of 16 guns and 62 men ; and to a smart fire from whose musketry and stern-chasers, the Cobourg had been exposed for the last two hours of the nine. A spirited action now ensued, during which the lugger made two attempts to board the cutter, but was repulsed. After a two hours' running fight, close alongside, a well-directed broadside from the Cobourg shot away the Revanche's main and mizen masts by the board, and also her fore yard ; whereupon the privateer's men called for quarter.

No sooner was the Revanche taken possession of ; than she was found to be sinking, the effects of more than 40 shots which the lugger had received between wind and water. The utmost promptitude was used in shifting the prisoners, and getting back the Cobourg's people, who had been placed in possession ; nor was it without the utmost difficulty that the whole were saved from going to the bottom in the prize. The Cobourg had sustained considerable damage in her spars, sails, and rigging ; but was fortunate enough to escape with only two men wounded. Her fire, on the other hand, had killed seven, and wounded eight men belonging to the lugger, described as the largest that sailed out of Calais.

On the 22d of March, at 7 a.m., as the British 74-gun ship Canada, Captain Sir John Borlase Warren, 44-gun frigate Anson, Captain Philip Charles Durham, and 38-gun frigate Phaëton, Captain the Honourable Robert Stopford, were cruising about eight leagues to the westward of Pointe-Rousonirez, coast of France, with a moderate breeze at north-north-east, the Anson discovered a strange ship in the east quarter, standing to the southward. This was the French 36-gun frigate Charente, Captain Alain-Adélaide-Marie Bruilhac, a few days from Rochefort, bound to Cayenne, with 193 unfortunate people, banished for their political sins to that unhealthy climate.

The chase continued throughout the day, with light and variable breezes ; and at 1 h. 30 m. a.m. on the 23d, the Phaëton got near enough to open a fire upon the Charente ; who, after returning the fire with her stern-chasers, hauled up for the channel des Graves, or southern passage into the river Gironde. This change of course brought the Charente within the range of the Canada's guns ; and several broadsides were interchanged until about 4 a.m., when the Canada struck on a sand-bank and remained fast.

The 74's signal for assistance occasioned a discontinuance of the chase by the Phaëton and Anson ; and the Charente, after grounding on the Olives, and being obliged, in consequence, to throw the greater part if not the whole of her guns overboard, reached the river of Bordeaux. What loss, if any, the Charente sustained by the fire of the Phaëton and Canada, we are unable to state ; but we believe the ship was greatly damaged by getting on shore : not, however, to the extent, as Sir John Warren in his public letter states, of "being bilged," or the French

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