1810	Lord Gambier at Basque Roads	231

sustained a loss. The protectors of the chasse-marées being thus defeated, the British boats proceeded to execute the service for which they had been detached : they soon effectually destroyed the three chasse-marées on the reef, and got back to their ships without, as far as it appear, having a man hurt. For the gallantry which he had displayed in these several spirited boat-attacks, Lieutenant Guion was deservedly promoted to the rank of commander.

On the 3d of February, at daylight, the British 74-gun ship Valiant, Captain John Bligh, being close to Belle-Isle in light and baffling winds, discovered, about three miles off, and immediately chased, a strange frigate. This was the late famous French 40-gun frigate Canonnière, but now the French armed merchant ship Confiance, Captain Jacques Peroud, (the privateer Bellone's late captain), armed with only 14 guns, and laden with a cargo of colonial produce valued at 150,6001. sterling; with which, 93 days before, she had sailed from the Isle of France, having been lent by General Decaen to the merchants there, for the purpose of carrying home their produce, the frigate requiring more repairs to refit her as a cruiser than the colony could give her. At about noon, after a seven hours' chase, the wind suddenly took the Confiance by the head, and threw her round upon the Valiant's broadside. Her escape being now hopeless, the Confiance hauled down her colours : she had, it appears, been chased 14 times during the passage from Port-Louis. Having been built since the year 1714 (sic), and wanting considerable repairs, the Confiance, although formerly a British frigate, was not restored to the service.

On the 21st of February, in the morning, latitude 33° 10' north, longitude 29° 30' west, the British 38-gun frigate Horatio, Captain George Scott, fell in with the French frigate-built storeship Nécessité, mounting 26 guns of the same description as those carried by the Var and Salamandre, and having a crew of 186 men commanded by Lieutenant Bernard Bonnie, from Brest bound to the Isle of France with naval stores and provisions. After a long chase, and a running fight of one hour, during which she manifested some determination to defend herself, the Nécessité, hauled down her colours. No loss appears to have been sustained on either side ; and the Horatio escaped with only a slight injury to her masts and rigging.

On the 12th of April, close off the coast of France in the neighbourhood of the isle of Ré, the British 18-pounder 32-gun frigate Unicorn, Captain Alexander Robert Kerr, fell in with and captured the late British 22-gun ship Laurel, at this time named Espérance, armed en flute, and under the command of a Lieutenant de Vaisseau, from the Isle of France with a valuable cargo of colonial produce. The prize was afterward restored to her rank in the British navy, but, a Laurel hay having since been since been added to it, under the name of Laurestinus.

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