266 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1810. 



fire of the three frigates, but also 

 to that of the batteries on shore, 

 did not surrender before every 

 man on board was either killed or 

 wounded. The Iphigenia, closely 

 blockaded in the Isle of Passe, was 

 afterwards taken, together with 

 the isle, by the French frigates. 

 General Decaen, governor of the 

 Isle of France, gave a pompous 

 account of these conquests ; and 

 also of the previous actions, not 

 only with the Nereide, but, as the 

 governor says, with the Sirius and 

 Magicienne, with whom there was 

 no action, the whole fire of the 

 three French frigates being direct- 

 ed, astruly stated by captain Pym, 

 of the Sirius, in his letter to com- 

 modore Rowley, against the Ne- 

 reide. The circumstance of our 

 ships being stranded on unknown 

 shoals was altogether concealed in 

 the French Journals ; in which the 

 capture of the frigates, and the isle 

 of Passe, was blazoned as a great 

 and glorious achievement. It is 

 unnecessary to observe, thatneither 

 wasanynotice taken in the French 

 papers of the retreat of a French 

 squadron, on the 20th of July, 

 from the presence of a small Bri- 

 tish force, under the orders of 

 captain Blackwood, cruizing off 

 Toulon. Though we cannot, in 

 this summary narrative, relate all 

 the distinguished acts of skill 

 and braver)' performed by our 

 navy, which would require a vo- 

 lume, we cannot refrain from 

 noticing that of captain Black- 

 wood. His squadron consisted of 

 three 74 guns ships, with a frigate 

 and corvette. These two last ves- 

 sels being in danger of being cut 

 off by a Frencli squadron, of six 

 ships of the line, of which one was 



a three-decker, and four frigate^, 

 captain Blackwood, with his three 

 ships, drawn up in a line, bore 

 down on the French fleet, and 

 poured a broadside into the fore- 

 most ship. The French, intimi- 

 dated by this audacious attack, 

 which they supposed to be a cer- 

 tain proof of the near vicinity of the 

 fleet under admiral Cotton,sheered 

 ofl'forthe harbour of Toulon. The 

 courage of British seamen, and 

 the excellence of the naval tac- 

 tics of British naval officers, 

 though both have been so often, 

 were never more gloriously illus- 

 trated. It may be mentioned 

 among the naval and colonial af- 

 fairs of Britain, that the Eng- 

 lish, in the course of this year, 

 fortified and established a com- 

 mercial depot at the small Danish 

 island of Anholt, situated in the 

 Categat, in the same manner as 

 had been done in 1809, at Heligo- 

 land, an isle in the Baltic, very 

 convenient for the smuggling of 

 goods into the Danish territory, 

 and also into Germany, by the 

 Elbe and the Weser. 



The burning decrees of Buona- 

 parte, and an exclusion from the 

 American market, occasioned 

 much stagnation of trade in many 

 of the manufacturing and some 

 trading towns in England; but 

 new avenues were opened, and 

 our commerce still flourished, all 

 things considered, wonderfully. 



It is lamentable to see refined 

 nations, instead of co-operating 

 for their own, together with the 

 convenience and comfort of socie- 

 ty, using all possible means for 

 oppressing each other's industry : 

 duties, prohibitions, conflagra- 

 tions,andevenpunishments,usually 



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