rger than a coasting brig, he captured a large
French privateer on the 10th of May, and on the 14th he recaptured two
English vessels that had been seized by the enemy. On the 16th of June
he took another French vessel, and on the 22nd another, with a prize
which she had just obtained. On the 29th, he secured a large Spanish
privateer, in spite of five gunboats which fought in her defence. On the
19th of July he captured another French privateer and rescued her prize;
on the 27th he sunk another; and on the 31st he put another to flight
and took possession of the prize which she had in tow. On the 22nd of
September, he seized another of the enemy's vessels. On the 15th of
December he wrecked one French war-ship and captured another, one of
three which came to her assistance; and on the 24th, being attacked by
two Spanish privateers, he took one of them. On the 16th of January,
1801, he chased two vessels, and seized one, and on the 22nd, two of the
enemy's craft, one French and the other Spanish, struck to him. On the
24th of February a French brig fell into his hands. The same fate was
shared by another vessel on the 11th of April, by another on the 13th,
and by two others on the 15th. He captured a Spanish tartan and a
Spanish privateer on the 4th of May; and on the 13th occurred his
celebrated victory over the _Gamo_--carrying four times the tonnage, six
times the number of men, and seven times the weight of shot possessed by
the _Speedy_--which was soon followed by the taking of two other Spanish
privateers heavily armed. On the 9th of June, the _Speedy_ and another
little vessel had a nine hours' fight, first with a Spanish zebec and
three gunboats, and afterwards with a felucco and two more gunboats
which came to their aid, which were only allowed to escape when the
English ammunition was nearly exhausted, the _Speedy_ having discharged
fourteen hundred shot. On the 3rd of July, the pigmy vessel, after hard
fighting, had to surrender to three French line-of-battle ships. It was
on that occasion that their senior officer, Captain Palliere, declined
to accept the sword of "an officer," as he said, "who had for so many
hours struggled against impossibility." In his thirteen months' cruise
Lord Cochrane had with his little sloop of fourteen 4-pounders, and a
crew of fifty-four officers and men, taken and retaken fifty vessels, a
hundred and twenty-two guns, and five hundred and thirty-four prisoners.

His next ship, th