the squadron steered for Laöna bay, the commodore having received intelligence that a large convoy, laden with stores for the French army, had cast anchor off the town of Finale at the bottom of the bay. On arriving in sight of the anchorage, however, four vessels only made their appearance, and these were moored under some batteries which opened on the Peterel as she was leading the boats of the squadron to the attack. The animated fire kept up from the ships in return effectually secured the boats, as they advanced to board and bring off the enemy's vessels ; a service which the British gallantly executed, notwithstanding a heavy fire opened upon them from the shore, close to which the vessels were lying. The detachments were commanded by Lieutenant Maurice W. Suckling, assisted by Lieutenants James Noble, Henry Compton, John Culverhouse, and Charles Ryder ; all of whom distinguished themselves. Lieutenant Noble was badly wounded by a musket-ball in the head, and two seamen of the Meleager, one of them the cockswain of her barge, were also wounded, but not dangerously.

On the 31st the commodore, then with his little squadron, to which the 32-gun frigate Blanche, Captain d'Arcy Preston, and 16-gun brig-sloop Speedy, Captain Thomas Elphinstone, had recently been added, cruising off Oneglia, chased six French vessels running along shore, until they anchored close under a battery. At 3 p.m. the Agamemnon, preceded by the Meleager and followed by the Peterel and Speedy, anchored in less than four fathoms' water. The Diadem and Blanche, meanwhile, to the regret of their officers and crews, were too far to leeward to co-operate. The smart cannonade of the three ships and brig soon silenced the batteries ; whereupon the boats of the squadron, in the face of the fire still kept up from three 18-pounders in a national ketch, the Génie, and one 18-pounder in a gun-boat, carried both vessels. The four transports in company had, in the mean time, run on shore ; but these, notwithstanding the musketry of the crews stationed on the beach, were finally brought off. The transports were laden with cannon, ordnance-stores, intrenching tools, and provisions ; which had been brought from Toulon, and were to have been landed at St.Pierre d'Acæne to be employed in the siege of Mantua. To the want of the artillery on board these vessels was attributed, in a great degree, the failure of the attack upon that city. The loss sustained by the British, in the important service just detailed, amounted to only one man killed and three wounded.

In the latter end of June the near approach of the French troops to Leghorn rendered the speedy removal of the British residents and their property, as well as of the stores and provisions lying there for the use of the British fleet, an object of immediate importance. Accordingly, the 36-gun frigate Inconstant, Captain Thomas Francis Fremantle, then with two or three store-ships in company at anchor in the road, succeeded,