The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-09-05 00:00:00

DUNBAR. Arson. 30.

For some time past we had a very consiJerahle
herring fishing. About the end of last week, the
wind veering mund to the North, which caused a
great swell in our bay, and the fish shifted their
ground, the fishermen were of opinion that the shoal
was gone, and, in consequence theteot; most of
the boats left us, and only a row remaine:l
to make further trial, and they were successful.—
The boats are again returned, and last night they
caught an immense quantity, which are now laud-
ing, and putting on board vessels in our harbour,
and purchased with great avidity by the fish-curers,
from ten shillings to twelve shillings per crane, of
650 to 700 per crane at an average. We have not
had such a (have since the year 1785.

ACCOUNT OF AI 4RT-ANNE TaBO r,
OTEERIFIE JOHN TATLOR.

According to an account of this eccentric female,
recently published by herself, she is the youngest of
sixte,in natural children, wliom her mother, who
died in childbirth of two twins, had by the late
Lord Wil!tam Talbot, Baron of Hensel, Steward of
His Majesty's Household, and Colonel of the Cla-
morganshire Militia, with whom she kept a secret
cone• pondence for several years. Of her mother'.
family nothing is known. She was born in London,
of the 2..1 of February, 177 e, in the house now in
part occupied by Mr. Gosling the banker, in Lin-
coln's-Inn Fields. For the first five years of her
life she remained at nurse in. a village near Shrews-
bury, and the succeeding nine were passed at
boarding school in Chester, under the mo.ection of
an elder and only surviving sister. Her sister dy-
ing, a gentleman reading at Newport took upon
himself the authority of guardian, removed her
from school, and placed her in his own family,
where. however, she remained but a short time be-
fore she WAS introduced to an officer in an infantry
regiment, to whom her asi.aitant guardian most in-
famously consigned her. This officer brought her
with him to London, where, having accomplished
his designs on her person, he compelled her to as-
sume male attire, and to accompany him in the
menial capacity of foot-boy to the West Indies. In
this new scene our heroine underwent the fatigue
and distress attendant on a very bad passage, and
experienced the most unfeeling treatment from her
Aector. Her star, however, in the West Indies
was of short continuance, for her master's regiment
was ordcrcd to the Continent, whither she also was
compelled to proceed, under the threat of being
sent up the country as a slave, in the capacity of a
drummer. Towards the end of the siege of %den-
cicanes she received two wounds, the 6-st from a
mil, owl ball, which glanced between her breast
and collar-1..- rte, and struck her rib ; the other on
the small of her hack, from an accidental stroke of
an Austriaa trooper's broad-sword. From the
dread of 1 PT sex being discovered, she carefully con-
cealed her wounds, the cure of which she at length
elected by the assistance of a little yellow basilican,
lint, and Dutch drops In the attack upon the
town her tyrant was killed ; and. having fu; ned the
resolat;on of deserting, she threw off Ft& drum-
mer's dress, assumed that of a sailor boy, which she
had reser: ed. sr.,tofd the regiment, and at length
reached 1..-.lr.mt.atirg. where the engage/ wi.h the
commander f a French lugger, en board of which
she embarked in September 179 S. Mary-A..ne
thought this vessel had been a trader, hut soon
.und that her views were of a hostile nature. The
Frenchman cruised about :or a cmsiderable time,
b .t wthout success, till he at last fell in with the
Il itish fleet, under till command of Admiral Lord
H nee, then in the Channel. Mary- Anne. though
severely beaten by the French Captain, obstinately
persisted in refusing to fight against her country.
men. A slight resistance was made by
the lugger,
bin she soon yielded, and Le Sage (the captain)
and his crew were cattiest on board the exam

