harbour. For his gallantry on this occasion, he was presented with a gold snuff box and shawl by the Capitan Pacha; and several other articles of value by different Turkish commanders.
About the same period, the Peterel sloop and la Victorieuse drove a French transport brig on shore, and sent their boats to save the enemy from being murdered by the Arabs. A gale of wind suddenly came on, and the land being dead to leeward, only one boat, a gig, belonging to Captain Richards, could pull off; the remainder were stove, and their crews consequently exposed to very great danger. At this trying moment the commander of la Victorieuse ordered two spare top masts to be battened together, and boats’ masts stepped in the fid-holes; by which means the raft, having one man on it, was sailed on shore, and every person, both English and French, rescued from destruction.
On the 21st Aug. 1801, the western bogaze having been discovered and accurately surveyed[1], la Victorieuse entered the port of Alexandria in company with three other British and the same number of Ottoman sloops, for the purpose of supporting the left flank of the troops under Major-General Coote, in an attack upon the French posts. On this occasion the combined squadron was led by Captain Richards, under the immediate orders of Captain the Hon. Alexander Cochrane, then on board la Victorieuse.
At the conclusion of the campaign, Captain Richards was presented with the Turkish gold medal, in common with his brother officers. He afterwards visited Cyprus, Smyrna, and Constantinople, where he was invested with a pelisse by order of the Grand Seignor. We subsequently find him proceeding to Athens, Zante, Malta, Palermo, Cagliara, Marseilles, Barcelona, Lisbon, Ceuta, and Tangiers.
In Nov. 1802, la Victorieuse made a second trip to the Bosphorus, for the purpose of landing Mirza Aboo Talib Khan, a distinguished Persian traveller, who had long been resident in London, Shortly after his arrival in that strait,
