ginia; and then returned to the Leeward Islands, where Lieutenant Littlehales again distinguished himself by volunteering to board and destroy a French store-ship, lying aground under the protection of a land battery: the circumstance is thus alluded to in a letter from the late Captain Westcott, of the Majestic 74, bearing the flag of Vice-Admiral Caldwell, (then commander-in-chief pro tempore at the Caribbees) to Captain Riou’s sister:
“Your brother sent me the enclosed letter to wait for the first packet’ since which we have been cruising off Point à Pitre, Guadaloupe; and the day after our arrival there, I had the pleasure to see the Beaulieu anchor against a battery at St. François, and a large French ordnance store-ship of 18 guns, that had run there a few hours before for protection. Your brother with the guns cleared the way, and Littlehales boarded the ship with a hawser from the Beaulieu, and tried to heave her off; but finding her aground and iramoveable, he took out the prisoners and set her on fire. He went on this service himself, being about two leagues to windward of the squadron, and performed it in a way that was the admiration of all those who could only look on. * * * *
For this service, performed immediately under the eye of the commander-in-chief, Mr. Littlehales was removed into the Majestic on promotion; but unfortunately no vacancy occurred previous to Vice-Admiral Caldwell being superseded by Sir John Laforey. He therefore returned to England with the former officer as his flag Lieutenant, in the Blanche frigate, and arrived at Spithead July 29, 1795.
Shortly after his return, the subject of this memoir was appointed first Lieutenant of the Amazon frigate, at the particular request of Captain (afterwards Rear-Admiral) R. C. Reynolds, with whom he was most actively and successfully employed cruising with the squadrons under Sir W. Sidney Smith and Sir Edward Pellew, till Jan. 14, 1797; on which day the Amazon was wrecked in Hodierne bay, after a gallant action with les Droits de l’Homme, a French 80-gun ship[1]. As Captain Reynolds’s official letter on this occasion was never published in the London Gazette, we here present our readers with a copy thereof:
