attack, conducted with that impetuosity which effects its object before the enemy can avail himself of his superior force.  Thus, Sir Charles Brisbane, with four frigates, at Curacoa, and Sir Christopher Cole, with a few boats’ crews at Banda, achieved, with little or no loss, what would have been justly deemed proud triumphs for a fleet of line-of-battle ships.  Sir E. Pellew was never a man to commit himself rashly to what he had not well considered.  “There is always uncertainty,” he would say, “in naval actions, for a chance shot may place the best managed ship in the power of an inferior opponent.”  Hence he would leave nothing to chance, which foresight could possibly provide for.  With such a character, and with his intimate knowledge of Brest and its defences, which were almost as familiar to him as Falmouth harbour, his own confidence affords strong presumption that he would have succeeded.

The First Lord took an opportunity to submit this proposal to Lord Bridport at Torbay, and Sir Edward was in consequence called on board the flag-ship by signal.  The Admiral received him on the quarter-deck with a very low and formal bow, and referred him to Earl Spencer, in the cabin, whom he soon found not to be influenced by any arguments he could employ.

Lord Bridport was never pleased that independent frigate squadrons were appointed to cruise within his station.  It was, indeed, an irregularity which nothing but the emergency could have justified, when it was desirable to relieve the commander-in-chief from lesser responsibilities, and enable him to devote all his attention to the fleet which threatened the safety of the country.  Their successes had made the squadrons so popular, that the system was continued when they might, perhaps, have been placed, with equal advantage, under the orders of the Admiral; and it would naturally give pain to that officer to find himself denied the privilege of recognizing and rewarding the most brilliant services performed within his own command.  Lord Bridport would occasionally evince such a feeling when speaking of the “Western Commodores,” and it may have influenced his manner upon this occasion; but his approval of Sir Edward’s plan was not to be expected, for he would scarcely sanction the proposal to effect with a few frigates what it would not be thought prudent to attempt with a fleet.

The Indefatigable sailed from Torbay with a convoy, from which she parted company on the 13th of October, off the Isle of Palma.  On the 25th, near Teneriffe, a large corvette chased her, supposing her to be an Indiaman, and approached very near before she discovered the mistake.  She had formerly been the frigate-built sloop Hyaena, which the enemy had taken very early in the war, and cut down to a flush ship; a change which improved her sailing qualities so much, that she might perhaps have escaped from the Indefatigable, if she had not lost her fore-topmast in carrying a press of sail.  It is remarkable, that in this war Sir Edward took the first ship from the enemy, and after nearly five years, recaptured the first they had taken from the British.