shore, in order to entice The remainder of the more These were the principal naval actions of the year within the European seas, the capture of single privateers, and small armed vessels, being almost the only other successes recorded in the gazette. Of the latter, however, that of the famous fast-sailing privateer, Le Vice-adm. Martin, of 18 guns and 140 men, from Bayonne, by the frigates Fortunée and Saldanha, in October, is worth mentioning as an example of a well-conducted chace. Such was the privateer's rate of sailing, and dexterity of management, that the English captains were convinced neither of their ships could have taken her singly. The Indian sea, off Madagascar, was the scene of a severe action between an English and French squadron in the month of May. Three French frigates, with troops on board, having appeared off Mauritius on May 7th, and borne away on discovering the capture of that island, it was conjectured by Capt. Schomberg, ofthe Astræa, that they would push for Tamatave. He accordingly sailed thither, accompanied by the Phoebe and Galatea frigates, and the Racehorse sloop; and the enemy being discovered on the 20th near Foul Point, Madagascar, the signal to chace was made from the Astræa. Variable winds and calms rendered it impossible for the English ships to get up together to close action; and while the Astræa was lying almost immoveable on the water, the enemy succeeded in rounding the two other frigates, and raking them with considerable effect. Night came on before any thing decisive was effected, but the Galatea had suffered so much in her masts that she could not be brought again to action. In the morning the Astræa led towards the enemy, followed by the Phoebe and Racehorse, and bringing the commodore's ship to close action, in 25 minutes she struck. Another frigate also struck, but afterwards attempted to escape; and was chased without success. One which had been worsted by the Phoebe, on the preceding night, also got off. The captured ship proved to be La Renommée of 44 guns and 470 men, of whom 200 were picked troops. She was reduced to a wreck, with 145 killed and wounded, among the former of whom was the gallant captain. After this action, the English squadron proceeded to Tamatave, then repossessed by the French, and brought the fort to surrender, with all the vessels in the harbour, among which was the Nereide of 44 guns, one of the ships in the preceding engagement. It was agreed that the garrison and the crew of the Nereide should be sent to France without being considered as prisoners of war. The close of the year was unfortunately distinguished by disasters at sea arising from storms, of which the royal navy partook in a full proportion. On the night of Dec. 4th, the Saldanha frigate of 32 guns, the Hon. Capt. Pakenham, was lost off Lough Swilley on the northern coast of Ireland, and every soul on board perished. One man alone got to land, but in so exhausted a state that he soon expired. A dreadful gale in the German ocean, on Dec. 24th, was the occasion of a much more serious loss. The Hero of 74 guns, Capt. Newman, with the Grasshopper sloop, Capt. Fanshawe, which had sailed on Dec. 18th from Wingo Sound, with the Egeria and the Prince William armed ship, and a convoy of 120 sail, encountered tremendous weather after leaving the Sleeve, and being separated from the rest of the fleet, were in company on the 23d, together with about 18 of the convoy steering to the south-west. A heavy squall of snow and sleet coming on, the Grasshopper lost sight of the rest, and got upon a sand-bank, whence she shifted into deeper water and anchored. In the night the Hero was perceived firing guns, and burning blue lights; but when day broke, she was totally dismasted, on her beam-ends, lying upon the Haak sand, off the Texel island, the crew all crowded together on the poop and forecastle. She hoisted a flag of truce and fired a gun, and soon after some small vessels were seen plying out of the Texel to her assistance, but the violence of the wind, and a flood-tide, rendered all their exertions ineffectual, and she went to pieces, not a single person escaping to tell her tale. The Grass hopper, after encountering much danger, was carried into the Texel, and her crew made prisoners to the squadron of Adm. de Winter, who treated them with great humanity. Several ships of the convoy shared the fate of the unfortunate Hero. The Baltic convoy had previously, in the month of November, undergone some severe storms while yet i and near the Belt, by which several were driven on shore, and caine into the hands of the Danes. The convoy was under the care of Admiral Reynolds, on board the St. George of 98 guns, which suffered so much that she was obliged to cut away all her masts. She finally left the Baltic, with the Defence of 74 guns, Capt. Atkins, and was proceeding homewards, when, on the morning of the fatal Dec. 24th, they were both stranded on the western coast of North Jutland. The Defence first took the ground, and in half an hour went entirely to pieces, all her crew being drowned with the exception of five seamen and a marine, who got to shore upon pieces of the wreck. The St. George immediately let go her anchor; but in bringing up, took the ground abaft. It was impossible to assist them from the shore; and all the boats that were hoisted out were driven from the ship, one excepted, in which about 20 men attempted to save themselves, but it upset by the ship's side, and all were drowned. Eleven of the crew only got on shore on pieces of the wreck, and when the last of them left the St. George, on the afternoon of the 25th, the admiral, and Captain Guion, commander of the ship, were lying dead beside each other on the quarter deck, as were also more than 500 of the crew. Only about 50 remained alive, whose cries were heard till it was dark the ensuing night terminated their sufferings. With these ships were lost nearly 1400 men, who, added to those lost in the Hero and Saldanha, formagreater diminution of British seamen than has occurred in some of the most glorious naval battles. The loss of the St. George's masts in the Belt is assigned as the original cause of the misfortune; but some intelligent mariners assert that it was a fault both in these ships and the Hero, not to have stood, immediately after clearing the Skager Rack, over to the English coast, as the merchantmen from the Baltic usually do. CHAPTER XIII. Campaign in Portugal.-Retreat of Massena.-Action at Sabugal. Repulse of the French at Fuentes d'Honor.-Their Evacuation of Almeida. Battle of Albuera.-Siege of Badajos raised.-State of the Portuguese Army. A T the commencement of this year, every British eye was anxiously turned to the capital of Portugal, in the vicinity of which lay two powerful armies, one awaiting every opportunity to attack, the other equally vigilant to defend. The allied army under Lord Wellington occupied the strong lines of Torres Vedros, in front of which, at Cartaxo, the commander posted himself with the main body of British. Marshal Massena had his head quarters at Santarem, whilst his troops spread along the Tagus and the Zezere, and his foragers sought subsistence as far as the borders of the Upper Beira. He had strengthened his army by reinforcements from various quarters; and early in January had been joined by a corps estimated at eight thousand men, under General Gardanne. General Claparede had twice attacked the Portuguese General Silveira, in Upper Beira, and obliged him to retreat with loss, and at length had compelled him to evacuate Lamego, and retire across the Douro. In the mean time Marshal Mortier advanced southwards into Spanish Estremadura, took possession, on June the 8th, of Merida and the bridge over the Guadiana, the Spanish retiring on his approach, and afterwards blockaded Olivença, which surrendered to the French on the 22nd. The Portuguese ordenanzas were active in Beira; and a body of them, commanded by LieutenantColonel Grant, made a spirited attack on February the 1st, near Guarda, upon a detachment of three thousand men, who were escorting General Foix on his way from Ciudad Rodrigo to join Massena. The result was a considerable loss to the French, of men and baggage. The two great armies were in very different circumstances with respect to the facility of procuring necessary supplies. Lord Wellington had the capital behind him, with its noble port accessible to all the vessels that the power and wealth of Great Britain could freight; and how burthensome soever the maintenance, not only of the troops, but of a great portion of the population of the country, might be to the finances of England, the commander might rest assured that all his wants would be provided for. Massena, on the other hand, was lying in an already devastated country, remote from all sources of regular supply, and obliged to the precarious aid of convoys for the safe |