the _Volage_, which was then paid off.

In 1803 he was appointed lieutenant of H.M.S. _Minotaur_ on the Channel
Service, but in 1804, in consequence of a very severe attack of rheumatic
fever, which completely prostrated him and for several months necessitated
the use of crutches, he resigned his post.

On his recovery, in the summer of 1805, he was appointed to H.M.S.
_Tonnant_, and was senior lieutenant of her lower deck quarters in the
Battle of Trafalgar, concerning which he gives several new and interesting
details. During the battle he was slightly wounded in the left hand.

His next ship was H.M.S. _Diamond_ (to which he was appointed March 8th,
1806), ordered for service on the West Coast of Africa. In 1807 he became
commander of the _Favourite_ sloop of war in consequence of the death of
her captain, and three months afterwards took the last convoy of slave
ships to the West Indies.

In 1808, while in Jamaica, he was attacked by fever, which affected his
eyesight, nearly producing blindness; and, on the advice of the doctor at
Port Royal Hospital, Admiral Dacres gave him permission to exchange into
the _Goelan_ sloop of war, which was shortly afterwards ordered to England
with convoy.

In 1810 he was appointed to command the _Apelles_ on the Downs station,
and in this capacity he was actively employed until May, 1812, when,
during the middle watch, and in a dense fog, the _Apelles_, with the
_Skylark_, her leader, unfortunately grounded on the French coast, near
Etaples, on "the infant ebb of a spring tide." All efforts to float the
sloop were vain, and, after being for three hours under the incessant fire
of a French battery, which riddled her hull and cut away her masts, and
having meanwhile sent away all the crew which the boats were capable of
containing, the author and eighteen others were compelled to surrender.

The following is the sentence of the Court Martial held at Portsmouth on
the conduct of Captain Hoffman for the loss of H.M. sloop _Apelles_, Sir
George Martin, Bart., President:--

"That there is no blame whatever attached to the conduct of Captain
Hoffman; that he is fully and honourably acquitted.

"That great praise is due to him for remaining with his ship.

"That the Court regrets he was under the painful necessity of becoming a
prisoner, and that his services were lost to his country for the period of
two years."

After reading the sentence Sir G. Martin spoke as follows:--

"C