of Martinique, two drogers, on board one of which there was an English negro, who gave information that a sloop, loaded with sugar, was lying in a harbour a few miles to windward, and unprotected; at the same time offering to pilot the boats in. Mr. Cox immediately volunteered his services, and left the Attentive at night-fall, with two jolly-boats under his command, containing in the whole twelve persons. He unexpectedly met with a strong adverse tide, and did not enter the harbour until the dawn of day, when a large armed vessel was suddenly discovered, moored across the anchorage, having the sloop between her and the shore. About fifteen minutes previous to this, Mr. Cox had detached his other boat in pursuit of a small craft; notwithstanding which, and that he saw the whole of the guarda-costa’s crew, armed with muskets, drawn up on her deck from stem to stern, and two long guns pointed directly at him, so great was his confidence in the fine fellows with him, that the enemy was instantly boarded, and, after a slight resistance, carried: in less than twenty minutes she was under sail; and in about two hours after he re-joined the Attentive, with only one man slightly wounded.”
On the 17th October, 1807, the Attentive captured, between Tobago and Trinidad, the Spanish privateer Nuestra Senora del Carmen, of two guns and sixty-three men, three of whom were wounded during the chase. A few days afterwards, Mr. Cox was appointed acting lieutenant of the Port d’Espagne 16, Commander James Pattison Stewart; whom we find him following into the Snap sloop, Nov. 13th, 1808. His first Admiralty commission bears date Mar. 10th, 1809.
Mr. Cox served as senior lieutenant of the Snap at the reduction of the French and Dutch West India islands, in 1809 and 1810; was attached to the military force, under Brigadier Harcourt, at the capture of St. Martin’s; and continued in the same vessel, under several commanders, until paid off, Feb. 15th, 1811. Between Mar. 6th and June 10th, 1811, he was first of the Lynx 18, Commander Thomas Perceval, on the North Sea station; and from the latter date, until July 21st, 1814, we find him serving under his early and constant patron, Captain John E. Douglas, in the Bellona 74, and Prince of Wales 98, which last-named ship formed part of the fleet under Lord Exmouth at the surrender of Genoa in April 1814. His subsequent appointments were, August 8th following, to the Alpheus 36, Captain
