heavy fire on the schooner and us as we got up. But it being nearly calm, and our people excessively fatigued by pulling at the sweeps for upwards of nine hours without intermission, I thought it proper to recall the Ortenzia, and to haul off for the time, intending when a stronger breeze came to have attacked them, and for the present to do my utmost to destroy the vessels that had run on shore to the northward of the battery, and were by this time afloat. So soon as the people had dined, we stood in for that purpose; and not seeing any troops near the spot, I was sanguine enough to hope it might be effected without serious loss. The boats, manned with volunteers, and under the direction of Lieutenant (George) Penruddocke, of this sloop, then pulled towards the vessels, with directions not to persevere if he found any musketry fired from the shore. On their getting on board the vessels, a heavy fire was opened from behind a hedge, where not a man before was visible; I instantly made the signal of recall, and being within half musket-shot of the beach, commenced with our guns, as did the Ortenzia with hers, and I hope with some execution, though not with sufficient to induce me to send the boats again. Finding therefore they could not effect the destruction of the vessels by fire, I was determined to endeavour to do it by shot, and this I had the satisfaction of observing we fully accomplished, as they were laden with powder, which the water from the shot-holes must have rendered useless.
“Although this affair has not been productive of any great advantage to us, yet it has, I trust, been in some degree useful, in shewing the enemy that they cannot pass unnoticed or unmolested by his Majesty’s cruisers, and that if ever we have the good fortune to meet them with a breeze of wind, their destruction will be as inevitable, as I am persuaded, from the confidence I have in the officers and ship’s company under my command, and the gallantry and zeal manifested by Lieutenant Blaquiere and the crew of the Ortenzia, it would have been yesterday, had the lightest wr of wind but favoured us so as to have overtaken them before they reached their battery, and were reinforced. I lament extremely the loss of three valuable lives in this affair.”
Fifteen days afterwards, the Pilot attacked another convoy, consisting of two gun-boats, three armed scampavias, and seventeen sail of transport vessels, laden with ammunition, &c.: the particulars of this attack, the opinions of Rear-Admiral Martin and the commander-in-chief, and the importance which the enemy attached to it, are satisfactorily shewn by public documents:–
