1808	Amethyst and Thetis	81

crew " les Landes." This accounts pretty well for the name given to the corvette in Mr. Dyason's letter ; and our contemporary, having no better guide, is excusable for adopting the same name, or rather " le Sarde," a word, by the by, as here spelt, not French. But how happens Captain Brenton to call the Maria's opponent a " brig of war, " * when Mr. Dyason and Sir Alexander Cochrane had both officially stated that she was a ship ? We know, too, from the French Captain's account, that she was the Département-des-Landes This very corvette, it will be recollected, was one of Captain Mudge's " two frigates ; � and, if any person was justified in applying that term to the French ship, it was the officer who lay alongside of her in a brig of 172 tons. Nowhere, however, in Mr. Dyason's letter, nor in Sir Alexander Cochrane's, does the word " frigate " appear.

After carrying his prize into Martinique, Captain Raoul sailed again on his voyage to France. On the 9th of November, in latitude 21� north, longitude (from Paris) 64� west, the Département-des-Landes, according to the French accounts, fell in with an English brig of war, " carrying 32-pounder carronades, " and, after an action of two hours, dismasted and would have taken the brig, but for the appearance of " two British frigates " advancing to her relief. Captain Raoul states his loss on this occasion at only two men killed and few wounded. Although we have searched the logs of six or seven of the 18-gun brigs at this time cruising in the West Indies, we have not been so successful as to discover the brig engaged by the Département-des-Landes There were, however, three or four brig-sloops with 24-pounder carronades, and some gun-brigs with only 18-pounders, stationed off the French islands. Having escaped from the two British frigates, the Département-des-Landes hastened towards Europe, and on the 8th of December was fortunate enough to reach the river of Bordeaux.

On the 10th of November, at 6 h. 42 m. p.m., while the British 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Amethyst, Captain Michael Seymour, with the wind at east-north-east, was standing from the north-west point of the island of Groix towards the main land of France, a battery at Larmour fired several shot apparently at her. In three or four minutes afterwards a sail was observed astern, running about west by south. The Amethyst immediately wore in chase, and presently fired two muskets to bring to the strange vessel, now discovered to be a large ship. The latter was, in fact, the French 40-gun frigate Thétis, Captain Jacques Pinsum, from Lorient bound to Martinique, with troops and 1000 barrels of flour, besides other stores. It was therefore the object of the Thétis to pursue her course, and she did so under all sail. We may here mention, that it was at this ship that the French battery had fired, not having received notice of her intended departure.

* Brenton, vol. iv., p. 272.

� See vol. iv., p. 144.

^ back to top ^