T0WR30N*S THIRD VOYAGE. 157 
they maintained a hard battle, without any deci- 
sive advantage on either side. They next met 
with a French squadron, which they attacked 
without hesitation. The resuh was brilliant, ter- 
minating in the capture of the Mulet, a ship of 
120 tons, which had on board eighty pounds of 
gold. They now proceeded to trade ; but whe- 
ther through the influence of the Portuguese, or 
their own want of courtesy, they found the na- 
tives very ill inclined to enter into traffic. In re- 
venge for this backwardness, Towrson was im- 
pelled to the violent measure of burning several 
of their towns, among others Mowre and Chama ; 
a step, we suspect, which could have little ten- 
dency to promote the British interests in this part 
of Africa. 
After this third voyage of Towrson, no further 
narrative occurs till the year 156^. Two voyages, 
performed in this and the following year, are de- 
scribed by Robert Baker,* vvho, to the character 
of sailor, added, by a rare conjunction, that of a 
poet. The poetic impulse which induced him to 
celebrate these voyages in verse, was first felt in 
the solitude of a French prison, to which, as we 
shall presently see, he was conducted by the ca- 
tastrophe of his last expedition. During a sleep- 
* Hakluyt, (1598.) I. 130—142. 
