with the boats, after his Captain, the Hon. C. Carpenter, had been induced to haul off from the shore, through the representations of his pilot, and an officer commanding a cutter under his orders, the former of whom refused to take charge of the Intrepid if any attempt were made to follow the enemy, whilst the latter, who had been sent to reconnoitre, reported that they had landed some guns and thrown up a battery for the purpose of defending their ship, which then lay aground. She proved to be la Perçante, of twenty 9-pounders, and six brass 2-pounders, with a complement of near 200 men, the whole of whom fled on Lieutenant Browne’s approach, and groped their way through the prickly-pear bushes to a town at some distance. The prize being got off without damage, was taken into the King’s service, and named the Jamaica.
Lieutenant Browne returned to England with his health greatly impaired by the pestilential climate of St. Domingo; notwithstanding which he continued in active service until promoted to the command of the Chapman armed ship, in 1800, previous to which he had been appointed, as first Lieutenant, to several frigates, and the Elephant of 74 guns. His post commission bears date April 29, 1802.
We now lose sight of Captain Browne till the spring of 1806, when he assumed the command of the Tonnant, an 80-gun ship, bearing the flag of Rear-Admiral Eliab Harvey, under whom he served in the Channel fleet till May 1809. He subsequently held an appointment in the Sea Fencibles; and after the dissolution of that corps acted as Flag-Captain to Rear-Admiral T. Byam Martin, in the Aboukir of 74 guns, which ship he commanded during the siege of Riga; on which occasion between 300 and 400 of his crew were daily lent to the gun-boats employed in the defence of that city.
Captain Browne was next appointed to the Ulysses 44, and stationed in the Belt, for the protection of convoys passing to and from the Baltic. In Dec. 1813, he conducted the army under Sir Thomas Graham to the Scheldt; and in the following summer escorted a fleet of merchantmen to Jamaica. On his return from thence he was nominated Commodore on the coast of Africa, where he had the satisfaction of destroying the only two British slave factories that had been suffered
