General de France, whose motive lor exposing himself to almost, certain capture in a small vessel of 3 guns and 53 men, could never be satisfactorily ascertained, not a single paper being found on board except those that related to the privateer; though from the circumstance of Captain Barrie having fallen in with him off Cape Bon, on the coast of Africa, it is very probable he had been charged with a mission to some of the Barbary States.
On the 22d Oct. 1809, we find Captain Barrie joining Lord Collingwood off Cape St. Sebastian, and informing him of the approach of a French convoy from Toulon, which port he had watched with indefatigable perseverance during his lordship’s absence on the Spanish coast. On the following morning the enemy hove in sight; and in the course of the day, Captain Barrie being far to windward of the British squadron, succeeded in coming up with and destroying five transports, laden with provisions for the relief of the French army in Spain. The men of war were in the mean time pursued by a detachment under Rear-Admiral George Martin, who obliged three line-of-battle ships and a frigate to run a-shore between Cette and Frontignan, where two of the former were burnt by their crews; and on the 1st Nov. the remainder of the storeships and transports were successfully attacked by the boats of a squadron under Rear-Admiral Hallowell, who had the satisfaction of reporting that every vessel was either taken or destroyed[1].
On the 18th Jan. 1811, Captain Barrie captured the Dubourdieu French privateer, of fourteen 12-pounders and 93 men. In March following he chased l’Etourdie, a national brig of 18 guns, laden with ordnance stores, into a small cove on the N.W. side of Monte Christo, where she was set on fire by her crew, consisting of 200 men, whom he found it impossible to attack in consequence of a gale of wind preventing his boats from landing, and the time fixed for the Pomone’s return into port having already arrived. A gallant and successful exploit performed by a squadron under his orders at Corsica, on the 1st May, 1811, is thus described by
