shot within her, was seen the Médée herself, having a light air from the land, while the Pelican and her prize lay quite becalmed. The Médée's boats soon regained possession of the Alcyon ; and Captain Searle, knowing that the Thétis and another French frigate, either the Pensée or Concorde, were at anchor in Anse-la-Barque, thought it the most prudent course to abandon his prize. Scarcely had the Pelican taken advantage of the breeze which had just sprung up, and set sail from the spot, ere one of the frigates came out and joined the Médée; but neither frigate evinced any further disposition to molest the Pelican, and she proceeded to the Saintes to refit.

Soon after the Médée, in company with the Alcyon, had anchored at Anse-la-Barque, Victor Hugues, the governor of Guadeloupe, sent for Lieutenant Ussher who had been taken prisoner in the prize, to ascertain from him, whether or not there was any truth in the statement made by the captain of the Médée, that the English vessel, which he had engaged on the 23d, was a frigate with her mizenmast out. The mistake was soon cleared up, to the evident mortification of the French governor.

On the day after the Pelican had anchored at the Saintes, an aide-de-camp of Victor Hugues arrived with a flag of truce ; and the French officer, appearing to entertain a doubt about the force of the vessel which had beaten off the Médée, was allowed to go on board the Pelican to count her guns. About the same time arrived an officer of the 60th regiment, who had been a prisoner on board the Médée, during the action, and got released on her arrival at Guadeloupe. He confirmed every statement respecting the proceedings of the Médée; adding, that she mounted 40 guns, with a complement of 300 men, and sustained much damage, besides a loss, in killed and wounded together, of 33 men.

It was afterwards ascertained from Lieutenant Ussher, that the Pelican's first broadside killed the man at the wheel, wounded three men, and disabled a gun ; and that the last raking broadside, which the Pelican poured into the stern of the Médée, killed and wounded from 10 to 12 men upon the main deck. Great as was the noise which this truly gallant exploit of the Pelican made in the West Indies, we have searched in vain for any account of it in the "Victoires et Conquêtes," and in some other French works to which we have had occasion to refer.

On the 13th of October, at daybreak, the British 12-pounder 32-gun frigate Terpischore [sic], Captain Richard Bowen, while cruising off the port of Carthagena, with a light air at west-southwest, observed a strange frigate to windward, standing towards her. The former's situation was such, that an engagement with an enemy, of the apparent force of the ship approaching, was not very desirable. The Terpsichore [sic] had left 30 of her men sick at the hospital in Gibraltar, and her sick and convalescent lists

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