On the 12th April, 1823, Captain Spencer was appointed to the Naiad 46, in which frigate, after a cruise in the Channel, he sailed from Spithead, with sealed orders, in Sept. following. After remaining at Lisbon until the early part of 1824, we find him proceeding to Algiers, with the Camelion brig, of 10 guns, under his orders, for the purpose of making a remonstrance against the outrageous proceedings of the Dey, who had broken open the house of the British Consul, and taken away two of his servants, under the pretence that they belonged to a tribe called Cabbais, natives of the interior, against whom the Regency had commenced a war of extermination and plunder. On his arrival at Algiers, Captain Spencer found two Spanish vessels in the mole, which had just been captured, and their crews destined to slavery. With the most praiseworthy feeling, he made the release of these poor captives a part of his demands, agreeably to the Exmouth treaty, which renounced the right of the Dey to enslave Christian subjects.
After waiting four days, and finding the Dey still obstinate in refusing his just claims. Captain Spencer embarked the Consul General and family on board the Naiad, and on the 31st Jan. 1824, got under weigh with his guests, and worked out of the bay with the Camelion in company. Whilst the Naiad and her consort were beating out, the corvette which had captured the Spanish vessels was seen running for the mole; and chase being given and several shot fired across her bows to bring her to, which were disregarded, she was reduced to a wreck by the Naiad’s fire, and subsequently laid on board very gallantly by the Camelion. In a few minutes she was in possession of the brig’s crew, and proved to be the Tripoli, of 18 guns and 100 men, of whom 7 were killed and 12 wounded; the British sustained no loss. Finding that this vessel was in a leaky state, and so much disabled by the fire she had sustained as to make her quite unseaworthy. Captain Spencer abandoned her, after taking out the Algerine commander and 17 Spaniards, the latter of whom were thus happily rescued from slavery.
Captain Spencer then proceeded to Malta, for the purpose of communicating his proceedings to Sir Harry Neale, then
