tch, a young sergeant, named Jasper, distinguished himself by
jumping after it, fetching back and rehoisting the colours under a
heavy fire.

In the squadron an equal gallantry was shown under circumstances which
made severe demands upon endurance. Whatever Parker's estimate of
the worth of the defences, no trace of vain-confidence appears in his
dispositions, which were thorough and careful, as the execution of
the main attack was skilful and vigorous; but the ships' companies,
expecting an easy victory, had found themselves confronted with a
resistance and a punishment as severe as were endured by the leading
ships at Trafalgar, and far more prolonged. Such conditions impose
upon men's tenacity the additional test of surprise and discomfiture.
The _Experiment_, though very small for a ship of the line, lost 23
killed and 56 wounded, out of a total probably not much exceeding 300;
while the _Bristol_, having the spring shot away, swung with her head
to the southward and her stern to the fort, undergoing for a long
time a raking fire to which she could make little reply. Three
several attempts to replace the spring were made by Mr. James
Saumarez,--afterwards the distinguished admiral, Lord de Saumarez,
then a midshipman,--before the ship was relieved from this grave
disadvantage. Her loss was 40 killed and 71 wounded; not a man
escaping of those stationed on the quarter-deck at the beginning of
the action. Among the injured was the Commodore himself, whose cool
heroism must have been singularly conspicuous, from the notice it
attracted in a service where such bearing was not rare. At one
time when the quarter-deck was cleared and he stood alone upon the
poop-ladder, Saumarez suggested to him to come down; but he replied,
smiling, "You want to get rid of me, do you?" and refused to move.
The captain of the ship, John Morris, was mortally wounded. With
commendable modesty Parker only reported himself as slightly bruised;
but deserters stated that for some days he needed the assistance of
two men to walk, and that his trousers had been torn off him by shot
or splinters. The loss in the other ships was only one killed, 14
wounded. The Americans had 37 killed and wounded.

The three vessels assigned to enfilade the main front of the fort did
not get into position. They ran on the middle ground, owing, Parker
reported, to the ignorance of the pilots. Two had fouled each other
before striking. Having taken the bottom on a r