her cable, and ran off before the wind to a distant part of the bay. Here the Preneuse again anchored, and continued there until a few minutes before 10 a.m. ; when the French frigate got under way, and leaving her anchor and cable, from which she had, in the first instance, cut or slipped, as a trophy to her two opponents, stood to the south-west on the starboard tack, under her courses and main topsail only, as if damaged in her masts. .

The Camel's fore and mizen masts, main yard, and maintopsail yard, were wounded, her rigging a good deal cut, and her hull struck in several places. Her loss, notwithstanding, amounted to no more, out of the 101 men and boys she had on board, than six men wounded. The Rattlesnake had her main and mizen masts, main topmast, and bowsprit wounded, some immaterial injury to her rigging, and eight shot-holes between wind and water ; with the loss, out of 92 men and boys on board, of her carpenter and one seaman killed, another, mortally, and six or seven slightly wounded.

The disparity of force in this case will be evident when we state, that the Preneuse was a frigate mounting 40 guns, 12 and 6 pounders, with a crew of about 300 men ; and that the Camel, mounted 20 long 9 and four long 6 pounders, and the Rattlesnake, 16 long 6-pounders and a few 12-pounder carronades, with, on board the two ships, a total of only 193 men. Great credit was therefore due to Lieutenants Fothergill and Charles Shaw, which latter commanded the Camel, and to their respective officers and crews for their persevering defence. Nor must we omit to state, that Captains Lee and Gooch made several attempts to get from the shore to their ships in time to participate in the action ; but the surf was so high, that no boat could be got off the beach. In almost every effort that was made, the boat, with the two captains on board, upset, and the crew with difficulty escaped drowning.

To specify the damage or loss sustained by the Preneuse, in this to her somewhat discreditable encounter, is not in our power, the historian, who has hitherto assisted us in recording the exploits of Captain L'Hermite in the Indian seas, having stopped short of the latter's adventure in Algoa bay : and that although " Désastres et revers " form a part of the promised matter of his book. This is the more extraordinary, as with the Camel's two rows of ports, if not of guns, and the Rattlesnake's three masts, and detached quarterdeck, a case might have been made out, such as a French writer need not have been afraid to publish, nor a French reader of the most sensitive kind displeased to peruse.

The apparently crippled state of the Preneuse as she stood out of Algoa bay, and. the south-westerly course steered by her when last seen, affording a reasonable hope of her being overtaken by any ship, that, not being in the unprepared state of

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