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of the Drake sloop of war, of 14 guns, and 100 men, who conceiving the privateer to be a merchantman, ordered a boat to be manned, and despatched her for the purpose of impressing some of the crew of the privateer. On coming alongside, the boat's crew immediately boarded the supposed merchantman, but they soon found they had caught a tartar, for they were immediately secured.
Captain Burdon perceiving that his boat did not make any shew of returning, and observing the supposed trader crowding sail, now suspected that something was wrong, and lost no time in giving chase, and preparing for action. On coming up with the privateer the Drake opened a sharp fire, but owing to the darkness of the night it could not be continued with effect, and the ships separated; but when daylight appeared, the engagement was renewed with vigour, and gallantly maintained for more than an hour, when Capt. Burdon and the first lieutenant of the Drake being killed, twenty of the crew disabled, a topmast shot away, and the ship very seriously damaged, she was under the necessity of surrendering to the privateer.
The coasts on both sides of the Channel being now in a state of alarm, Jones deemed it imprudent and unsafe to remain longer in that quarter; he therefore made all sail with his prize towards Brest the port of which he reached without interruption, when he communicated the success he had met with, and the other results of his cruise, to the American representative then resident at Paris, the celebrated Dr Franklin, who strongly censured the piratical attack upon St Mary's Isle.
After Jones had attained the rank of commander, he paid a visit to the coast of Northumberland which was the occasion of the fitting out of two armed vessels in the river Tyne, viz: the Anti-gallican, and the Heart-of-Oak privateers—the
