cable was then cut by a man left in the yawl for that purpose, but not till he had been wounded in the head by the French mate, whom he killed with a blow of his axe. Captain Willoughby in the mean time approached so near to the innermost battery as to be hailed by one of the sentries: the alarm soon became general, and the batteries, four in number, immediately opened their fire.
The brig being firmly moored to the shore, with her yards and top-masts down, and the weather very tempestuous, there was no possibility of bringing her off; Captain Willoughby therefore gave orders to take out the prisoners and destroy her; but as many of them were wounded, and could not be removed, she was ultimately abandoned. The boats then took the lugger in tow, and brought her out under a heavy fire of shot and shells, from the batteries on both sides of the river. To enable them to distinguish their object, the enemy on shore threw up fire-balls of a superior description, which illumined the whole river; and they continued doing so every half-minute until she was out of range.
Under all these circumstances, it is rather surprising that no greater loss was sustained by the British than one killed and three severely wounded; particularly as the boats, when towing their prize past a particular reef, were at least ten minutes directly in front of a very heavy battery. The principal advantage derived from this attack was the evidence it afforded of the practicability of cutting out vessels from a river so strongly protected both by nature and by art. Had the gunboat been found, there cannot be a doubt that she would have shared the fate of the lugger.
The capture of St. Paul’s, in the island of Bourbon, has been briefly noticed at p. 626 et seq. of our first volume. The conspicuous part borne by Captain Willoughby on that occasion will be seen by the following extracts of the official letters published in the London Gazette, Feb. 13, 1810.
Captain Josias Rowley to Vice-Admiral Bertie.
- ↑ Raisonable 64. See Captain Edward Lloyd.
