1810	Captain Fane at Palamos	259

cutter; and the two boats pulled with all their strength to over take the xebec.

At about 7 p.m., just as the boats had arrived within gunshot, the privateer, which was the César of Barcelona, of four guns and 59 men, opened a fire upon them ; killing Lieutenant Davis and three seamen, and badly wounding (by a musketball through the collar-bone) Mr. Hambly and four men. With the 26 seamen and marines remaining, Mr. Marshall sprang on board of, and after a smart contest carried, the privateer ; but not without the additional loss of five men wounded. The privateer had four men killed, and nine wounded ; the greater part after boarding, as the seven marines divided between the two boats only fired twice before they and the seamen were on the xebec's decks. This was a very gallant exploit on the part of Mr. Marshall ; * and, had it been properly represented, he certainly would not have had to wait upwards of six years before he received a lieutenant's commission.

On the 13th of December, at 1 p.m., Captain Thomas Rogers, of the 74-gun ship Kent, having under his orders, off the south-east coast of Spain, the Ajax 74, Captain Robert Waller Otway, 40-gun frigate Cambrian, Captain Francis William Fane, and 18-gun sloops Sparrowhawk and Minstrel, Captains James Pringle and Colin Campbell, despatched the boats of the squadron, containing 350 seamen and 250 marines, with two field-pieces, under the command of Captain Fane, to capture or destroy an enemy's convoy in the mole of Palamos ; consisting of one new national ketch mounting 14 guns, with 60 men, two xebecs of three guns and 30 men each, and eight merchant vessels laden with provisions for Barcelona : the whole protected by two 24-pounders, one in a battery that stood over the mole, and the other, with a 13-inch mortar, in a battery on a very commanding height ; besides, from the best information then received, about 250 soldiers in the town.

The boats, very soon after quitting the Kent, landed their men on the beach in the finest order, under cover of the Sparrowhawk and Minstrel, without harm, the French having posted themselves in the town ; from which they also retired on the approach of the British, and the latter forthwith took quiet possession of the batteries and the vessels in the mole. The mortar was spiked, and the cannon thrown down the heights into the sea, the magazine blown up, and the whole of the vessels, except two which were brought out, burnt and destroyed : in short, the object of the enterprise was completely fulfilled, and that with the loss of only four or five men from occasional skirmishing. But, in withdrawing from a hill occupied by a part of the detachment, to keep the enemy in check until the batteries and

* The author of the " Royal Naval Biography, " occasionally quoted in these pages.

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