rdant materials, he effected _any thing_. That he achieved _so
much_, under such adverse circumstances, proves him to have been a
firm, bold, intrepid, and sagacious man; to have possessed the most
eminent military qualifications, and those sterling virtues which mock
at the petty malice of the envious, and triumph over the machinations
of malignity."

He was, also, fully aware that, as the Spanish of Florida and Cuba
entertained no good will towards him, they would seek an opportunity
to retaliate his "assault and battery," which, though it had proved
on his part a failure, had been to them a grievous annoyance. He,
therefore, kept scout-boats continually on the look out, to give
notice of the approach to the coast of any armed vessel. On the 16th
of August advice was conveyed to him that a large ship had come to
anchor off the bar. He immediately sent out the boat to ascertain
what it was; and it was perceived to be manned with Spaniards, with
evidently hostile purpose. Whereupon he went on board the guard sloop
to go in search of her; took, also, the sloop Falcon, which was in
the service of the Province; and hired the schooner Norfolk, Captain
Davis, to join the expedition. These vessels were manned by a
detachment of his regiment under the following officers: viz.: Major
Alexander Heron, Captain Desbrisay, Lieutenant Mackay, Lieutenant
Tamser, Ensign Hogan, Ensign Sterling, and Ensigns Wemyss and Howarth,
and Adjutant Maxwell; Thomas Eyre, Surgeon and Mate; six sergeants,
six corporals, five drummers, and one hundred and twenty-five
privates. Before they could get down to the bar, a sudden squall of
wind and storm of thunder and rain came on; and when it cleared up the
vessel was out of sight.

Unwilling, however, to lose the object of this equipment, on the next
day he sailed directly towards St. Augustine in pursuit of the ship.
On the 19th the Falcon sloop, being disabled, was sent back, with
seventeen men of the regiment; and the General proceeded with the
guard sloop and schooner. On the 21st, by day-break, they discovered a
ship and a sloop at anchor, about four or five leagues distant; and,
it being a dead calm, they rowed, till they came up to them, about
noon, when they found one to be the black Spanish privateer sloop,
commanded by a French officer, Captain Destrade, who had made several
prizes to the northward; and the other to be a three-mast ship; both
lying at anchor outside of the bar of St. August