BOATS OF SCORPION AND BEAVER WITH

ATALANTE.

The following private letter from Commander Hardinge to his father, gives an animated account of a cutting-out expedition on the coast of Holland. In all respects, this was an exploit worthy of British seamen, and the officer who so judiciously planned and gallantly executed the enterprise met with his reward from the Admiralty, who gave him immediate promotion. Captain Hardinge did not long survive this action; he fell in the arms of victory, after an action renewed for three successive days, when the San Fiorenzo, under his command, captured the Piedmontaise, a large French frigate, which had long been the terror of the Indian seas. The letter alluded to is as follows:

"H.M.S. Scorpion, April, 1804.

"MY EVER-DEAREST FRIEND,

"I am on my way to the Nore, after six days of severe but unrepented fatigue, and have sixty Dutch prisoners on board. We are accompanied by the Atalante, a Dutch war-brig of 16 guns, prize to us. I was ordered on the 28th to reconnoitre at Vlie, and perceived a couple of the enemy's brigs at anchor in the roads. Despairing to reach them with my ship, on account of the shoals that surrounded the entrance, I determined upon a dash in one of the boats, if a good oppor

It came unso

tunity could be made or found. licited: March the 31st, preparing to embark, we accidentally were joined by the Beaver sloop, who offered us her boats to act in concert with ours. We accepted the reinforcement, under an impression that it would spare lives on both sides, and would shorten the contest. At halfpast nine in the evening we began the enterprise in three boats from 'Scorpio,' and in two from the Beaver. Captain Pelly, a very intelligent and spirited officer, did me the honour to serve under me as a volunteer in one of his boats. We had nearly sixty men, including officers, headed by your humble servant in the foremost boat. As we rowed with tide-flood, we arrived alongside the enemy at half-past eleven. I had the good fortune, or, as by some it would be considered, the honour, to be the first man who boarded her. She was prepared for us, with boarding nettings up, and with all the customary implements of defence; but the noise, and the alarm, &c., so intimidated her crew, that many of them ran below in a panic, leaving to us the painful duty of combating those whom we most respected. The decks were slippery, in consequence of rain, so that, grappling with my first opponent, a mate of the watch, I fell, but recovered my position, fought him upon equal terms, and killed him. I then engaged the captain, as brave a man as any service ever boasted; he had almost killed one of my seamen; to my shame

H

be it spoken, he disarmed me, and was on the point of killing me, when a seaman of mine came up, rescued me at the peril of his own life, and enabled me to recover my sword. At this time all the men were come from the boats, and were in possession of the deck: two were going to fall upon the captain at once; I ran up, held them back, and then adjured him to accept quarter.

"With inflexible heroism he disdained the gift, kept us at bay, and compelled us to kill him he fell covered with honourable wounds.

"The vessel was ours, and we secured the hatches, which, headed by a lieutenant who had received a desperate wound, they attempted repeatedly to force. Thus far we had been fortunate; but we had another enemy to fight, it was the element. A sudden gale, in which the wind shifted against us, impeded all the efforts we could make. But as we had made the capture, we determined at all events to sustain it or to perish. We made the Dutch below surrender, put forty of them into their own irons, stationed our men to their guns, brought the powder up, and made all the necessary arrangements to attack the other brig. But as the day broke, and without abatement of the wind, she was off at such a distance, and in such a position, that we had no chance to reach her.

"In this extremity of peril we remained eightand-forty hours. Two of the boats had broken adrift from us, two had swamped alongside. The

wind shifted again, and we made a push to extricate ourselves, but found the navigation so difficult that it required the intense labour of three days to accomplish it. point at last, and were commended by the Admiral for our perseverance. You will see in the

We carried the

Gazette my letter to him. I aimed at modesty, and am a little afraid that in the pursuit of this object I may have left material facts a little too indefinite, if not obscure. The Atalante's captain, and four others, were killed, eleven are wounded, and so dreadfully that our surgeon thinks that every one of them will die. To the end of my existence I shall regret the Captain: he was a perfect hero; and if his crew had been like him, critical indeed would have been our peril. The Atalante is much larger than my vessel, and she mounted sixteen long 12pounders; we have not a single brig that is equal to that calibre. Her intended complement was 200 men, but she had only 76 on board. I expect your joy by return of the post.

"P.S. In two days after the Captain's death he was buried with all the naval honours in my power to bestow upon him. During the ceremony of his interment the English colours disappeared, and the Dutch were hoisted in their place. All the Dutch officers were liberated, one of them pronounced an éloge on the hero they had lost, and we fired three volleys over him as he descended

into the deep.-Ever affectionately and grate

fully yours,

"GEORGE N. HARDINGE."

SIX TO ONE.

During the operations on the coast of Syria in 1840, an Irish gentleman performed a feat which excited the admiration of all who beheld it, and caused many a laugh at its singularity, the hero having performed the thoroughly Irish task of surrounding and capturing six foemen in his own proper person. It chanced, after the capture of Sidon, while the Cyclops steam-frigate was lying at anchor off the ruined city of Tyre, where she had the previous day or two been engaged in the stern and unromantic occupation of shelling an Egyptian force, which she had succeeded in dispersing and driving inland, our hero, who was a volunteer on board, asked and obtained permission to land and examine the beautiful ruins which studded that romantic coast. Before pushing off from the frigate he armed himself, by the advice of his friends, with an unwieldy ship pistol; a precaution, however, which almost seemed unnecessary, as all the enemy were supposed to have retreated. Landed on the beach, he strolled from point to point, those on board from time to time observing his movements, and