them. On seeing the enemy approach, they unanimously requested him to take charge of the Highlander during the conflict which they were determined to maintain, and which continued from 10 a.m. until 1-20 p.m. During this period, l’Alert made three ineffectual attempts to board, and sustained great loss in killed and wounded; but unfortunately the fourth assault proved more effectual, and the British were obliged to submit, with the loss of five slain and eight, including Lieutenant Westphal and the gallant mate of the Highlander, wounded. The prize was then carried to Point-á-Pitre, in the island of Guadaloupe; and it having been represented to the French Governor, that little or no resistance would have been offered to the captors had not their principal prisoner taken so active a part, he was instantly ordered into close confinement on board a prison-ship, and there kept on bread and water. Fortunately, however, the commander of a privateer, to whom he had formerly rendered some service at Barbadoes, happened to hear of his situation, and, after vainly interceding in his behalf, informed him that, unless he escaped in the prison-ship’s boat, he would certainly be sent to France, “as a punishment for his refractory conduct,” in assuming the command of the Highlander. Not relishing the idea of being kept a prisoner until the end of the war, he immediately came to the determination of attempting his escape, and a favorable opportunity soon presented itself. Taking advantage of a dark night, and being joined in the attempt by the mate and two other men of the Highlander, he lowered himself down into a small boat, sixteen feet long, provided with only two oars, a blanket, two bottles of water, and a few biscuits; started for the narrows of the harbour, and when hailed by the fort, answered “bateau pêcheur,” which lulled all suspicion and enabled him to gain an offing unmolested; it being the custom at Guadaloupe for fishing boats to pursue their occupations by night as well as by day.
After suffering much from fatigue, hunger, and thirst. Lieutenant Westphal was picked up by an American merchant schooner from Guadaloupe bound to New York; which vessel was detained on the following day by an English
