1796. On losing sight of the enemy a few minutes afterDec. wards, the Indefatigable fired half and quarter minute guns, burnt blue lights, and hoisted a light at each mast-head. At midnight she hauled by the wind to the southward; and, at 6 h. 30 m. A. M. on the 17th, sir Edward sent the lugger with despatches to Falmouth, and shortly afterwards proceeded thither himself. The Brest fleet and its memorable proceedings on this occasion now claim our exclusive attention.

On the 17th, at daybreak, rear-admiral Bouvet, having cleared the passage du Raz, found himself in company with only nine sail of the line, six frigates, including his own, and one transport. He therefore opened his despatches, as directed in the case of separation, and by them learnt, that he was to make Mizen Head on the coast of Ireland, and cruise off there during five days, when a frigate would join him with fresh instructions. Making sail, about noon, with this destination in view, the rear-admiral did. not proceed straight to Cape Clear, lest he should encounter the british fleet, but steered to the westward, and continued sailing in that direction until daylight on the 19th, when he altered his course to north. Shortly afterwards his advanced frigate signalled 16 vessels; which proved to be part of the expedition, and at noon joined company. Rear-admiral Bouvet now had under his command 15 sail of the line, 10 frigates including the Scévola, three corvettes, and five transports. The missing line-ofbattle ship was the Nestor, and the missing frigates, the Fraternité, Cocarde, and Romaine.

On the 20th the weather was extremely foggy. On the 21st, at 7 h. 30 m. A. M., the advanced frigates gained a sight of Dursey island, and shortly afterwards of Mizen Head. Having arrived off the entrance of Bantry bay, the rear-admiral made the signal to prepare to anchor. By this time several pilot-boats, mistaking the fleet for british, had got among the leading frigates, and were detained by

the orders of the admiral; who thus found himself 1796. provided with pilots for almost every ship in his Dec. fleet. M. Bouvet now learnt that, for three days, no ship had appeared off the coast, and that the only force at anchor in Cork harbour consisted of six frigates.

During the whole of the 21st, and a part of the 22d, the fleet beat against a fresh easterly wind, and made very little way. Finding this to be the case, the rear-admiral, at 4 P. M., anchored his frigate a little to-windward of the eastern extremity of GreatBear island, and was soon joined by eight ships of the line, a second frigate, four corvettes, and one transport. The remainder of the ships, their captains having been signalled to act according to their own discretion, kept under way, and at daylight on the 23d were not to be seen by the ships at anchor.

During the whole of this day and night it blew hard from the eastward, and there was a heavy sea in the bay; but on the next day, the 24th, the wind moderated, not sufficiently, however, in rear-admiral Bouvet's opinion, for the ships to weigh: they therefore continued at their anchors. A council of war, held this day on board the Immortalité, decided that the 6000 troops on board the ships present should be disembarked; and general Grouchy, now the commanding officer of the land-forces, made a formal requisition to that effect to rear-admiral Bouvet.

Although he had received no instruction on that head, to guide him in case of separation, the rearadmiral immediately despatched a corvette to reconnoitre the coast; and, on learning that there was a creek near at hand, where several boats might land together, he got under way with his ships. This was at 4 P. M., and consequently too late to effect much at this season of the year. Moreover the wind and sea began to get up, and the pilots pronounced that a storm was brewing. The ships thereupon reanchored; and at night the gale came on so violently from the eastward, that the frigates pitched forecastle-under.

Dec.

1796. On the 25th the gale increased. Several of the line-of-battle ships drove from their anchors and stood out to sea. One of them, the Indomptable, ran foul of the Résolue, and carried away all the frigate's masts. In the evening the Immortalité, having parted one cable, was obliged to cut the other, to save herself from going on shore On clearing the bay, the frigate could do nothing but scud, and continued, for three days, running before the wind.

On the 29th the wind moderated, and became fair for returning to Bantry bay, from which the Immortalité then bore south-west distant about 20 leagues. Apprehensive, however, that he should find none of his ships there, and having only a few days' provisions on board, rear-admiral Bouvet steered for Brest, and on the 1st of January at 1 A. M. entered the road; where he was joined the same day by the Indomptable 80, and the Fougueux, Mucius, Redoutable and Patriote 74s.

