at the same time, gave her additional way ; and the Juno, if the forts should not disable her, had every prospect of getting out. The launch and cutter, as well as the Frenchmen's boat, that they might not retard the ship, were cut adrift. No sooner had the British ship begun to loose her sails, than the French brig made some stir, and lights appeared on all the batteries. The brig now opened a fire upon the Juno, and so did a fort a little on the starboard bow ; and presently all the forts fired, as their guns could be brought to bear. At one time it was feared a tack would be necessary, but the ship came up a little; and finally, about half an hour after midnight, after having sustained a heavy fire from the different batteries she had to pass, but not without answering several of them with seeming good effect, the Juno got clear off, without the loss of a man. Her rigging and sails, however, were much damaged, and two 36-pound shot had struck her hull.

An enterprise more happily conceived, or more ably executed, has seldom been witnessed, than that by which the officers and men of the British frigate Juno thus extricated their ship from withinside of an enemy's port, filled with armed vessels, and flanked by land-batteries of the most formidable description. On the 13th, the Juno joined the fleet of Lord Hood, at anchor in the bay of Hyères.

Rear-admiral Cornwallis, soon after the surrender of Pondicherry, in August 1793, having quitted the East India station with the whole of his squadron, except a 20-gun ship (by orders, it is presumed, as no inquiry apparently followed), the valuable interests of the company became exposed to the ravages of the enemy ; who, besides two frigates (the Cybèle already mentioned, and the 36-gun frigate Prudente, captain and senior officer, Jean-Marie Renaud, and two or three corvettes), possessed some very formidable privateers, which had recently been fitted out at the Isle of France. On the 27th of September, 1793, the outward-bound China ship, Princess-Royal, mounting upwards of 30 guns, and commanded by Captain James Horncastle, being in the straits of Sunda, off Anjier point, island of Java, was attacked ; and, after a long and brave defence, captured by three French ship-rigged privateers, each nearly equal in force to a British 28-gun frigate.

In this unprotected state of East Indian commerce, the governor-general of Bengal acted prudently in despatching a squadron, composed of four or five of the heaviest and best appointed Indiamen, to the China seas, the favourite cruising ground of the enemy's frigates and privateers. On the 2d of January this squadron, then consisting of the William-Pitt, Commodore Charles Mitchell ; Britannia, Captain Thomas Cheap; Nonsuch, Captain John Canning, and the company's brig tender Nautilus, Captain Roper, arrived off Barbucet-hill, in the eastern entrance of the straits of Sincapore. Here Commodore Mitchell received

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