departure from that station, the Emperor of Austria sent him the order of Leopold, accompanied with a very flattering letter, stating that it was conferred upon him for his highly distinguished conduct at Cattaro and Ragusa. His promotion to post rank, of which he received official notice on the Saracen’s arrival at Gibraltar, took place June 7, 1814.
Captain Harper returned home from America, Oct. 26, 1814; obtained the command of the Tyne 24, on the 12th of the following month; sailed for the East Indies, with despatches, ten days after his appointment to that ship; and was removed to the Wellesley, a new teak-built 74, at Bombay, June 19, 1815. The insignia of a C.B. appears to have been conferred upon him about Sept. in the latter year.
The Wellesley was loaded with the frame timber of an 80-gun ship and two brigs, and had already reached Ceylon, on her way to Europe, when intelligence arrived in India, that Napoleon Buonaparte had left Elba and usurped the government of France. Her cargo was, thereupon, landed at Trincomalee, and her armament and crew were completed; but she had not long been converted into an effective line-of-battle ship before Captain Harper was unwarrantably removed to the Doris frigate, and charged with despatches for England[1].
Captain Harper’s last appointment was, Feb. 12, 1816, to the Wye 26, in which ship he served for a period of three years, on the Halifax station.
This officer married, in Oct. 1805, and has a large family. His eldest son, John Horatio Harper, was educated at the Royal Naval College, and, we believe, perished in the Arab. His younger brother obtained the rank of lieutenant, R.N. at an early age, and was drowned in la Lutine frigate, Oct. 9, 1799.
Agents.– Messrs. Cooke, Halford, and Son.
