Sir John Warren's letter, that the Hoche was a ship of "84 guns," we deem it necessary to show how many ports she was really pierced for on each deck of the ship. On her lower deck, the Hoche had 30 ports, but the French, acting more wisely than the English, had left the two foremost ones vacant : consequently, the ship mounted 28 guns, which, as usual, were 36-pounders. On the second deck her ports were also 30, and all fitted with guns, 18-pounders. On the quarterdeck the Hoche, leaving, as is customary in French line-of-battle ships, room for two ports of a side in the cabin, had ten ports, in which were as many 8-pounders. On the forecastle she had six ports, in four of which (two being chase-ports) were four more 8-pounders, making just 74 guns. But the Hoche also mounted four brass 36-pounder carronades on her poop, total 78 guns. Of Sir John Warren's account of the force of the Hoche, the French, however, must not complain, until they have made some correction in the following account of the force of the Ethalion: "Cette frégate, l'une des plus forte de la marine anglaise, portait cinquante bouches â feu, savoir: vingt-huit canons de 18 (so far right), douze de 12, et dix caronades de 42." *

There is not an action recorded in these pages, which has given us more trouble to comprehend in its details, than the one of which we have now nearly disposed. The official letter contains no particulars, and the entries in the different ships' logs are confused, and, in some instances, contradictory. One fact, however, appears certain, that the action commenced when the Hoche and frigates were, as stated in Sir John Warren's letter, "on the starboard tack." Yet the following appears in the work of a contemporary : " In which (the admiral's letter) we are told, that the enemy bore down and formed a line on the starboard tack, &c. ; but this is certainly incorrect. By a sketch from the hand of one of the best witnesses now living (Nov. 1822), Plate XXIII. has been formed ; by which it appears that, although the enemy's squadron was considerably to windward of the flagship, it was very little so of the Robust, Magnanime, and Amelia, which ships, on the morning of the 12th of October, discovered the enemy as given in the figure, on the larboard tack. The Robust and frigates brought the Hoche and others to action on the larboard side and to windward of them ; and the action was nearly over before the Canada and Foudroyant, from being so far to leeward, could render any assistance." † In answer to this, there is, besides the statement in the official letter, a pair of large engravings, dedicated to the Duke of Clarence, and purporting to be taken from drawings by a marine officer present in the battle, in which the French ships are placed on the starboard tack ; but in which (proh pudor !) the officer's own ship, the Canada, is brought where she never was able to get, into the thick of the fire. Another officer who participated in the action, in answer

* Victoires et Conquêtes, tome x., p. 411.
† Ekins's Naval Battles, p. 251.

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