1815	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	380

tack after her, but countermanded the order, on observing that she would gain the anchorage before the Acasta could close with her." * It was, therefore, the respect which the British commanding officer paid to the neutrality of the Portuguese port, that permitted the Cyane to go unpursued. But, in less than an hour, a second enemy's " frigate," the Levant, tacks, and the neutrality of the port does not save her from being pursued, or from being cannonaded, " with her jib-boom over the battery," by two of the three British ships that had tacked after her. How does Captain M'Dougall reconcile this ?

It appears, now, that it was not Sir George's intention that all three British ships should have tacked after the Levant. The signal was ordered to be for the Acasta alone to tack ; but, according to the published letter of Mr. Thomas Collier, " the midshipman, Mr. Morrison, whose duty it was to make the signal, did, by mistake, hoist the general signal, " or, according to another statement, and one which bears the signature of the Leander's late first lieutenant, " in making the signal, the Acasta's distinguishing pendants got foul, and, before they could be cleared, the Newcastle mistook it for a general signal. It is a point, we conceive, of very little consequence how the mistake arose. The fact is that, of all the three ships, the Acasta was the last that should have been ordered to tack after the Levant, even admitting that ship to have been the " Constitution, President, Macedonian, or Congress, " simply because the Acasta was " weathering, " " getting into the wake of, " and the likeliest of any of the three to overtake and bring to action, the " Guerrière.'' On the other hand, that the Leander herself, if any ship did, was the most proper to have gone in pursuit of the supposed Constitution, President, Macedonian, or Congress, is clear; first, because she was " falling to leeward " of the supposed Guerrière, and next, because she was the nearest of any of her squadron to the ship that, to the Leander at least, put on so fatal a disguise. Had we seen no other statement than is to be found in the three British ships' logs, we should consider that the Leander really did tack first ; for thus says her log : " Tacked ship to cut off ship from anchorage, and made signal for ditto."

Sir George Collier was remarkable for the kindness with which he treated his officers, and for the, in this instance, most unfortunate, deference he was in the habit of paying to their opinions on points of service. By whose suggestion he tacked, let his late first lieutenant's own words determine : " When the Acasta had filled on the starboard tack, I observed to Sir George, that, if the ships standing in shore were really frigates, which it was impossible to ascertain, owing to the haziness of the weather, they would be more than a match for the Acasta. He replied

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