Sir James Brisbane; and on the 19th Jan. 1826, he commanded that ship’s launch at the capture of Melloone, on which occasion a very ample magazine of grain, seventy-six guns, ninety jingals, seventeen hundred muskets, two thousand spears, eighteen thousand round shot, a quantity of quilted and loose grape, one hundred thousand musket halls, more than twenty tons of gunpowder, an immense quantity of refined saltpetre and sulphur, upwards of a ton of un-wrought iron, eighteen war-boats, fifty-seven accommodation and store boats, nearly three hundred canoes, and about seventy horses, fell into the hands of the victors[1]. In less than three weeks afterwards, the operations of the British, by land and water, had released from the tyranny of the enemy above 25,000 persons, inhabitants of the lower provinces, who had been driven before the retreating forces, many of them ever since the commencement of the war. The light division, under Lieutenant Smith, subsequently liberated numerous canoes, and was very active in annoying the enemy’s out posts.
The subject of this sketch was made a commander on the 22d July, 1826; appointed to the Philomel sloop in April 1831; and paid off, on his return from Gibraltar, where he had been for some time stationed, Sept. 16th, 1823.
CHARLES KEELE, Esq.
[Commander.]
Fourth son of John Keele, Esq., many years a respectable surgeon at Southampton.
This officer entered the royal navy in April 1807, as midshipman on board the Superieure sloop, commanded by his gallant relation, the late Captain Edward Rushworth, and then fitting out, at Portsmouth, for the West India station; and continued to serve under the same gentleman, in various vessels, until he gave up the command of the Satellite sloop, in April, 1809. He next joined the Caledonia 120, flag-ship
