waist, begrimed with smoke, and often sprinkled with our own blood or
that of our comrades; our handkerchiefs bound round our heads, and our
countenances, with the muscles strained to the utmost, exhibiting the
fierce passions which animated our hearts.

Yet, though I have attempted to describe the scene, no words can do
adequate justice to its savage wildness. I felt, I doubt not, like the
rest. In a moment all recollection of the past vanished; I thought only
of punishing the foe, of gaining the victory. I saw others killed and
wounded near me, but it never occurred to me that at any moment their
fate might be mine. As our foremost guns had been fired, they had been
instantly run in and loaded, and directly the enemy had passed us,
putting down our helm, we luffed up and passed under her stern, raking
her fore and aft, to the very great surprise of the Frenchmen, who
little expected that we should so quickly again be able to deliver our
fire.

The rapidity with which we worked our guns was the chief cause of our
success. Instead of tacking, as the enemy fancied we were going to do,
we once more filled and ran after him. A loud shout burst from our
crew. The Frenchman's fore-topmast came tumbling down on deck. We
quickly came up after him and gave him a full dose of our larboard
broadside.

The two frigates, seeing how their consort had been handled, and that
several of the Indiamen were crowding sail towards them, now set all the
canvas they could spread in the hope of making their escape, very
indifferent to the fate of their big consort, whom they seemed to think
was powerful enough to take very good care of herself. She, meantime,
was signalling to them to remain to render her assistance while she
brought us up towards them.

We, by this time, had been pretty severely handled. We had fully twenty
killed and twice as many wounded, while several of our spars had been
shot away, and we were much cut up in sails and rigging. Night, too,
was coming on, and it was important to keep our convoy together. We
could not tell whether other French ships were near at hand, and if so,
not only we, but many of the merchantmen under our charge might have
been captured. All these things I thought of afterwards, but not then,
depend on it. Flushed with our success, we fully expected that we were
going to make all the three Frenchmen strike. The enemy's
line-of-battle ship sailed well, and she quickly led us up in