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pointed by the enemy, and although the Spanish General Elio, on his arrival at Valencia, approved of the measures adopted by Captain Smith, and ordered all the stores, sails, &c. of the vessels to be delivered up to him as lawful capture. We next find the Buzzard present at the fall of Tarragona; and the last shot fired by the French, from that fortress, was directed against her, while reconnoitring in the bay.

On the 11th Sept. 1813, Captain Smith was struck by the main-boom on the right hypochondrium, forced against the larboard round-house, and nearly crushed to death. When taken below he appeared lifeless, and more than a month elapsed before he could leave his bed. During that period, “the antiphlogistic regimen was pursued and pushed to a great extent, leeches were repeatedly applied, occasional doses of calomel and an timonial powder, friction with ammoniated liniment, &c. administered.” By this treatment, he was at length enabled to “crawl about;” but he continued to suffer severely as long as the Buzzard remained in commission, which was till Oct. 1814^[1]. At a subsequent period, he presented a petition “to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty in Council,” of which the following is a copy:

“The Memorial of John Smith, Esq. a Commander
in your Majesty’s Navy.

“Humbly sheweth,

“That your Memorialist, while commanding your Majesty’s sloop of war the Buzzard, in the month of September, 1813, was proceeding down the Mediterranean, towards Gibraltar, when, in consequence of a rope called the boom-guy breaking from a heavy roll of the ship, your Memorialist at the time standing on the poop, by the larboard roundhouse, was struck a most violent blow, on the ribs of the right side, by the main-boom, a piece of timber 60 feet in length, and 12 inches in diameter, which crushed him down over the sharp edge of the round-house, contusing the liver and integuments on the right side, and rupturing a blood-vessel, with other injury of the kidney on the left; that, on being freed from this dreadful situation by the succeeding roll of the ship, he was carried, nearly in a lifeless state, to his cabin; and by proper remedies, was in a manner recovered (that, for a considerable time afterwards, he was subject to a discharge of blood from the kidneys and bowels, with disordered liver; which complaints he has been at times affected with ever since;

1. Surgeon’s certificate.