be, the object of his search, Captain Cooke continued to stand to the westward, in order to get the weathergage ; and soon afterwards the Sibylle passed about two miles to leeward of them. At 10 p.m., having brought the three ships sufficiently on her quarter to enable her to weather them by going on the other tack, the Sibylle put about, and, taking in her topgallantsails and courses, kept the centre ship, which, from her superior size and the lights in her stern, marked her out as the Forte, on her lee or larboard bow. The water was at this time quite smooth, with a light and steady breeze still blowing from the south-south-west, and the Sibylle, under her topsails, jib, and spanker, was going about two knots an hour. At 11 h. 30 m. p.m. the Sibylle saw that the three ships were lying to on the starboard tack, or that on which she was standing.

At midnight, when the Sibylle had approached within a mile of the Forte, the latter's two rows of ports (having two guns of a side in her gangways, a small blank space only was observable in the centre of the upper row), lighted, up as they were, gage the ship a very formidable appearance. The Forte then filled, hove in stays under the Sibylle's lee bow, and, as her larboard guns began to bear, fired six or seven of them, the instant and principal effect of which was to bring down her opponent's jib. The Forte, as she passed on, fired also her after guns, and one of the prizes opened her fire ; but still the Sibylle, as a proof of the judgment of her commander and the steadiness of her crew, reserved her fire for a shorter and more effective distance.

The patience of the latter, however, was put to no longer a trial than until the Forte passed abaft the beam of their ship ; when, at three quarters past midnight, the Sibylle put her helm up, and fired the whole of her larboard broadside into the Forte's stern, at less than pistol-shot distance ; so close, indeed, that the French ship's spanker-boom was scarcely cleared. Luffing quickly up, the Sibylle was presently close alongside her antagonist to leeward, and poured in a second broadside as well directed as the previous raking one. The bearing up of the Sibylle had been so sudden and unexpected, that several of the Forte's larboard or weather guns went off after the former had passed to leeward.

Thus this furious night-action commenced. For nearly the first hour, during which the two ships lay broadside to broadside at a distance that never exceeded point-blank musket-range and was sometimes much nearer, the Forte returned a spirited, but far too elevated and consequently an almost harmless fire. At 1 h. 30 m. a.m. on the 1st of March, Captain Cooke was mortally wounded by a grape-shot, and the command devolved upon Lieutenant Lucius Hardyman. About ten minutes after Captain Cooke had been carried below, Captain Davies of the army, an aide-de-camp of Lord Mornington's and a volunteer on this occasion, while encouraging the men at the quarterdeck guns,

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