a force before them, and surmounting so many difficulties in reaching the enemy’s positions, stamps their leader as a brave and meritorious officer; and he is deserving of the notice of the Lords Commissioners.”
We have been induced to give the details of this very gallant and well-conducted enterprise, in consequence of the Board of Admiralty not having deemed them of sufficient importance to appear in the London Gazette, which merely stated, that Sir Alexander had “transmitted a letter from Captain Hayes, reporting the destruction of the batteries at Bay Mahaut, and of a ship and national schooner at anchor there; also the capture of an armed brig, by the boats of the Freija, under the direction of Lieutenant David Hope, who appears to have displayed much gallantry in the performance of this service.”
These brief statements, of which the naval annalist has great cause to complain, may possibly have originated in a press of official matter; but, then, how happens it that we occasionally see along with them, in the columns of the gazette, entire letters, announcing the capture of half a dozen insignificant chasse-marées, or of some privateer of trifling force, and that perhaps by a frigate or ship of the line?
After the surrender of Guadaloupe, the Freija was found in a very defective state, and consequently ordered to England, where she arrived in Sept. 1810, and was soon afterwards put out of commission. Lieutenant Hope then received an appointment to the Macedonian, a frigate of the largest class, in which he continued, under Captains Lord William Fitz-Roy, the Hon. William Waldegrave, and John Surman Carden, until her capture by the United States, an American ship of far superior force and size, bearing the broad pendant of Commodore Decatur, Oct. 25th, 1812[1]. Previous to this event, the Macedonian had been very actively employed on the coasts of Portugal and France, and often engaged with the enemy’s batteries, in the neighbourhood of Isle d’Aix[2]. The following is an extract of Captain Car-
