This privateer mounted one brass long 6-pounder and four 1-pound swivels on her bow, and 12 brass blunderbusses, or musketoons, on her sides, and had on board when taken, exclusive of 13 reported as killed, 29 men. The privateer that was sunk was stated to have had on board 56 men, and the one that escaped, 48 ; making a total of 146 opposed to 14. Of this her small crew the Rose was so fortunate as to have only one man hurt, and that was by having his foot accidentally crushed by one of the gun-carriages. This intrepid fellow, William Brown by name, although so painfully wounded, could not be persuaded to go below, saying to his commander, "Indeed, sir, you cannot spare a man ; I can sit here and use a musket as well as any of them. " * Notwithstanding her crew had escaped so surprisingly, the Rose had her hull struck with shot in every direction, her mast and main boom badly wounded, and her sails riddled like a sieve.

Battening down the privateer's men in their vessel and then taking her in tow, the Rose steered with her prize for Bastia, where, in a day or two, they both arrived. Lieutenant Walker soon afterwards, for his very gallant behaviour, received a most flattering letter from the Viceroy of Corsica, Sir Gilbert Elliot, as well as from Admiral Hotham, the British commander-in-chief on the station. But, owing to some unexplained cause, the official letter addressed to Admiral Hotham never found its way into the Gazette : hence the affair, although long a topic of admiration among the officers of the British navy serving in the Mediterranean, produced no beneficial result to the party who had so nobly sustained the honour of the British flag.

On the 10th of October, at 9 h. 30 m. a.m., the British 12-pounder 32-gun frigate Mermaid, Captain Henry Warre, cruising off the island of Grenada, discovered a ship and brig at anchor off La-Baye, and made all sail towards them. At 10 h. 30 m. a.m. the two vessels, which were the French ship-corvette Républicaine, of 18 guns, and the brig-corvette Brutus, of 10 guns, got under way and made sail to the southward, with the wind easterly.

Finding that the Mermaid was gaining fast upon her, the Brutus bore up and steered for the land, anchoring, at 10 h. 50 m., in the bay of Requain. The frigate bore up also, and at noon anchored close to the brig ; who soon began landing her crew, consisting of 50 sailors and 70 soldiers. After firing several broadsides at the Brutus and at the people landing from her, Captain Warre sent his boats, manned and armed, and took possession of the brig. It now appeared that two men, left on board for that purpose, had just set the brig on fire in the fore hold, and the British were obliged to scuttle the decks to

* The men, in these cases, being hired with the vessel, receive no allowance for wounds.