the Leopard of 50 guns, in which ship he returned to England on the 24th Feb. 1808.
Captain Collier subsequently commanded the Champion 24, and Leopard 50. His next appointment was about Feb, 1806, to la Minerve frigate, employed on the coast of Spain, where he captured several of the enemy’s armed vessels, privateers, and merchantmen. In 1807 he removed into the Surveillante, and accompanied the expedition sent against Copenhagen, from whence he returned to England with Admiral Gambier’s despatches, announcing the surrender of the Danish capital and fleet. On his arrival with this important intelligence he received the honor of knighthood from his late Majesty.
From this period Sir George Collier was principally employed cruising on the French coast and in the Bay of Biscay, where he captured, among other vessels, le Milan, national corvette, of 18 guns and 115 men; la Comtesse Laure, and la Creole French privateers, of 14 guns each, the former having a complement of 55, the latter 115 men; the Tom, American letter of marque, of 6 guns and 36 men; and the Orders in Council, a schooner of similar description and force. On the 7th Sept. 1810, a party belonging to the Surveillante destroyed a battery and guard-house, which had recently been erected for the protection of the entrance into Crach river; and although opposed by nearly double their force, and exposed to a fire from the opposite bank, returned to their ship without having a man hurt.
Sir George Collier’s active co-operation with the patriots on the north coast of Spain has already been alluded to in the course of this work; we shall now present our readers with his account of the recapture of Bermeo, a sea-port town near Bilboa, and a sketch of the subsequent transactions in which he was engaged.
Sir,– I proceeded off Anchove on the 18th instant, where I was joined by 200 guerillas, under the command of their chief. Pastor, by whose exertion, in conjunction with my pilot, a sufficient number of fishing-boats were impressed to receive an equal number of guerillas I had previously embarked from the coast.
Soon afterwards the Iris joined to leeward, when the whole party, accompanied by the marines of the two frigates, under the command of
