the latter commanded by Captain Thomas Huskisson, while cruising in the bay of Point-à-Petre, Guadaloupe, discovered a French armed schooner moored under the battery of St. Marie; and it being determined to attempt bringing her out that night, two boats from each were detached for the purpose, under the command of Lieutenants Robertson and Edward Flin, the latter, although of longer standing as a commissioned officer, yielding the precedence to the former, in consequence of his being the senior commander’s first lieutenant.
The schooner being surrounded by coral reefs, and the boats grounding at every effort to find a channel, while the enemy kept up a quick but harmless fire upon them, it was found impossible to close with her during a dark rainy night, though frequently within pistol-shot. These obstacles opposing, and a surprise being now out of the question. Lieutenant Robertson, after consulting with his brother officer, resolved to return on board and suggest to Captain Cameron, that if both sloops stood in sufficiently close to silence the battery and cover the attacking party, it might be practicable either to bring out or destroy the schooner during day-light. A signal was immediately made to the Pelorus to this effect, and the boats dashed on direct to their object, the commanding officer, in the Hazard’s pinnace, leading. When again within pistol-shot of the enemy, this boat once more grounded; but her crew gallantly leaping out, she was, by great exertion, got over the reef; and, in two minutes afterwards, Lieutenant Robertson found himself on the schooner’s deserted deck. The boats of the Pelorus, under Lieutenant Flin and Mr. Scott, master’s-mate, and the Hazard’s jolly-boat, commanded by Mr. Hugh Hunter, a young midshipman, closely following the example set them, were soon also alongside.
The French crew, on seeing the pinnace clear the reef, had fled to the shore, and taken shelter in some houses on the beach, from the doors and windows of which they now kept up a galling fire. Lieutenant Robertson soon perceived the impossibility of getting his prize out, for she was not only
