1810	Boats of Alceste at Agaye	251

made his escape, and Lieutenant Wilson was obliged to relinquish the enterprise and return on board. Meanwhile the other party, under Mr. Henry Bell, the master, reached undiscovered the rear of his fort, and attacked and carried it in the most spirited manner. As, however, the opposite battery had not been reduced, Mr. Bell was obliged to retire ; but he did not do so until he had spiked the guns, two long 24-pounders, broken their carriages, destroyed the magazine, and thrown the shot into the sea. Having accomplished this, he and his men returned to their ship without a casualty.

Finding that the vessels would not quit their anchorage while the frigate lay off, Captain Maxwell, on the night of the 25th, sent the barge and yawl, one armed with a 12-pounder carronade, the other with a 4-pounder field-piece, under the command of Mr. Bell, accompanied by master's mate Thomas Day, and midshipman James Adair, with orders to lie in a little cove near the harbour's mouth, while the Alceste stood to some distance in the offing. The bait took ; and on the morning of the 26th the French vessels sailed out quite boldly. To their astonishment, the two armed boats pulled in amongst them, and presently captured four feluccas, three of which were armed (one with six guns, and the two others with four each), drove two upon the rocks, and the rest back into the harbour. This the British effected, although exposed to a fire from the batteries, from some soldiers on the beach, and from two armed feluccas among the vessels that escaped. Mr. Adair, who with two or three men had been left in charge of the barge while Mr. Bell and Mr. Day were boarding the feluccas, made so good a use of the 12-pounder carronade, that the four prizes were brought off without the slightest hurt to a man of the party.

In the month of June Captain William Hoste, of the 18-pounder 32-gun frigate Amphion, having under his orders the 38-gun frigate Active, Captain James Alexander Gordon, and 18-pounder 32-gun frigate Cerberus, Captain Henry Whitby, cruised in the gulf of Triest. On the 28th, in the morning, the boats of the Amphion chased a convoy of several vessels, reported to be laden with naval stores for the arsenal of Venice, into the harbour of Groa. The capture of the convoy, although, on account of the shoals, to be effected only by boats, being an object of considerable importance, Captain Hoste resolved to make the attempt without delay. In the evening the Amphion telegraphed the Active and Cerberus, to send their boats to her by 12 at night ; but owing to her distance in the offing, the Active was not able to comply with the signal in time. Accordingly the boats of the Amphion and Cerberus, Commanded by Lieutenant William Slaughter, second (first absent) of the Amphion, and assisted by Lieutenants Donat Henchy O'Brien of the same frigate, and James Dickinson of the Cerberus,

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