The Telegraph had five men wounded ; the Hirondelle five killed, and 14 wounded. In this close engagement the carronades of the Telegraph produced their full effect, and Lieutenant Worth, who was promoted to the rank of commander on the occasion, Mr. George Gibbs, the master, and the remainder of the British officers and crew, conducted themselves in a very creditable manner ; nor, considering the obstinate defence they made, can much less be said of the officers and men of the Hirondelle.

On the 30th of March the British 36-gun frigate Trent, Captain Robert Waller Otway, while cruising, in company with the 12-gun cutter Sparrow, Lieutenant John Wiley, off the west end of the island of Porto-Rico, discovered, in a small bay about seven leagues to the northward of Cape Roxo, a Spanish merchant ship and three schooners at anchor in shoal water, close to the shore, and under the protection of a 5-gun battery. Captain Otway immediately despatched the boats of the ship, commanded by Lieutenants Nathaniel Belchier and George Balderston, and Lieutenant George M'Gie of the marines, and covered by the Sparrow, to attempt cutting them out. A party of marines under Lieutenant M'Gie, and of seamen under Lieutenant Belchier, landed and stormed the battery ; which, after killing five and wounding several of the Spaniards stationed at it, they carried. While the British on shore were engaged in spiking the guns and destroying the battery, those in the boats, led by Lieutenant Balderston, and greatly assisted by the fire from the Sparrow, boarded and brought off the ship and one out of the three schooners, two of which had been scuttled by the Spaniards. This creditable exploit was effected with no greater loss to the British than two seamen and one corporal of marines wounded.

On the 9th of April, early in the morning, the British 18-pounder 36-gun frigate San-Fiorenzo, Captain Sir Harry Neale, and 38-gun frigate Amelia, Captain the Honourable Charles Herbert, having reconnoitred two French frigates at anchor in the port of Lorient, stood towards Belle-Isle. As the British approached, some vessels were seen at anchor in the great road, but, being under the land, were not distinguishable until the frigates had run the whole length of the island ; when the strangers were at once seen to be three French frigates and a large cutter gun-vessel, having their topsail yards hoisted ready for a start. At this instant, which was just at 9 a.m., a sudden and heavy squall of wind from the north-west carried away the Amelia's main topmast, and fore and mizen topgallantmasts ; the topmast, in its fall, tearing a great part of the mainsail from the yard.

So fine an opportunity was not lost upon the French commodore ; whose three frigates, the Cornélie, Vengeance, and Sémillante, dropping their topsails, got under way, and,

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