1810	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	226

the ship's best point of sailing, it was not until 7 h. 40 m. p.m., that the schooner got near enough to open her bow guns. Gradually advancing in the chase, the Thistle, at 8 h. 30 m. p.m., again arrived alongside. A second close engagement ensued, and continued until 9 h. 45 m.; when the Havik hauled down her colours and hailed that she had struck.

In this five hours engagement and running fight, the Thistle had one marine killed, and her commander and six men wounded. On board the Havik one man also was killed, and the Dutch admiral and seven men badly wounded. The conduct of the Thistle in the affair was highly creditable to her commander, his officers, and crew. It was an act of some boldness for a schooner of 150 tons to attack a large warlike enemy's ship ; nor was it less a proof of persevering courage for the Thistle, after three of her carronades had been dismounted, to continue the engagement for so long a time, and until she brought it to a successful issue. Lieutenant Procter, who is described by Vice-admiral Sir John Borlase Warren, the commander-in-chief on the Halifax station, as " an old officer of much merit," in four months afterwards, as we discover by a reference to the navy-list, was promoted to the rank of commander.

On the 12th or 13th of January the French 40-gun frigates, Néréide, Captain Jean-François Lemaresquier, and Astrée, Captain François-Désiré Breton, managed to effect their escape from the port of Cherbourg ; the one laden with troops and supplies for the island of Guadaloupe, and the other with the same for the Isle of France. On the 9th of February, very early in the morning, the Néréide, arrived off Basse-terre, and sent an officer and boat's crew on shore for a pilot. The boat did not return, for the colony had been three days in possession of the British ; and the first peep of day discovered to the Néréide her perilous situation. From their anchorage off the west end of the Saintes, the following British vessels slipped their cables, and made all sail in chase ;

Shortly afterwards the Alfred shaped her course to the northward after a ship at anchor off Anse la Barque, supposed to be a second French frigate, but which proved to be the 18-gun ship-sloop Star, Captain William Paterson, who had also slipped on descrying the Néréide, but lay becalmed under the land. In the mean while the Blonde, Thetis, Melampus, Castor, and Scorpion, pursued the Néréide, who was under a crowd of canvass

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