may occasion your return amongst us, is the sincere wish of. Sir, your most obedient humble servants, &c. &c."
(Signed by the principals of 48 commercial houses.)
In Jan. 1807, Captain Campbell was appointed to the Pert brig; in which vessel he made many captures on the Tortola station. His commission as a commander bears date May 4, 1807.
On the 16th Oct. following, the Pert was caught in a hurricane, whilst lying off the island of Margarita, in company with a Spanish packet which she had just before captured. Unfortunately the brig had only two anchors and cables on board; in consequence of which, she was driven ashore and totally wrecked. By this disaster, the master of the Pert and 12 men lost their lives; the remainder of her officers and crew escaped with great difficulty. During the same tremendous storm, the Maria schooner, Lieutenant J. Henderson, then under Captain Campbell’s orders, foundered, and every person on board of her perished.
From Margarita, Captain Campbell proceeded in his prize schooner to Tortola, where he was tried by a court-martial, and most honourably acquitted. The loss of the Pert, however, proved doubly mortifying to him, as he was thereby prevented from joining the Cygnet, a remarkably fine sloop, to which he had recently been appointed.
Captain Campbell returned to England with the minutes of his court-martial made into a despatch, to be delivered in person at the Admiralty, and a letter of recommendation from Sir Alexander Cochrane to Lord Mulgrave, who then presided at the Board; but he did not succeed in obtaining any further employ until his appointment to l’Espiegle brig, in Sept. 1809.
With the exception of his convoying two ships to the West Indies, and exchanging into the Port d’Espagne brig, we find no further mention of Captain Campbell until Sept. 1810, when he received a commission appointing him to the Rosamond sloop; in which vessel he was again employed affording protection to the trade of Trinidad, “the delicate state of matters, between the Spanish provinces on the Main and
