ture of seven French gun vessels, under a smart fire from the batteries on shore.
The Leopard continued on that station till Napoleon Buonaparte abandoned his long cherished design of invading Great Britain; after which she was ordered to escort the Hon.E.I.Company’s ships Asia, Lady Burgess, Melville, Nelson, Sovereign, and Walthamstow, to the southward of the Cape Verd islands. We shall here detail the circumstances attending the loss of the Lady Burgess, as no correct account of that melancholy occurrence has ever appeared in print.
The convoy sailed from St. Helen’s on the 30th Mar. 1806, and nothing worthy of particular mention happened till April 20, at 2 A.M., when the unfortunate ship in question struck upon Laten’s Level, a rocky reef near St. Jago, about 200 feet in length, and 6 feet under water. At day-light she was only visible from the Leopard’s mast-head, with her masts all gone, and the sea breaking over her. Lieutenant Tayler immediately volunteered his services, and hastened to her assistance, in a 6-oared cutter, followed by another boat that was ordered to second his exertions.
The wind was then blowing a strong gale; but, after great perseverance, Lieutenant Tayler got close to the Lady Burgess, where he met her launch, containing 14 or 15 persons, all naked, and without an oar or a sail, almost every thing having been washed overboard when getting her over the side. These people unanimously declared, that it was quite impossible for the cutter to reach any part of the ship, and seemed only anxious to follow the example of their captain, who had quitted her soon after she struck, taking with him 5 ladies and his other cabin passengers.
After giving this boat a spare oar, by means of which, and a blanket, she was enabled to gain the convoy. Lieutenant Tayler attempted to approach the starboard quarter of tho Lady Burgess, but was warned to keep off by the poor fellows then clinging to it. Scarcely had they done so, before a heavy sea struck the cutter, and carried a large piece of wreck back to the ship, where it severely bruised several persons by
