Captain Brenton’s trial took place Feb. 7, 1807. In the course of the same month he was appointed to the Spartan of 46 guns; and on the 23d April, 1809, we find him, with the Amphion and Mercury frigates under his orders, driving the French garrison out of Pesaro, destroying the castle at the entrance of that port, and capturing thirteen merchant vessels, deeply laden with oil, hides, hemp, almonds, &c.
On the 2d of the following month, the Spartan and Mercury blew up the castle of Ceseratico, destroyed a battery of two 4-pounders, burnt a large vessel laden with iron, captured twelve others, partly laden with grain, and brought off a great quantity of hemp and iron, which had been collected in the magazines. This service, as well as the preceding, was accomplished without the loss of a man, although at Ceseratico, the ships and their boats were much exposed to the fire from the battery and musketry on shore.
Eight days after this affair, Captain Brenton, in concert with Baron Ocharnick, commanding a detachment of Austrian troops, compelled the garrison of the island of Lussin, on the coast of Croatia, consisting of 170 men, to surrender at discretion, after some opposition from the citadel and batteries. The allies on this occasion had only 3 men wounded.
Early in October following, Captain Brenton assisted at the capture of Zante and Cephalonia, by the naval and military forces under Captain Spranger of the Warrior, and Brigadier-General Oswald. On the 9th of the same month, he commanded at the reduction of Cerigo, an island near the Morea, defended by three forts, with a garrison of 104 men. “At Cerigo,” says Lord Collingwood, when reporting the capture of those islands, “the greatest resistance was made; but Captain Brenton’s skill and resources are such as would surmount much greater difficulties than they could present.” Captain Spranger, in his letter to the commander-in-chief, observed, that Cerigo had long been used as a place of refuge by privateers of the worst description; and duly acknowledged the advantage he had derived from Captain Brenton’s “judgment, gallantry, and activity,” during the expedition, which terminated with the fall of that island.
On the 1st May, 1810, the Spartan and Success fell in with and pursued a French squadron, consisting of the Ceres fri-
