made no movement till dusk ; when he bore up for the bay, and before 11 P.M. reached the entrance of it. On the 29th at two fore-and-aft rigged vessels, doubtless the same, were seen rounding the east point forming Truxillo bay, but they soon hauled so close to the land as to be scarcely discernible. Conceiving the best means of attacking them would be by the boats, Captain Waller despatched two of them under the command of his second lieutenant, William Patfull, assisted by Charles Trace master's mate, with him in the launch, and Samuel Nisbett Midshipman, and Thomas Scriven purser, in the cutter.

The two boats hastened towards the objects of attack, and, approaching the sternmost vessel, they received from her a heavy discharge from great guns and small-arms. In spite of every opposition, however, Lieutenant Patfull and his party boarded, and without the slightest loss carried, the catholic king's schooner garda-costa San-Christovel Pano, mounting one long traversing 18-pounder, two iron 4-pounders, and four brass 3-pounders, with abundance of small-arms and a crew of 40 men ; of whom her commander, Don Juan-Christovel Tierro, and 25 men escaped by jumping overboard and swimming to the shore. Leaving the cutter's crew in charge of the prize, Lieutenant Patfull, with the launch alone, went in pursuit of the other vessel, which proved to be a Spanish felucca-privateer of one 4-pounder and 40 men ; but, by lowering down her sails and sweeping round the opposite side of the bay, close to Luke's keys, this vessel, by daylight, was nearly under the fort of Truxillo, and consequently effected her escape.

Colonial Expeditions - West Indies

In our account of the proceedings of M. Villeneuve's fleet in the year 1804 * has already appeared the plan of operations which Napoléon, on the 29th of September in that year, marked out for the squadron of five sail of the line and four frigates, under the command of Rear-admiral Missiessy, then lying in the road of the isle of Aix, watching an opportunity to escape the vigilance of the British blockading squadron, under Vice. admiral Collingwood in the Dreadnought 98. The French squadron had been ready for sea since May or June, 1804 ; and on the 2d of August the Jemmappes and Suffren 74s, accompanied by the Armide and Gloire frigates, attempted to sail out but, finding Vice-admiral Sir Robert Calder, who then commanded the blockading squadron, close off the port, the French ships returned to their anchorage in Aix road; where, moored in two lines, the squadron lay free from molestation, defended on one

*  See vol. iii, p. 240.

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