but, having just before detached the Lurcher cutter, Lieutenant Robert Forbes, to cruise off the Morbihan, Lieutenant Argles, instead of going in chase, permitted the French vessels to approach nearer to the point of St.-Gildas, in order to have the assistance of his consort in overtaking and capturing them.

In the evening the Nile stood out from the shore and made the necessary signals to the Lurcher, who, being to windward, turned all the vessels and they made for the Vilaine. At 8 P.M., just as the battery on Pointe Saint-Jacque, was hailing her, the Nile captured one small vessel, and manning her, sent her along-shore; by which means, before 4 A.M. on the 8th, five more vessels were taken. The whole coast was by this time alarmed, and the battery of Notre-Dame at the entrance of the river Peners kept up so brisk a fire as to send three shot through the last vessel boarded; but the British, notwithstanding, brought her off with only one man slightly scratched by a splinter. The Lurcher, in the mean while, had succeeded in taking three more. of the convoy, making nine in the whole. This enterprise reflects great credit upon the commanders and crews of the two cutters; and shows what serious annoyance may be done to an enemy, even by such small vessels as the Nile and Lurcher, when under the guidance of an active and intelligent officer.

On the 10th of December, the British armed brig Admiral-Pasley, of 16 guns, 14 of them 12-pounder carronades, with 40 men and boys, commanded by Lieutenant Charles I. Nevin, being off Ceuta on her passage from England to Gibraltar with despatches, was attacked in a calm by two Spanish gun-vessels of the largest class. After an engagement of an hour and a half, during the greater part of which the gun-vessels kept entirely out of range of the Admiral-Pasley's paltry carronades, while the former, with their heavy long guns were cutting the brig to pieces, the Admiral-Pasley, having previously thrown overboard her despatches, hauled down her colours.

As a proof that the Admiral-Pasley had not been given away, her loss. amounted to three seamen killed, her commander (in three places), master (Mr. Gibbs, badly), and eight seamen wounded. The captors carried their prize first to Ceuta, and afterwards to Algesiras. Here we have an example showing, in the clearest manner, the unfairness of pronouncing upon the merits of an action until its particulars are known. Fortunately for the Admiral-Pasley's commander, the court-martial that sat upon him took cognizance of all the circumstances ; and, although captured in a 16-gun brig by two Spanish gun-boats, Lieutenant Nevin was honourably and deservedly acquitted.

Colonial Expeditions - West Indies

On the 11th of September, while the British 12-pounder 36-gun frigate Néréide, Captain Frederick Watkins, was cruising

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