1808	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	52

invention we believe, of Captain Dacres, Captain Inglefield's predecessor in the command of the Bacchante.

On the 2d of May, at daybreak, the British 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Unité, Captain Patrick Campbell, cruising off Cape Promontoro in the Gulf of Venice, came up with and captured the Italian brig-corvette Ronco, mounting 16 brass carronades, represented as " 32-pounders," but, we suppose, French 36-pounders, with a crew of 100 men. No loss was sustained on either side, although the brig fired several broadsides at the frigate, and cut her sails and rigging a good deal. Scarcely had the Ronco hauled down her colours, when an Italian frigate and schooner were observed in the north or windward quarter. The Unité immediately made sail in chase ; but, owing to the lightness of the wind, the ship and schooner escaped into Pola. before Captain Campbell could get within two gun-shots of either.

On the 31st, at about 5 p.m., having just weighed from under the island of Lusin, where she had been sheltering herself from a heavy north-east gale, the Unité discovered, close under Premuda, three brigs on the starboard tack with the wind at east. The frigate proceeded in chase, and presently made out the vessels to be three brigs of war. On observing the Unité, the three brigs, two of which were the Italian corvettes, Nettuno and Teulié, of the same force as the Ronco, and the third a smaller vessel than either, wore, and steered with the apparent intention of gaining the channel of Zara ; out of which port, it seems, they had been despatched the day before, upon the very feasible enterprise of capturing the British frigate, on a supposition that she was too weakly manned to make an effective resistance.

As the night was likely to be clear, and the wind was moderate, Captain Campbell, although the navigation was extremely intricate and unknown to any person on board, determined to follow the three brigs, trusting to the lead and a good look-out. In this way the Unité kept sight of the vessels, until 11 h. 30 m. p.m., when they disappeared. By carrying a press of sail, the Unité, at a few minutes past 3 a.m. on the 1st of June, regained a sight of two of the brigs, distant about two miles on her lee beam. The helm was immediately put up ; but the sails were hardly trimmed when the third brig was observed on the starboard tack, upon the frigate's larboard and weather bow. The Unité immediately hauled to the wind, and, passing the brig within musket-shot to leeward, gave her the larboard broadside with such effect, that she hauled down her colours without firing a gun.

While the boats were proceeding to secure this brig, the Unité crowded sail after the remaining two, who were making off through one of the passages in the hope to get to sea. The wind falling, and the brigs making use of their sweeps, it was not until 7

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