on the 24th of January, at 4 p.m., after two officers, sent to communicate with General Paoli, had returned with a favourable report, the British fleet, amounting, including army-victuallers, horse and other transports, to 60 sail, got under way from the bay of Hyères, and proceeded towards the bay of San-Fiorenzo.

On the next day, the 25th, a gale of wind came on, and dispersed and endangered the fleet; the Victory, among other ships, having had two main topsails blown to rags, and the yard itself rendered totally unserviceable. On the 29th the fleet, being driven greatly to leeward, gained, but not without difficulty, Porto-Ferrajo, in the island of Elba. As three-decked ships were not qualified to navigate narrow seas and rocky coasts, particularly in the winter season, the 74-gun ships, Alcide, Captain John Woodley, bearing the flag of Commodore Robert Linzee, Egmont, Captain Archibald Dickson, and Fortitude, Captain William Young, accompanied by two frigates, the Lowestoffe and Juno, and by several transports with troops, were detached, on the 5th of February, to a bay lying to the westward of Cape Mortella ; where they arrived in safety on the 7th. On the same evening the troops, in number about 1400, and commanded by Major-general Dundas, disembarked, and immediately took possession of a height which overlooked the tower of Mortella, the first of several strong positions necessary to be reduced, before the anchorage at the west side of the gulf of San-Fiorenzo could be made properly secure ; and which tower, it will be recollected, had been recaptured from the British, or rather from the Corsicans, in the October of the preceding year, by a squadron of French frigates.

An attack against the tower, by sea and land, was decided upon ; and, on the 8th, the Fortitude and Juno anchored in the best manner for battering it with effect. The two ships kept up an unremitting fire for two hours and a half ; without, however, making any material impression on the walls of the building. At the end of this time the Fortitude's mainmast was much wounded, many of the shrouds were cut away, three of her lower-deck guns dismounted, several hot shot in her hull, and a great many of her men had been blown up by an explosion of powder from a box which had been struck by a hot shot. The ship also was now so near to the tower and the rocks, that, should the wind die away, it would be difficult, and, should it blow on shore, might be impossible, to save her. Under these circumstances, the two vessels ceased firing, and hauled out of gun-shot. The Fortitude sustained a loss of six men killed, and 56 wounded, eight of them dangerously. No sooner had the ship got clear of the tower, than she was perceived to be on fire, from the second deck to the upper part of the quick-work on the quarterdeck, occasioned by a hot shot that had lodged in her side. After cutting out the shot, and opening the side in several places, the fire was extinguished; and that, fortunately,