ceased. The British were not long in cutting the cables of their prize, nor in unfurling her sails ; and, in a very few minutes, the Curieux, in the hands of her new masters, stood out of Fort-Royal harbour. A smart fire was successively opened from Fort Edouard, a battery on Pointe Negro, and another at Pointe Soloman, but the brig passed clear, and, long before break of day, was at anchor by the side of the Centaur.

It was an additional cause of congratulation to the British, that their loss of men, considering the magnitude of the enterprise, was small, consisting of only nine wounded. Three of the number, it is true, were officers ; Lieutenant Reynolds, the gallant leader of the party, his able second, Lieutenant George Edmund Byron Bettesworth, and Mr. John Tracy, a midshipman. The two latter were not badly wounded; but the first-named officer had received no fewer than five severe, and, as they eventually proved, mortal wounds : one of the seamen, also, died of his wounds. The loss on the part of the French was very serious. The Curieux had one midshipman and nine petty officers, seamen, and marines killed, and 30, including all her commissioned officers but one midshipman, wounded, many of them severely, and some mortally. The French captain had a singular escape : after having been knocked down and stunned, he was thrown overboard, but fell on the fluke of the anchor, whence he dropped into one of the Curieux's boats which was alongside, full of water-casks. The only man in the boat immediately cut her adrift, and pulled for the shore; and Captain Cordelier, on recovering his senses, was as much chagrined as surprised at the novelty of his situation.

The Curieux had long been at sea, and was considered to be one of the best-manned and best-disciplined brigs in the French navy. Some of her crew were undoubtedly panic-struck ; but the time, and the suddenness of the attack, coupled with its resistless impetuosity, may serve in part for their excuse. The determined behaviour of the French officers excited the admiration of their opponents ; and Lieutenant Louis-Ange Cheminant, and Enseigne de vaisseau Jean-Joseph-Maurice Joly (both wounded), as likewise was their brave commander, particularly distinguished themselves. The conduct of the British upon the occasion speaks for itself.

Commodore Hood, very considerately, despatched the Curieux to Fort-Royal as a flag of truce with the wounded Frenchmen ; and Vice-admiral Villaret-Joyeuse, the governor-general of the island, with a proper sense of the act, sent back his acknowledgments. Upon her return, the Curieux, under her French name, became a British sloop of war, and was given to the officer who had headed the party that captured her ; but Captain Reynolds's wounds were of too severe a nature to admit of his taking the immediate charge of his new command. Thus

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