which he was surrounded.
What would he not have given, at that moment, for a single gun powerful
enough to have reached us? As it was, he fired at us at frequent
intervals, for the apparent purpose of ascertaining whether we had
inadvertently ventured within range; and I noticed that every shot fell
further away from us. I could not at first comprehend this, as our own
shot continued to strike every time; but at length I thought I had hit
upon an explanation of the mystery, which I mentioned to Captain Winter.
My belief was that the French captain was gradually reducing his
charges of powder, in the hope that, by so doing, he would tempt us to
draw nearer, under the impression that we were well out of range, when,
perhaps, by a well-directed broadside, with a full powder charge, he
might succeed in unrigging us; when our capture, by means of his boats,
would be an easy matter. We were not, however, to be so easily tempted.

At length, by dint of great exertion, and probably at the cost of many
men, the Frenchmen succeeded in cutting adrift the wreck of their
foremast; when, by furling all the canvas upon their mizzen-mast, they
managed to once more get the frigate before the wind and heading in for
the land. And now came our opportunity, for we were by this time dead
to windward of our antagonist; and no sooner was she before the wind
than we, too, kept away, gradually closing with her, and keeping our
long gun playing upon her until there was a hole in her stern big enough
to have driven a coach through. As soon as we were near enough she
opened fire upon us with her two stern-chasers; and at the very first
fire both shots came in through our bows and raked us fore and aft,
killing one man and wounding three others with the splinters that were
sent flying about our ears. Finding that we had approached her too
closely, we immediately hauled our wind, and began to sail to-and-fro
athwart her stern, keeping up a brisk fire upon her with our long gun,
and raking her at every shot. This went on for about a quarter of an
hour, during which she repeatedly returned our fire, but without effect;
and then a lucky shot from us cut her main-yard in two in the slings,
and she was once more helpless, broaching-to, and lying with her bows
well up to the wind. This reduced to nothing her hopes of escape by
running in under the land and anchoring within the shelter of the guns
of a battery; and after receiving three or four more