in defence of their property, and must therefore decline, as he had before done on a somewhat similar occasion, receiving any honorary reward for the bare performance of his duty. The fleet consisted of one hundred and twenty sail, on board of which the British factory at Oporto, apprehensive of Portugal being invaded by the French, had shipped no less than 32,000 pipes of port wine – the largest quantity ever imported at one time into England. Captain Donnelly’s zeal for the service induced him on this occasion to take the Netley schooner from her station; and instead of being censured for so doing, he had the gratification of receiving the thanks of Earl St. Vincent, who then presided at the Admiralty.
Towards the latter end of 1801, he was removed into the Narcissus of 32 guns, and ordered to carry out the Algerine Ambassador and his suite, with a great number of valuable presents for the Dey of Algiers, by whom he was presented with a handsome sabre. From Algiers he proceeded to Malta, and thence to the Archipelago, where he made an astronomical survey of all the principal islands.
Whilst on that service, Captain Donnelly discovered a piratical galley in the act of boarding an English merchant ship off Miconi, and immediately made sail in chase of the marauders, who rowed off with amazing swiftness to the Greater Delphos, where they disembarked, and posted themselves very advantageously behind rocks, from whence they kept up a heavy fire of musketry, by which 1 man was killed on board the Narcissus. The galley having been sunk by a broadside from that ship, Captain Donnelly landed a party of seamen, and succeeded in securing 36 of the pirates, whom he placed at the disposal of Lord Elgin, the British Ambassador, who with his family and suite were then on board the Narcissus. The galley, on being weighed and brought alongside, proved to be as long as the frigate, and had a very singular appearance, her hull, masts, sails, colours, and every thing about her being black. She was handed over to the Miconians; and the specie found on board her, about 1000 piastres, given to the widow of the seaman who had been slain. The Capitan Pacha, then at Constantinople, on hearing of her capture, sent Captain Donnelly a valuable Damascus sabre; and it is said that he afterwards refused to liber-
