uld not proceed on her voyage. Captain Hood,
therefore, returned with his prize to Spithead; and afterwards met with
a gracious reception from his majesty, on account of the valour and
conduct he had displayed on this occasion. The Bellona had sailed in
January from the island of Martinique, along with the Florissant,
and another French frigate, from which she had been separated in the
passage. Immediately after this exploit, captain Elliot, of the AEolus
frigate, accompanied by the Isis, made prize of a French ship, the
Mignonne, of twenty guns, and one hundred and forty men, one of four
frigates employed as convoy to a large fleet of merchant-ships, near the
island of Rhe.

In the month of March, the English frigates the Southampton and Melampe,
commanded by the captains Gilchrist and Hotham, being at sea to the
northward on a cruise, fell in with the Danae, a French ship of forty
cannon, and three hundred and thirty men, which was engaged by captain
Hotham in a ship of half the force, who maintained the battle a
considerable time with admirable gallantry, before his consort could
come to his assistance. As they fought in the dark, captain Gilchrist
was obliged to lie by for some time, because he could not distinguish
the one from the other; but no sooner did the day appear, than he bore
down upon the Danae with his usual impetuosity, and soon compelled her
to surrender: she did not strike, however, until thirty or forty of her
men were slain; and the gallant captain Gilchrist received a grape-shot
in his shoulder, which, though it did not deprive him of life, yet
rendered him incapable of future service: a misfortune the more to be
lamented, as it happened to a brave officer in the vigour of his age,
and in the midst of a sanguinary war, which might have afforded him
many other opportunities of signalizing his courage for the honour and
advantage of his country. Another remarkable exploit was achieved
about the same juncture by captain Barrington, commander of the ship
Achilles, mounted with sixty cannon; who, to the westward of Cape
Finisterre, encountered a French ship of equal force, called the
Count de Saint Florintin, bound from Cape Francois, on the island of
Hispaniola, to Rochefort, under the command of the sieur de Montay, who
was obliged to strike, after a close and obstinate engagement, in which
he himself was mortally wounded, a great number of his men slain, and
his ship so damaged, that she was with dif