boat to take possession of the Flora, the Amphion bore up close, and silenced the Bellona.

"Having wore round on the starboard tack, and taken a position on the Bellona's weather bow, the Amphion poured in one or two broadsides, and at a few minutes before noon compelled the Bellona to haul down the Venetian, as the Flora had the French colours. In the mean time the Mercure brig had also been firing occasionally at the Amphion, but an eighteen-pounder was at length brought to bear upon her, and the brig soon swept herself beyond the reach of either giving or receiving annoyance.

"Lieutenant Donat Henchy O'Brien, by Captain Hoste's orders, now went with two seamen in the punt, and took possession of the Bellona. Having secured this prize, the Amphion wore round; and, making the signal for a general chase, brought to on the larboard tack, a little to leeward of the Cerberus and Volage, whose greatly disabled state had obliged them to bear up. The Amphion had now the mortification to see her first and most valuable prize, the Flora, out of gun shot, on her weather bow, making sail for the island of Lessina, and to

wards whom the Danae presently edged away, as if to encourage the Flora's commander in the dishonourable act; dishonourable indeed, for the French ship had lain some time at the mercy of the Amphion. The Active also, until she made sail after the Corona, might have sunk the Flora, and probably would have taken possession of her, but that it did not comport with Captain Gordon to stay by a beaten enemy, while a fighting enemy remained to be subdued; above all, when a friend stood in need of assistance. Had even

the Cerberus or Volage been aware that the prize was not secured, either ship, as the Flora passed them, might have sent a boat and taken possession of her, having had her rigging and sails much cut, and expecting her foremast every moment to fall. The Amphion was as incapacitated from giving chase as either the Cerberus or Volage. Having her sails and rigging in a more perfect state than either the Cerberus or Corona, the Active soon passed to windward of the former, and at about thirty minutes past noon, when just in mid-channel between Lissa and Spalmadon, received the fire of the Corona; a most galling fire too, as the Active could not

bring any number of her own guns to bear without keeping off the wind, and, of course, losing way in the chase.

"At length, at about 1h 45′ P. M. the Active closed the Corona to leeward. A spirited action now ensued between these two frigates, and continued until 2h 30' P.M. when the Corona surrendered, after a resistance highly honourable to the Venetian flag, and which resistance she had protracted until almost within reach of the batteries at Lessina. The Carolina and Danae, the latter of whom, had she supported the Corona, might perhaps have saved her from capture, were already in safety under the guns of the battery, and just about to enter the road. The whole of the Venetian small craft also effected their escape in different directions.

The Amphion had all her lower masts badly shot through, particularly her foremast, as already stated; her larboard main yard-arm and mizen top-mast shot away, and her sails and rigging much cut. At four P.M. the Favourite having been set on fire by her surviving crew, blew up with a great explosion; both the Corona and Bellona were very near sharing her fate, and

placed in considerable jeopardy the lives of all on board them.

"As soon as Lieutenant O'Brien arrived on board the Bellona to take possession, he interrogated the gunner as to the state of the magazine. The latter privately informed him, that Captain Duodo, at the commencement of the action, had ordered to be placed in the small bower cable-tier two or three barrels of gunpowder; intending, as soon as all hopes of further resistance were at an end, to set fire to the train, and, if not blow up the ship, to intimidate the British from taking possession, and thus enable the survivors of the crew to effect their escape. But Duodo's wound came opportunely to prevent the completion of his diabolical design; and the officers of the Bellona themselves probably had, for their own safety, watched very narrowly the movements of their captain.

"Lieutenant O'Brien visited the cable-tier, saw the barrels of gunpowder, and placing one of his men as sentry over them, proceeded to the cabin, where lay the mortally wounded projector wholly unconscious of the discovery of his plot. Cap

tain Duodo expressed his gratitude in the strongest manner for the generosity paid by the British officer to a beaten foe, but said not a word about the powder; nor were his dying moments disturbed with the slightest allusion to the circumstance.

"In reviewing the merits of this action, although we might easily show that, in point of force, the Amphion and Cerberus were both inferior, and Active herself not more than equal to any of the four forty-gun frigates on the opposite side, and that the Bellona and Carolina were either of them a decided overmatch for the Volage, we shall consider that the seven larger ships agreed with each other in force, and that the three smaller ones did the same. There were also one Venetian sixteen-gun brig, one armed schooner, one xebec, and two gun-boats, mounting altogether thirty-six guns, and, perhaps, equal in light winds that prevailed to a second Bellona or Carolina, or at all events to a second Volage.

"The number of men in the British squadron appears to have been about eight hundred, and the number in the Franco-Venetian squadron at the lowest estimate two thousand five hundred.