number; similar to those of the Phoebe at a preceding page. The 36 guns of the Furie, a frigate of 827 tons, were long Dutch twelves and sixes ; and the 26 guns of the Waakzaamheid, a ship of 504 tons, were all, except two brass sixes, long Dutch eights : two of these also brass and, we believe, mounted in the bridle-ports. Even then, 24 ports, calculated for 8 or 9 pounder guns, appear to be a great many for a ship of 504 tons. It is true, that the Waakzaamheid had two ports of a side on a lower or birth-deck ; but the official letter expressly states, that she mounted 24 guns on her main deck.

The Furie, out of a complement, including 165 soldiers, of 328 men and boys, suffered a loss of eight men killed and, 14 wounded. The Waakzaamheid, as we have seen, made no defence ; therefore her crew, including 122 French soldiers, of 222 men and boys, escaped unhurt. This renders it unnecessary to exhibit any formal statement of the comparative force of the combatants : suffice it that, could the two Dutch ships have united their strength in defence of their flag, they would still have been hardly a match for the Sirius.

The two prizes contained on board, between them, 6000 stands of arms, besides other ordnance stores ; which, along with the troops, they were carrying to Ireland. Both ships were purchased for the use of the British navy. One, under the name of Wilhelmina (a Fury being already in the service), became a 12-pounder 32-gun frigate ; the other, under her own hard name, was, for the short time she reigned as a cruiser, attached to the 20-gun class. As a proof, too, that we had reason to doubt her having mounted, when captured, 24 guns on the main deck, 20 only were established there when the Waakzaamheid was fitted out in the British service.

In the latter part of November, as the British privateer-schooner Herald, of Jersey, Captain Thomas Pistock, was cruising off the Neapolitan coast, three French privateers commenced a furious attack upon her. Captain P1stock ; by an animated address, so inspirited the Herald's crew, that, after an action of three hours' duration, the Herald beat off all three of her opponents, leaving them with shattered hulls, and a loss, between them, as reported to have been afterwards ascertained, of 30 in killed and wounded ; while the British vessel had the good fortune not to lose a man.

The Herald was only of 80 tons, and mounted 10 guns, 3, 4, and 6 pounders, with a complement of 28 men ; whereas the largest of the French privateers mounted, it is said, five long 18-pounders, (one on a traversing carriage), and the other two, four 8-pounders each : consequently the united crews of the three must have amounted to at least 180 men. It is related also that, on the night of the action, a felucca, with 22 men, suddenly appeared alongside the Herald, with the view of carrying

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