he water, and, directly it reached us,
set off in pursuit of the captured merchantmen, which were headed towards
Monte Cristo. The breeze soon freshened, and we presently overhauled and
recaptured them, and then set off in pursuit of the armed boats. These,
however, reached the shelter of the shore battery before we could overtake
them; as our duty was to protect the convoy and not to cut out prizes, we
hauled our wind and followed our charges, and a week later arrived with
them all safely in Leghorn roads, and started to join Lord Keith's
squadron off Genoa, which he was blockading at sea while the Austrians
beleaguered it on the land side. Here we cruised outside the town for a
few days; then Massena surrendered, and the _Speedy_ was ordered to cruise
off the Spanish coast.

"On our way we captured a native craft off Elba, and a Sardinian vessel
laden with oil and wool, which was a prize to a French privateer. We towed
her into Leghorn, and again started, and captured the next day a Spanish
privateer of ten guns and thirty-three men. Five gun-boats came out from
Bastia in chase, but we took the prize in tow, and kept up a running fire
with the gun-boats until, after chasing us for some hours, they gave it
up. We took several other prizes, and sunk a privateer lying under shelter
of a battery. We again took our prizes back into Leghorn, indeed it seemed
that we were never to get away from that place, for, starting again, we
captured a French privateer, and then fell in with the frigates _Mutine_
and _Salamine_, which handed over to us a number of French prisoners that
they had taken, and we had to carry them and our prize back to Leghorn. At
last we got fairly away, and reached Port Mahon, capturing a Neapolitan
vessel with a French prize crew on board.

"As far as I can remember nothing particular happened for the next three
months, except that we got damaged in a storm and were six weeks refitting
at Port Mahon. Three days after leaving the port we were off Majorca.
There were several strange craft in sight; we picked out the largest and
started in chase, when a French craft came out, and we altered our course
to meet her. After exchanging fire with us for some time she drew off, but
got too close inshore and drove on the rocks. As it was evident that she
would become a wreck, we left her and captured one of the other ships.

"The activity of the _Speedy_ caused the Spanish authorities to make
special efforts to cap