nce such a feeling when speaking of the "Western
Commodores," and it may have influenced his manner upon this occasion;
but his approval of Sir Edward's plan was not to be expected, for he
would scarcely sanction the proposal to effect with a few frigates what
it would not be thought prudent to attempt with a fleet.

The _Indefatigable_ sailed from Torbay with a convoy, from which she
parted company on the 13th of October, off the Isle of Palma. On the
25th, near Teneriffe, a large corvette chased her, supposing her to be
an Indiaman, and approached very near before she discovered the mistake.
She had formerly been the frigate-built sloop _Hyaena_, which the enemy
had taken very early in the war, and cut down to a flush ship; a change
which improved her sailing qualities so much, that she might perhaps
have escaped from the _Indefatigable_, if she had not lost her
fore-topmast in carrying a press of sail. It is remarkable, that in this
war Sir Edward took the first ship from the enemy, and after nearly five
years, recaptured the first they had taken from the British.

It was a part of Sir Edward's system, while he commanded cruising ships,
to have the reefs shaken out, the studding sail-booms rigged out, and
everything ready, before daylight; that if an enemy should be near there
might be no delay in making sail. In the course of 1798 his squadron
took fifteen cruisers. The circumstances connected with one of these,
_La Vaillante_ national corvette, taken on the 8th of August by the
_Indefatigable_, after a chase of twenty-four hours, were of much
interest. She was bound to Cayenne, with prisoners; among whom were
twenty-five priests, who had been condemned for their principles to
perish in that unhealthy colony. It may well be supposed that they were
at once restored to liberty and comfort; nor would Sir Edward show to
the commander of his prize the attentions which an officer in his
situation expects, until he had first satisfied himself that the severe
and unnecessary restraint to which they had been subjected, for he found
them chained together, was the consequence of express orders from the
French Government. His officers and men vied with him in attentions to
the unfortunate exiles, and when he set them on shore in England he gave
them a supply for their immediate wants. Among the passengers on board
_La Vaillante_ were the wife and family of a banished deputy. M. Rovere,
who had obtained permission to join him, a