the parent state, rendering it necessary that an officer possessing temper and discretion should be sent to command upon that station[1].”
Whilst thus employed, his attention having been called to a system of smuggling carried on in the Gulph of Paria, Captain Campbell detected two American schooners and a Trinidad sloop in the act of putting sugar on board an American brig at anchor near the Spanish main: the whole of these vessels he seized, and carried back to the island for adjudication; but understanding that the Judge of the Vice-Admiralty Court had declared to the Colonial Secretary, and other persons, that he was determined to liberate them, they were again got under weigh, conducted to Grenada, and there condemned, both hulls and cargo:– this transaction led to a great deal of legal discussion, which our limits will not allow us to enter into.
Captain Campbell obtained post rank Aug. 1, 1811; but he continued in the Rosamond until May 30, 1814, during which period he was successively employed conveying a mail and some specie from Jamaica to England, escorting various fleets of merchantmen, and protecting the fisheries on the coast of Labrador and the north shores of Newfoundland. In 1812, he captured the Friendship, an American merchantman of near 400 tons, with a valuable cargo of naval stores, from Archangel bound to Salem. This ship he chased for 14 hours, during the whole of which time he flattered himself that he was in pursuit of an enemy’s cruiser, as she was a regular built corvette, pierced for 20 guns.
Whilst in the command of the Rosamond, Captain Campbell received three commendatory letters from his superior officers, of which the following are copies:–
- ↑ The above is an extract of a letter from Sir Francis Laforey, commander-in-chief at the Leeward Islands.
