might fall in with, in the event of our parting with them. Having received a fupply of fhot from Captain Rowe, I took my ftation aftern of the Trincomallée, and about four p. m. the Iphigene being the head-moft of the enemy; the action with her commenced; about five, the Pearl came up to the fupport of her confort. The action was then maintained with fpirit on both fides, till thirty minutes after fix, when the firing ceafed, as if by mutual confent. I took this opportunity to fend my boatswain on board the Trincomallée, for medical affiftance, being feverely hurt at the helm by a gun over-heated by repeated firing being thrown out of its carriage. About half past eight, the firing recommenced. At ten, our main halliards being cut, the fail came down upon deck, which deprived us for a time of the use of our four after guns; in the mean time the man at the helm being prevented from feeing our confort, the Comet fell on board her, by which accident we loft our jib boom. We were thus entangled three or four minutes, and much annoyed by a raking fire from the enemy, who were then close ahead. A fhort time after our clearing the Trincomallée and re-engaging the Pearl, I obferved the Iphigene clofe on board the Trincomallée, firing fmartly from her tops, and it afterwards appeared that the boarded the Trincomallée at that time. About 11 p. m. both ships blew up: I immediately ceafed firing, and hoifted out the boat to fave as many of the people as I could; and fucceeded in picking up four fepoys belonging to the Trincomallée, and a lafcar belonging to the Comet, who had fallen overboard while we were entangled with the Trincomallée. I remained by the wrecks all the reft of the night, and part of vot. 2. next morning, but had not the good fortune to fave any more of the crews. The Pearl made off in the night; but, fince my arrival in Bombay, I find fhe had, after the firing between her and the Comet ceafed, alfo picked up feveral of the sufferers. Having difpatches on board for Bufforah, and viewing our crippled ftate in mafts and rigging, befides the lofs of our jib-boom, I entertained no idea of attempting a fruitlefs chace after the Pearl. The boatfwain was wounded, as before mentioned, and perished on board the Trincomallée. One fepoy and a lafcar were also wounded, the former of whom died before morning; feveral others were flightly wounded. Of the damage which the Comet fuftained, the principal were, a dangerous wound with a bar fhot in the fore-maft; main-boom, main-yard, and fore-top maft flightly wounded; all the ftar-board fore-shrouds, runner and pendant cut; ftar-board foremost main shroud and main runner cut; the running rigging alfo fuffered confiderably, and the fails, those which were bent as well as thofe in the nettings. J. FORTESCUE Bombay, 18th February 1800. I had on board five Europeans including myfelf and an officer, fourteen fepoys, fifteen lascars; the Comet was armed with eight 12 pound carronades, and two s pounders. [The above is the official account of this melancholy accident; but as the following letter was written by a prifoner on board the enemy's prize Pearl, who, from having obferved the action in a different point of view, gives a more circumftantial detail, we think it may be fatisfactory to our nautical readers to infert it.] The following letter from Mr. John Cramlington, the firft officer of the fhip Pearl, in the country trade of the Hon. Eaft-India Company, + F who who was a prifoner on board the privateer at the time of the engagement, to his brother in Newcastle: Mufkat, 29th October 1799. Shortly after my laft, Capt. Spen. cer, of the Pearl, proceeded to India to purchase a veffel or two more for the Gulph trade; Mr. Jofeph Cambridge Fowler, the chief officer, was appointed to the command of the Pearl, and I to fucceed him in his former ftation. On the 1ft of October we got clear of Bufforah river, bound for Bombay, and were proceeding very pleafantly on our voyage until the 7th, when, having got about two-thirds down the Gulph, at nine o'clock at night, we were fuddenly surprised by the appearance of a fhip close to us; fhe had been lying under an ifland called the Great Tomb, and had feen us before fun-fet, though we had not perceived her. We hailed cach other, and, to our forrow, we found her to be French. An action commenced; but her fire was fo much fuperior to ours, that the foon drove the lafcars from their quarters, and the whole of them ran below. The .privateer was at this time about piftol-fhot from us, and preparing to board, and not an armed foul to re.ceive them except myself and five or fix Arabs, who had never flinched. Under fuch circumftances I was under the difagreeable neceffity of ftriking to her, after throwing three packets of Government difpatches overboard. We had previously