foné French frigate, in Mahé Road, island of Seychelles[1]; and subsequently served under the same officer, in the Resistance 38, on the Channel and Mediterranean stations. On the 8th Mar. 1809, the boats of that ship, under his direction, captured a 4-gun battery, and destroyed a French armed schooner and a chasse-marée, in the port of Auchové, near Cape Machicaco.
From the Resistance, Lieutenant Corbyn followed Captain Adam into the Invincible 74, which ship was most actively employed in co-operation with the Spanish patriots, during the siege of Tarragona, by the French army under Marshal Suchet, in May 1811[2]. On the 4th April 1813, an official letter, of which the following is a copy, was addressed by Captain Adam to Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Pellew:
“Sir,– The Baron D’Eroles having requested I would co-operate in an attack upon the enemy’s posts at AmpoUa and Perello, near the Ebro, two boats of H.M. ship Invincible, armed with carronades, under the directions of Mr. Corbyn (the first lieutenant), and a Spanish felucca, in which a party of troops were embarked, left Salo bay on the afternoon of the 1st inst., with orders to attack the post at Ampolla. The troops were landed within two miles of it, about one o’clock in the morning, and the battery of two 18-pounders was completely surprised, the sentry having been shot. The guns were then turned on the fortified house in which the greater part of the guard were posted, who evacuated it immediately, and most of them escaped, but some of them were afterwards taken at Perello.
“That place, which is two leagues inland from AmpoUa, was immediately invested by a detachment of the Baron’s troops; and upon the enemy refusing to receive a flag of truce, the walls of the town, which were filled with loop-holes, were scaled, and a large square tower in the middle of the town, into which the French retreated, was instantly surrounded.
“Owing to light winds and calms, I was not able to anchor the Invincible in Ampolla bay until the afternoon of the 2d. Two field-pieces were then landed, and sent to Perello, under the direction of Lieutenant Corbyn, assisted by Lieutenant Pidgley and the midshipmen attached to the guns. They were placed in a house near the tower, and at daylight the next morning opened upon it.
