island of Porto-Rico, despatched her barge, under the command of Lieutenant of marines Thomas Bland, in pursuit of an armed schooner ; which, after some resistance, but no loss on either side, was captured, and proved to be the Concepcion, mounting two long 6-pounders, with a crew of 10 men, besides several passengers, who escaped in a small boat. About three weeks afterwards the same enterprising officer, assisted by Midshipman Edward Cook, being on a cruise in the barge and away from the ship, destroyed a Spanish sloop, and captured, after an action of three quarters of an hour, a second Concepcion, a large felucca, bound from Porto-Rico to Cadiz with a cargo of cocoa and cochineal, and armed with two long 4-pounders and 14 men ; of whom five were severely wounded. No loss whatever was sustained by the barge.

On the 1st of June the British 38-gun frigate Loire, Captain Frederick Lewis Maitland, being off the coast of Spain, discovered and chased a small privateer, standing into the bay of Camarinas, situated to the eastward of Cape Finisterre. The weather becoming quite calm after dark, Captain Maitland despatched the launch and two cutters, with 35 officers and men, under the command of Lieutenant James Lucas Yeo, assisted by Lieutenant of marines Samuel Mallock, master's mate Charles Clinch, and midshipmen, Massey Hutchinson, Herbert and Matthew Mildridge, to endeavour to bring the vessel out. Owing to the intricacy of the passage, the boats did not reach the point of attack until break of day on the 2nd ; when, instead of one, they found two privateers, and these moored under a battery of 10 guns. Ordering the launch, commanded by Mr. Clinch, to board the smaller vessel, Lieutenant Yeo, with the two cutters, gallantly attacked and carried, without loss, the other ; which was the Spanish felucca Esperanza, alias San-Pedro, armed with three long 18-pounders, four 4-pounder brass swivels, and 50 men. Of her complement, when mustered, 19 were found missing including several that had been killed by the pike and sabre, the only weapons, to prevent discovery on the part of the battery, used by the British. The launch attacked her opponent, a lugger of two 6-pounders and 32 men, with equal success and freedom from loss.

The weather being still perfectly calm, the two prizes close under the guns of the battery, which, since the moment of their capture, had opened an ill-directed fire upon the British, and the distance from the ship precluding all chance of assistance, Lieutenant Yeo was obliged to abandon the small vessel to secure the other. This he at length effected, with the loss of only three men slightly wounded. In his way out with the felucca, Lieutenant Yeo took possession of three small merchant vessels, laden with wine for the combined squadron at Ferrol.

Receiving information, from some of the Spanish prisoners probably, that a French privateer of 26 guns was fitting out at

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