endeavoured to run, but unluckily our maintop-fail tye was fhot away.. Captain Fowler was fhot through the body with an 8 pound fhot the fecond broadfide; we had likewife three lafcars wounded, one of whom died fhortly after. I had a grape fhot through my trowfers, which grazed the back part of my thigh, and a flight wound on my left by a fplinter from the fame fhot which I was taken on board the privateer; The treasure was fhifted on board the privateer the next day, and they were fo elated with their fuccefs that they determined to return from their cruize immediately but on the 10th, at night, we fell in with his Majefty's hip Trincomallée, Capt. Rowe, mounting eighteen 24 pound carronades, but badly manned; fhe had been fitted out at Bombay, and had been cruizing in the Gulph nine or ten months; her crew very fickly, had loft a number of them by death, and had no fresh fupply. I have been told fhe had only 70 active men on board: a partial action took place the next day as they paffed each other, and on the 12th, at three p.m. they came within gun-fhot again, and kept firing at each other till after fun-fet, but at too great a diftance for much damage to be done: owing to calms and light airs they could not get near each other. A fchooner, named the Comet, was in company with the Trincomallée, mounting eight fmall guns. The captain of the privateer wanted very very much to cut her off, but through the bravery and good conduct of her captain all his fchemes failed, and the ferved to engage the Pearl, for whom he was more than a match. At half-paft fix o'clock the fame evening, a fine breeze fpringing up, the privateer bore down towards her prize; the Trincomallée followed, and at ten p. m. (being moonlight) brought her to action, which continued with great fury for two hours within mufket-fhot, when, with one fhip luffing up, and the other edging down, they fell alongfide each other, and grappled muzzle and muzzle. In this fituation they remained about half an hour, the flaughter very great on both fides. The French, being more numerous, were preparing to board, when, by fome fatal accident, the Trincomallée blew up, and every foul on board pe ifhed, except one English feamen, named Thomas Dawfon, and a lafcar. The explofion was fo great, and the fhips fo clofe, that the privateer's broadfide was ftove in. hole through both decks, which had been newly made, I fuppofe, by the falling of fome of the Trincomallée's guns, or other wreck. Through this I got with difficulty upon deck, when I found the fhip juft difappearing forward, and haftened aft as faft as I could over the bodies of the killed, with which the deck was covered, to the taffarel, and jumped overboard. I leave you to judge the dreadful fituation I was in at this crifis, being below two decks in the fquare of the main hatchway, in the place appropriated for the wound ed, which was full of poor fouls of that defcription, in circumftances too fhocking to be defcribed. All at once the hatchway was filled up with wood, the lights were driven out, the water rufhing in, and no vifible paffage to the deck. The fhip appeared to be shaken to pieces, as the hold-beams had fhrunk fo confiderably, that where there was room before to stand nearly upright, you could now only crawl on hands and knees, which I did towards the hole in the fide where the water was coming in. Clofe to this, by the light of the moon, I found a I fwam a little way from her, dreading the fuction, and looked round for her, but fhe had totally difappeared. I afterwards caught hold of a piece of wood, to which I clung for about an hour and a half, at which time the boats of the Pearl came to pick us up, there being nearly thirty Frenchmen in the fame predicament. They, however, were all taken up firft; and when I folicited to be taken in, I had a blow made at my head with an oar, which luckily miffed me. This treatment I met with from two different boats, and I began to think they were going to leave me to my fate; but the French officer in command of the Pearl, hearing there were fome Englishmen upon the wreck, ordered the boats immediately to return, and take us viz. my felf, and Thomas Dawson, then the only furvivor of the Trincomallée. up, There were killed and drowned.. on board La Iphigene 115 or 120 men: among whom were the captain, feven officers, furgeon, two young men volunteers from the Ifle of France, the firft boatfwain, gunner, and carpenter. All the treafure went down in the privateer. Captain Rowe of the Trincomallée was killed before the ship blew up, as was alfo the firft lieutenant, whofe name was Williams. The Comet, immediately on the accident happening, made fail from the Pearl. I fuppofe the was afraid there might + F2 be be too many Frenchmen for her to manage. On the 15th we arrived