“At 1 P.M. beat to quarters.  All my men at quarters but West, who was on shore when we sailed, the men say on leave,—­and Collins in the sick bay. (MEM. shirked.) The others in good spirits.  Mr. Wallis made us a speech, and the men cheered well.  Engaged the enemy at about 7.20 P.M.  Mr. Wallis had bade me open my larboard ports, and I did so; but I did not loosen the stern-guns, which are fought by my crew, when necessary.  The captain hailed the stranger twice, and then the order came to fire.  Our gun No. 2 (after-gun but one) was my first piece.  No. 1 flashed, and the gunner had to put on new priming.  Fired twice with those guns, but before we had loaded the second time, for the third fire, the enemy ran into us.  One of my men (Craik) was badly jammed in the shock,—­squeezed between the gun and the deck.  But he did not leave the gun.  Tried to fire into the enemy, but just as we got the gun to bear, and got a new light, he fell off.  It was very bad working in the dark.  The lanthorns are as bad as they can be.  Loaded both guns, got new portfires, and we ran into the enemy.  We were wearing, and I believe our jib-boom got into his mizzen rigging.  The ships were made fast by the men on the upper deck.  At first I could not bring a gun to bear, the enemy was so far ahead of me.  But as soon as we anchored, our ship forged ahead a little,—­and by bringing the hind axle-trucks well aft, I made both my starboard guns bear on his bows.  Fired right into his forward ports.  I do not think there was a man or a gun there.  In the second battery, forward of me, they had to blow our own ports open, because the enemy lay so close.  Stopped firing three times for my guns to cool.  No. 2 cools quicker than No. 1, or I think so.  Forward we could hear musket-shot, and grenadoes,—­but none of these things fell where we were at work.  A man came into port No. 5, where little Wallis was, and said that the enemy was sinking, and had released him and the other prisoners.  But we had no orders to stop firing.  Afterwards there was a great explosion.  It began at the main hatch, but came back to me and scalded some of my No. 2 men horribly.  Afterwards Mr. Wallis came and took some of No. 2’s men to board.  I tried to bring both guns to bear with No. 1’s crew.  No. 2’s crew did not come back.  At half-past ten all firing stopped on the upper deck.  Mr. Wallis went up to see if the enemy had struck.  He did not come down,—­but the master came down and said we had struck, and the orders were to cease firing.

“We had struck to the Richard, 44, Commodore Jones, and the Alliance, 40, which was the vessel they saw from the quarter-deck.  Our consort, the Countess Scarborough, had struck to the enemy’s ship Pallas.  The officers and crew of the Richard are on board our ship.  The mids talk English well, and are good fellows.  They are very sorry for Mr. Mayrant, who was stabbed with a pike in boarding us, and Mr. Potter, another midshipman, who was hurt.