rn; and, calling to
Captain Miller, ordered him to send more men into the San Nicolas,
and directed my people to board the first-rate, which was done in
an instant, Captain Berry assisting me into the main-chains. At
this moment, a Spanish officer looked over the quarter-deck rail,
and said they surrendered. From this most welcome intelligence, it
was not long before I was on the quarter-deck; where the Spanish
captain, with a bow, presented me his sword, and said the admiral
was dying of his wounds. I asked him, on his honour, if the ship
surrendered. He declared, she was. On which, I gave him my hand;
and desired him to call in his officers, and ship's company, and
tell them of it: and, on the quarter-deck of a Spanish first-rate,
extravagant as the story may seem, did I receive the swords of
vanquished Spaniards; which, as I received, I gave to William
Fearney, one of my bargemen; who put them, with the greatest
_sang-froid_, under his arm. I was surrounded by Captain Berry,
Lieutenant Pearson of the sixty-ninth regiment, John Sykes, John
Thompson, Francis Cooke--all old Agamemnons--and several other
brave men, seamen and soldiers. Thus fell these ships.

"N.B. In boarding the San Nicolas, I believe, we had about seven
killed, and ten wounded; and about twenty Spaniards lost their
lives by a foolish resistance. None were lost, I believe, in
boarding the San Josef.

"Rear-Admiral Don Francisco Winthuysen died of his wounds on board
the San Josef, and Commodore Gerraldelino on board the San Nicolas,
soon after the action ceased.

"Don Enrique M'Donal was killed on board the San Nicolas, when
boarded by the Captain."

The second day after writing the letter which inclosed the above
admirable account of the proceedings of the Captain, on the memorable
14th of February, the fleet sailed from Lagos Bay, and proceeded to
Lisbon, which they reached on the 27th instant.

The rejoicings of the Portuguese at this glorious victory over the
Spaniards were little less ardent than if it had been their own; and
their reception of the British heroes, at Lisbon, was cordial beyond
conception.

While the fleet remained at anchor in the Tagus, his majesty's ships the
Orion, Minerve, Romulus, Southampton, Andromache, Bonne Citoyenne,
Leander, and Raven, received orders to put themselves under the c