We have already mentioned that, on the 20th of December, the Nestor 74, and Fraternité, Romaine, and Cocarde frigates were sailing in company. At this time, as appears by their journals, they were very near to the division of rear-admiral Bouvet; but each admiral was concealed from the other's view by the thick fog that prevailed. The violent wind, which dispersed that fog, separated those four ships in spite of all their endeavours to keep together; and on the next day, the 21st, when nearly in sight of the coast of Ireland, the Fraternité found herself almost under the guns of an english frigate, (described as "un vaisseau rasé,") which she at first took for the Romaine. As soon as the mistake was discovered, the Fraternité made all sail, closely pursued by the frigate; and from whom her escape appeared doubtful, until darkness enabled her to alter her course,

This chase had carried the Fraternité to a great distance from the irish coast; and, now that the admiral wished to return, the wind blew violently

from the eastward. After beating about until the 1796. morning of the 29th, the Fraternité obtained a shift Dec. of wind in her favour, and stood towards Bantry bay. In her way thither, the frigate met the Révolution, in company with the Scévola rasé; whose crew and passengers the 74 was occupied in removing, to save them from perishing in the vessel, which, unable from age and weakness to withstand the violence of the gale, was then in a sinking state. The two mortified commanders in chief now learnt that not a ship of their fleet remained in the bay: they persevered, however, in steering towards it, until, on the second day, captain Dumanoir sent to inform the admiral that, with so many hands as he now had on board, (upwards of 1600,) his provisions would not hold out much longer. This determined the two chiefs, on board of whose frigate a part of the Scévola's crew had also been received, to return home.

Jan.

On the 8th of January, at 7 A. M., in latitude 51° 1797. north, longitude 13° 11' west from Greenwich, the wind at north-east, the Fraternité and her consort fell in with, and immediately tacked away from, the british 32-gun frigate Unicorn, captain sir Thomas Williams, and 36-gun frigate Doris, captain the honourable Charles Jones; from whom the 32-gun frigate Druid, captain Richard King, had just parted company, along with the french transport Ville-de-Lorient, captured the preceding evening. This precipitate flight of the french 74 and frigate brought with it an evil little suspected by the two commanders in chief on board the latter. Eleven ships belonging to their fleet were at that very time towindward, chasing the Unicorn and Doris; and which ships the Révolution and Fraternité might also have discovered, had the latter continued a short time longer upon the course they had been steering.

On the next morning, the 9th, the Unicorn and Doris again fell in with the two french ships, who again tacked to the westward; at which time

1797. the Unicorn was within two miles of them. Having Jan escaped this imaginary danger, the french 74 and frigate, on the morning of the 10th, had a real cause for their fears, finding themselves chased by lord Bridport's fleet; and from which they owed their escape to the hazy and tempestuous state of the weather. Considering it no longer safe to persist in steering to the eastward, the Révolution and Fraternité altered their course to south. On the morning of the 14th they made the Isle of Ré, and entered Rochefort the same afternoon.

If the ships, which did not reach or were driven out of Bantry bay, suffered so much by stress of weather, several of those that remained in it met a still worse fate. On the 30th of December the Justine transport was captured, and the Impatiente frigate cast away, on the coast near Crookhaven, with the loss of all the latter's crew and passengers, except seven. Early in January the Surveillante went on shore in Bantry bay, and a portion of her crew fell into the hands of the British: the remainder got on board some of the ships in company. On the 7th the Ville-de-Lorient transport was taken as already mentioned; as on the 5th had been the Tortue frigate by the Polyphemus 64. On that, or the following day, the Fille-Unique transport foundered in the bay; and two or three of the men of war which eventually escaped were, on more than one occasion, very critically circumstanced.

Eight or nine of the ships made their appearance off the river Shannon; but all at length quitted the coast of Ireland, and steered towards that of France. On their way thither, the Suffren and Allegro transports were taken; also the Atalante brigcorvette. The loss of one and the return to port of six of the line-of-battle ships we have already noticed. On the 11th of January the Constitution, Trajan, Pluton, Wattigny, and Pégase arrived at Brest, the latter having in tow the dismasted Résolue; and on the 13th the Nestor, Tourville, Eole,