This exploit was achieved with a loss to the British of only seven men slightly wounded ; whereas the Raposa had one officer and four men killed, and her acting commander and 25 men wounded, many of them mortally ; several of the crew had also leaped overboard and were drowned. The remaining brig, represented to have mounted 20 guns, with a crew of 180 men, the schooner eight guns, and the seven gun-boats, two each, now opened a fire of cannon and musketry upon the Raposa ; but the latter and the boats so smartly returned the fire, that the flotilla soon retired to their former position, and left Lieutenant Fleming in quiet possession of his prize.

It is always a pleasant part of our task, after recording a well executed enterprise of the desperate character of that which we have just narrated, to be able to state, that the officer who, as is not invariably the case, was both the appointed and the real leader of the party, has received that promotion, which is so justly his due. The preparatory step to this is the official testimony of the captain of the ship whose boats were detached on the service. Let us see what Captain Dashwood, in his letter to Vice-admiral Dacres, says upon the subject of this action: " To an officer of your discriminating judgment, I trust I shall stand excused if I take the liberty of recommending Lieutenant Fleming to your notice for his meritorious conduct on this occasion. He appears to me to be an officer of distinguished merit and bravery ; and I understood he was highly respected by his late captain, the good, the amiable, and my gallant predecessor, the Honourable John Murray. " Can any thing be stronger ? And yet Lieutenant Fleming was not promoted, but Lieutenant Douglas was. The latter, at the date of the enterprise, was third lieutenant of the ship ; the former first : the one was a lieutenant of about two years' standing, the other of nearly six. What was the consequence ? Why that Lieutenant Fleming was not made a commander until November, 1814, just three years to a month after Lieutenant Douglas had been made a post-captain. That Lieutenant Douglas was a brave officer, and a most deserving young man, no one can deny ; but Lieutenant Fleming possessed the prior right of promotion, from his seniority of rank, from his responsibility as the commanding officer of the enterprise, and from his acknowledged skill and gallantry in bringing that enterprise to a successful issue.

On the 8th of March, in the evening, the British 44-gun frigate Egyptienne, Captain the Honourable Charles Paget, anchored off the port of Muros in Spain, and detached her boats, under the command of Captain Philip Cosby Handfield (still acting as first lieutenant of the frigate, on account of not having received an official account of his promotion), assisted by Lieutenant Richard Israel Alleyn, and Lieutenant of marines Edward Hancock Garthwaite, to endeavour to cut out from the harbour a large frigate-built French privateer known to be lying there.

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