ong to the
Algerines, thereby depriving us of the prize-money we had expected to get
for her. Cochrane was especially enraged, for had the _Gamo_ been
purchased, we could have been transferred to her from the _Speedy_, and
would have been in a position to do very much more than in that wretched
little craft. It was, however, but a piece of the treatment that we had
been receiving. The extraordinary number of prizes we had taken excited
the jealousy of the senior officers on the station, for indeed we had
captured more than all the other cruisers together; and the result was
that our prizes were all sold for anything they would fetch, and owing to
the ridiculous sums for which they were given away, and the rascality of
the prize agents, we did not receive a tithe of the prize-money that
should have come to us.

"This ill-will resulted in bringing our career to an end. On our return to
Port Mahon we were ordered to escort an extremely slow old mail-packet to
Gibraltar. What rendered it more ridiculous was that we were to carry the
mail-bags, and only to hand them over to the old tub on her arrival at
Gibraltar and were then to return without communication with the shore. It
was supposed that while engaged on this duty we should at least be able to
take no further prizes, but we were so much faster than our convoy that
while she crawled along we were able to run in and explore bays and
creeks. In one several merchantmen were lying. As we bore in towards them
they weighed their anchors and ran ashore. As soon as it was dark we sent
our boats in and set fire to them, and as one was laden with oil it made a
blaze that could be seen fifty miles away. Unfortunately three French
line-of-battle ships were within that circle--the _Indomptable_, the
_Dessaix_, and the _Formidable_--and they ran in to ascertain the cause of
the fire. At daybreak we made out three large ships in the distance, and
imagining they were Spanish galleons on their way home from South America,
at once prepared to chase them. As the light broadened out we saw our
mistake, and made them out to be line-of-battle ships. They at once
crowded all sail and bore down towards us.

"'I fear this time, Embleton,' Cochrane said to me, 'it is all up with us.
We will do our best to get away, but the chances are small. There is one
good thing, they are flying the French flag, and we may expect vastly
better treatment at their hands than we should get from the Spaniards, w