chant brig bound to Malaga; but they did not arrive there until the 24th Dec, a westerly wind having obliged the vessel to anchor off Almeira, where she was detained upwards of three weeks, and her passengers confined on shore during that period.
From Malaga, our countrymen were marched to Gibraltar, under a strong escort of soldiers, who treated both officers and men with great brutality, but particularly Lieutenant Staines, who received a sabre wound in the wrist, whilst parrying a blow which one of those ruffians had aimed at his head. On their arrival at the rock, a court-martial was assembled to investigate the circumstances attending their capture by the Spanish squadron; and as no blame could be attached to any individual, the whole of them were sent back to the Peterel immediately after their acquittal.
At the time of her falling into the hands of the enemy, the Peterel was commanded by Captain George Long, who afterwards fell in a sortie whilst employed defending the island of Elba[1]. On the 3d Feb. 1799, that gallant officer was superseded by Captain Francis William Austen, with whom Mr. Staines continued as first Lieutenant until Oct. 16, in the same year, during which period he was present at the capture of three French frigates and two brigs of war[2]; also of an armed galley, a transport brig laden with brass guns and ammunition, and twenty merchant vessels, most of which were cut out from the enemy’s harbours by boats under his own directions. It is worthy of remark, that the gentleman who succeeded him as senior Lieutenant of the Peterel was killed in a boat attack, near Barcelona, on the third day after Mr. Staines was removed from that sloop[3].
In May 1799, the Peterel was sent to inform Lord Nelson, then at Palermo with only one line-of-battle ship, that a powerful fleet from Brest, having eluded the vigilance of Lord Bridport, had passed the straits of Gibraltar (intending
