freedom to the slaves, in compliance with the regulations of the new constitution of September, 1795.

Encountering bad weather in the Bay of Biscay, the Bonne-Citoyenne on the 7th parted company ; and on the 10th was captured by a squadron of British frigates under Captain the Honourable Robert Stopford of the Phaëton. This corvette was a beautiful ship of 511 tons, and would not have been caught but for the damage she had suffered in the gale. The Bonne-Citoyenne mounted 20 long 8-pounders, with a crew of 145 men, and became a great acquisition to the British navy as a first-class sloop of war. On the 8th the Mutine, having lost a, topmast, was allowed also to part company, and eventually shared the fate of the Bonne-Citoyenne. The Seine, in the same gale, carried away her main topmast, but replaced it on the 10th. On the same day the squadron captured an English brig, which had formed part of a numerous convoy bound to the West Indies, under the protection of three sail of the line and several frigates.

On the 14th Rear-admiral Sercey passed Madeira and Porto-Santo, and on the 17th anchored off Santa-Cruz, the principal city of the isle of Palma, one of the Canaries, and the rendezvous fixed for the junction of the Vertu. On the 29th that frigate arrived, after a ten days' passage, under the command of Captain (de vais.) Jean-Marthe-Adrien l'Hermite. This officer commanded the Cocarde when she struck on the rocks, and had previously commanded the Seine during a long and successful cruise in the North Sea.

Setting sail from Santa-Cruz with his four frigates, the rear-admiral met with nothing remarkable until the 15th of May, in latitude about 32° south, and longitude from Paris 3° east, when he captured an English whaler. On the night of the 24th, also, when just abreast of Cape Aiguilles, a strange ship came into the midst of the squadron. This was a large Portuguese Indiaman, richly-laden from Calcutta. On the 25th, at 7 a.m., two other ships made their appearance under the land to the northward. One of these vessels was the British 20-gun ship Sphynx, Captain George Brisac ; the other, an American ship, from Batavia bound to the Isle of France with provisions, and on that account detained by the former. While the Vertu was bringing to the American ship, the Régénérée, as the best sailer of the French squadron, went in chase of the Sphynx ; who, the moment she discovered that her pursuers were not friends, spread all her canvass and steered for the land, then about four leagues distant. After a chase that lasted nearly the whole of the day, and during which the Sphynx was obliged to throw overboard the greater part of her guns, to keep ahead of the Régénérée, the latter was recalled to the squadron.

On the 3d of June the French admiral captured a British Indiaman from Bengal, and sent her to the Isle of France ;

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