Of her 134 men and boys, the Wilhelmina had her boatswain and three seamen mortally, and six seamen slightly wounded. It may here be remarked, that the additional height given to the trucks of the Wilhelmina's maindeck carriages, to suit them to ports constructed for 12-pounders, was found to increase the facility of working the nines ; a circumstance which occasioned her inferiority in number of men to be less sensibly felt. With respect to the loss on board the Psyché, that ship, according to the statement of Captain Wright, had her second captain and 10 men killed, and her commander (dangerously) and 32 men wounded, 13 of them mortally.

With such a disparity of force as evidently existed against the Wilhelmina this was an action highly honourable to the British ship. It is true that the Wilhelmina's opponent was a privateer ; but the Psyché, by all accounts, was a better appointed, better manned, and better disciplined ship, than many frigates of the same force in the French navy. Commanded by no less a man than Captain Jacques Bergeret, already known to us as the Virginie's gallant captain, the Psyché had sailed from Madras in the beginning of February, bound to Pondicherry on commercial pursuits. Thence she proceeded to the Isle of France, and arrived there in May. In June or July news of the war reached the island. The Psyché was immediately armed and equipped as a ship of war ; but Captain Bergeret, preferring employment in the national navy, sent out his ship to cruise, under the command of a Captain Trogoff, either the son or nephew of the French admiral who commanded the ships at Toulon when Lord Hood entered that port in August, 1793 ; Captain Trogoff was considered, in the eastern hemisphere, the chief scene of his exploits, to be a brave, skilful, and enterprising officer.

On the other hand, it was Captain Lambert's good fortune to have been preceded in the command of the Wilhelmina by an officer who knew how to appreciate (and how few do) the art of naval gunnery. Captain James Lind had been indefatigable in teaching his men to fire with precision ; and the effect of the skill attained by the latter was visible in the execution they did to an antagonist, that otherwise, notwithstanding they continued to display, as no doubt they would, the characteristic bravery of British seamen, might, by her decided superiority of force, brave ultimately compelled the Wilhelmina to surrender.

After quitting the latter, the Psyché proceeded, with all haste, pumping day and night, to the Isle of France. There she arrived in almost a sinking state; and, judging from the storm of shot with which their late opponent had assailed them, her officers publicly declared that the Psyché the had " beaten off " (a very commodious, and therefore a very frequent expression in all similar cases) an English " 44-gun frigate." As soon as she had repaired the most important of her damages the Wilhelmina

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