erate with him, commanding it.
After some delay owing to contrary winds, on the 14th of August the
English and Dutch fleets, accompanied by several additional gunboats,
sailed for Algiers. On their way they met the _Prometheus_ sloop of
war, Captain Dashwood, which had on board the wife, daughter, and infant
child of the British consul, Mr McDonnell. The two ladies, disguised
in midshipmen's uniforms, had with great difficulty escaped, but as they
were passing through the gateway the infant, who had been concealed in a
basket, uttering a cry, was detained and carried to the dey. It should
be recorded as a solitary instance of his humanity that it was sent off
the next morning to its mother by the dey. The surgeon of the
_Prometheus_ with three midshipmen and the crews of two boats,
consisting in all of eighteen persons, had been detained.

The fleet being becalmed, Lord Exmouth sent a lieutenant in one of the
_Queen Charlotte's_ boats with a flag of truce to the dey, demanding the
immediate liberation of the British consul and the people belonging to
the _Prometheus_, the abolition of Christian slavery, the delivery of
all Christian slaves in the Algerine state, and the repayment of the
money exacted for the redemption of Neapolitan and Sardinian slaves, and
peace with the King of the Netherlands. Before the answer had been
received, a breeze sprung up, and the fleet standing in to the harbour,
the ships took up their appointed positions before the city. The _Queen
Charlotte_ made herself fast to the main-mast of a brig on shore close
to the mole. Near her lay the _Leander_, while the other ships arranged
themselves to bring their guns to bear on different parts of the city,
the lighter vessels bringing up abreast of any openings they could find
in the line of battle. Scarcely had the _Queen Charlotte_ brought up,
when a shot was fired at her from the city, followed by two other guns,
when Lord Exmouth seeing a large body of soldiers standing on the
parapet of the mole, watching the ships, mercifully waved his hand to
them to make their escape, and as they were leaping down, the _Queen
Charlotte_ opened her starboard broadside, the other ships following her
example. So admirably were her guns served that her third broadside
completely levelled the south end of the mole, when, changing her
position, she attacked the batteries over the town-gate, and brought the
guns on it tumbling over the battlements. Soon afte