MALTA AND SICILY. 
37 
quite unsafe to proceed against a head-wind 
and sea to Algiers, the nearest port in our 
track, where we could receive the necessary 
assistance for repairing the damages, and 
that, therefore, he had determined to return to 
Gibraltar. Accordingly about two o’clock in 
the morning, (Sunday 17tli,) we bore up, and 
reached this port in safety at nine at night. 
We again fired a gun, and burnt a blue-light; 
this so strongly illuminated every part of the 
vessel, that the people on shore could have 
had no difficulty in making out who we were, 
and, doubtless, many were the wonderings 
and conjecturings about the cause of our 
return. 
We kept a good look out for the brig all 
the way from Cape de Gatt, and seeing 
nothing of her, we thought it possible that 
she might have reached this port before us. 
This not being the case, we are under serious 
