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POST-CAPTAINS OF 1804.

sequently demanded an armistice, which very soon led to & final capitulation; hastened no doubt by the intelligence that the British army was in daily expectation of receiving considerable reinforcements from India. The capitulation was ratified by the British commanders-in-chief on the 2d Sept. General Menou and his followers were allowed to return home upon the same terms as had been granted to the garrison of Grand Cairo, 312 pieces of cannon, 14,000 filled cartridges, 195,0001bs. of gunpowder, 1 ship of the line, 3 frigates, several corvettes, and numerous merchant vessels, fell into the hands of the allies, and Egypt was at length freed from the tyranny of those who had invaded that country as a preparatory step to the subversion of the British empire in India.

“The nature of this service,” says Lord Keith in his letter to the Admiralty, “has demanded from most of the officers and seamen of the fleet, and particularly from those of the troopships, bombs, and transports, the endurance of labour, fatigue, and privation, far beyond what I have witnessed before, and which I verily believe to have exceeded all former example; and it has been encountered and surmounted with a degree of resolution and perseverance, which merits my highest praise, and gives both officers and men a just claim to the approbation of their Lordships, and of the Country. The number of officers to whom I owe this tribute does not admit of my mentioning them by name;, but most of the Captains of the troop-ships have been employed in the superintendence of these duties, and I have had repeated and urgent offers of voluntary service from all.”

During the ensuing peace we find Captain Hillyar conveying General Oakes and a number of recruits for the garrison of Gibraltar, from England to that fortress. On the 20th Jan. 1804, his staunch friend, the immortal Nelson, addressed the following letter in his favor to Earl St. Vincent who at that period presided over our naval affairs:

“Captain Hillyar is most truly deserving of all your Lordship can do for him, and in addition to his public merits has a claim upon us. At twenty-four years of age, when I made him a Lieutenant for his bravery, he maintained his mother, sisters, and a brother. For these reasons he declined the Ambuscade which was offered him; because, although he