1814	British Boats & General Armstrong Privateer	349

without being able to meet him in one hour after my anchor was weighed. " And yet, had poor Captain Downie acted with only half this caution, his fair fame would have been tarnished, and the very service to which he belonged scoffed at, by no less a man than the governor-general of the British North-American provinces.

On the 26th of September the British 74-gun ship Plantagenet, Captain Robert Lloyd, 38-gun frigate Rota, Captain Philip Somerville, and 18-gun brig-sloop Carnation, Captain George Bentham, cruising off the Western Isles, discovered at anchor in the road of Fayal the American privateer schooner General-Armstrong, of seven guns, including a long 24 or 32 pounder on a traversing carriage, and about 90 men, Captain Guy R. Champlin. Captain Lloyd sent Lieutenant Robert Faussett, in the Plantagenet's pinnace, into the port, to ascertain the force of the schooner, and to what nation she belonged. Owing to the strength of the tide, and to the circumstance of the schooner getting under way and dropping fast astern, the boat drifted nearer to her than had been intended. The American privateer hailed, and desired the boat to keep off, but that was impracticable owing to the quantity of stern-way on the schooner. The General-Armstrong then opened her fire, and, before the boat could get out of gun-shot, killed two and wounded seven of her men.

As the captain of the American privateer had now broken the neutrality of the port, Captain Lloyd determined to send in and endeavour to cut out his schooner; which had since come to again with springs close to the shore. Accordingly, at 8 p.m., the Plantagenet and Rota anchored off Fayal road; and at 9 p.m. four boats from the Plantagenet and three from the Rota, with about 180 seamen and marines, under the command of Lieutenant William Matterface, first of the frigate, pulled in towards the road. The Carnation had been directed to cover the boats in their advance ; but, owing, as it appears, to the strength of the current and the intricacy of the navigation, the brig did not arrive within gun-shot of the American schooner, and therefore was not of the slightest use. At midnight, after a fatiguing pull against a strong wind and current, the boats got within hail of the General-Armstrong, and received from her, and from a battery erected, with a portion of her guns, on the commanding point of land under which she had anchored, a heavy fire of cannon and musketry. In about half an hour, this fire sank two of the boats and killed or disabled two thirds of the party that had been detached in them. The remainder returned, and at about 2 a.m. on the 27th reached the Rota.

The loss appears to have been of the following lamentable amount: the Rota's first and third lieutenants (William Matterface and Charles R. Norman), one midshipman, and 31 seamen and marines killed, the Rota's second lieutenant (Richard

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