here for water, &c. and the French officer was fo good as to give me my liberty. They let me come on fhore on the 24th, the day the Pearl failed. They difpofed of their horfes here, and I have bought them again for Mr. Manefty, the Company's Refident at Bufforah. I hope in two or three days to have them all on board a veffel for Bombay, in which I alfo take a paffage. Extract of a letter from Coel, dated Dec. 5, 1799. I am forry to acquaint you with the melancholy death of Colonel J. H. Bellaffis, who was killed a fort. night ago in ftorming a fort near Lahor, a place well known to the officers who ferved under Major (now Major-General) Popham. Thus has this amiable character finished his carreer. To write his eulogium, ought to be the talk of a more able pen, for the fubject is truly worthy of it. Bellaffis combined in his character and perfon many excellent qualities. His integrity was irreproachable; his generofity unbounded; and his courage, though it fometimes bordered on temerity, was, in his general habit, guided by reafon. He was a fine Greek and Latin fcholar. He understood both mufic and paint ing. He was an excellent engineer, and uncommonly fkilled in military tactics. In his manners he was affable, open, and conciliating. Such was the perfon, who, for these five years, has been the fport of fortune. In a rash moment he refigned the Company's fervice, which hafty ftep has been followed by a train of reverfes; and he facrificed his life in the ungrateful fervice of a man who is a difgrace to his fpecies; this is Umbojet, the Mahratta chief. DEATH OF NANA FURNAVESE. Our laft advices from Poonah, contain the intelligence of the death of that great and diftinguished Mahratta minifter and ftatesman, Ballajee Junardein, but more generally known by the name of Nana Furnavefe. He died on the night of the 13th inftant, after a fhort illnefs; a fever and dyfentery appear to have been the immediate caufe of his death, but he had been long complaining and from the protracted period of his life (for we believe he had attained the age of threefcore and ten), it must have been an event not altogether unexpected. Few characters that have ever appeared on the political theatre of India, or perhaps in the world, are more deferving of extended record than Nana Furnavefe. A biogra. phical account of that great man's life would embrace the hiftory of India for the eventful period of the laft thirty years. The latter part of it he found marked with viciffitudes of no ordinary kind; he was at one period the high fource of authority and honours throughout a vaft and extended empire, aggrandized by the force of his genius and abilities, and apparently only held together by his efforts. We have beheld him dragged from this proud eminence, and imprifoned by a fubject of that fame empire. His wealth, notwithstanding the large fums he muft of late years have difburfed, is ftill faid to be immenfe. On that wealth, and on his own fuperior talents, he feems ever to have placed his confidence; for, unlike most other Indian minifters, he never attended much to, nor expected ftability from, the devotion of the foldiery. It is to be hoped, that, that, amongft the many Europeans who have had the means of knowing the character of this great and exalted minifter, fome one may be found to give the world a biographical sketch of his life. On the whole we may juftly fay of Nana, that he poffeffed talents fo fplendid as hardly ever to have been equalled, and never furpaffed in India. We understand he has no fons living. powerful, eminent, and of authority, Mafulipatam, March 29.-Yef. terday morning, about eight o'clock, a French brig privateer flood into thefe roads, hoifted out a boat, boarded, and took poffeffion of a large Arab fhip, richly laden, lately arrived from Bengal, and bound to Bufforah. The privateer's boats then boarded a Pegue fhip in the roads, the commander of which, a native, had with fingular promptitude and dexterity, on firft obferving the privateer's approach, unfhipped his rudder, and which he funk, with a buoy upon it, near his veffel: he had otherwife deranged his fhip, fo as to give her an appearance of diftrefs, and on the Frenchmen com. ing on board, informed them that he was just arrived from fea, where, in a heavy gale of wind, he had loft his rudder, fprung his mafts, and at that time the fhip was making a confiderable quantity of water in confequence. From this politic reprefentation, the French officer not deeming the veffel fit for fea, and time and circumftances not permit ing him to make a closer inveftigation into the real fituation of the fhip, he abandoned her to the commander, whofe almost unexampled prefence of mind had fo justly deferved the acquifition. SINGULAR TITLE OF THE VICEROY OF PEGUE. The great, the magnificent and |