C'ia. late to he examined by Lord Howe. Being
questioned by his Lordship on the cause of serving
on board an enemy's ship, she briefly told him, that
being without friends in England, she had accom-
panied a gentleman to the Continent At he capaci:y
of foot-boy, on whose death she hadhe greatest
distress reached Luxembourg, in hopes of finding a
passage to her native country ; but, finding that im-
possible, it being at that time in possession of the
French, she was constrained to enter into Le Sage's
vessel, having eve; kneed, during. the short stay she
had made in the town, no attention to her distress,
chiefly, as site imagined, from being English : th.q
her determination, from the moment she engaged
with Captain Le Sage, was to desert on the first
opportunity that offered to forward her pas-
sage to England ; but had she known that
the intension of La Sage was to act in an offensive
manner against her countrymen : she assured his
Lordship she would rather have perished than have
been induced to set her foot on board his vessel,
having previous to sailing taken him to be com-
mander of a merch:uarnan, and as such engaged
with him. Fortunately fur Mary-Anne, his Lord-
ship's enquiries were not too minute : she obtained a
favourable dismissal, and was afterwards stationed
on board the Brasulrick, Captain Harvey. She
had not been long on board the Brinseui.k, when
Captain Harvey observing her cleanliness and man-
ner to be different from those of many lads on
beard, questioned her as to her friends, and whether
she had not run away from some school to try the
sea ? Mary-Anne related such of her adventures as
were consistent with the concealment of her sex,
after which Captain Harvey promoted her to be his
principal cabin-boy, in which capacity she continued
to serve him until the enemy's fleet came in sight.
In the spirited action to which the gallant Captain
Harvey owed his death, just before the coming up
of the Ramifies, Mary-Anne received a severe
wound above the ancle of her left leg, by a grape-
shot, that struck on the aftermost brace of the gun,
rebounded on the deck, and lodged in her leg ; not-
withstanding which she attempted to rise several
times, but without effect ; and, on the last effort, part
of the bone projected through the skin in such a
manner as wholly to prevent her standing, if she had
been able to rise. To complete her misfortune, she
received another wound by a musquet.ball, which
went completely through her thigh, a little above
the knee of the same kg. She lay in this crippled
state till the engagement was over, when she was
conveyed to the cockpit ; but, though subjected to
the most excruciating pain, the grape-shot could
not be extracted, through fear o injuring the ten.
d ins among which it lay. On the arrival of the
Brassereei at Spithead, Mary-Anne was conveyed
to Haslar Hospital, from which, after four months
attendance as an out-patient, she experienced a par-
tial cure, and was discharged.
After her discharge from the hospital, she enter-
ed on hoard the Korvin, bomb, Captain Tomlin.
son, then belonging to the squadron under the com-
mand of Sir Sidney Smith. Having sailed to the
Mediterranean and back, the Voirrier was boarded
by two Fren.:lr privateers of the French coast.—
Mary-Anne, as a prisoner, was conveyed to Dun-
kirk, and lodged in the prison of St. CI sir, where
she endured long illness, and much severity of
treatment. An exchange of prisoners at length
took place, an I Mary-Anne, accidentally meeting
with an Amer:can Captain, engaged with him, and
sailed to America, as sh:p's steward. From this
rntlemen our female sailor experienced the most
friendly treatment. She resided with his family at
New Yurk during the stay of the ship, and was sub-
j;Tted to much embarrassment on account of an
attachment conceived for her by the Captain's niece,
who actually proposed marriage, and obtained a
miniature of ber beloved, in the full uniform of an
American riffle-T., for which she, Mary-Anue, paid
eighteen dollars.

-Some time after her return to England, Mary-
Anne was assailed by a press-gang, wounded in the
head by a cutlass, and conveyed on board the tender,
where she remained for several days, and only ob-
tained her liberty by the disolnsure of her sex.—
After this event she sent for her friend, the American
Captain, to whom she also imparted her secret. He
was anxious for her to continue her disguise, and re-
turn with him to America; but this she decliaed.
Mary-Anne male numerous applications to the
Navy Pay-Office, Somerset-(souse, tor money due to
her for servicu on board the Bragnavici and the VC.
proisi ; but having been repeatedly disappointed,
het language was one day somewhat Wee, roue,
in consequence of which slit wits conveyed to flow.
street, where she underwent a long examination--
She was at length dismissed, and several gentlemen,
commiserating her sufferings, entered Imo a sub-
scriptio:,, from which she oh.ained con,iderable
relief. Since this period, however, she has received
her money from the Navy-Office, as John Taylor
(the name which her military protMor compelled
her to assume, and by which she was entered on the
book). In February, 1797, the grape-shot which
had been lodged in her leg, worked itself out. She
had been in different hospitals, and tinder the care
of several medical men, who have not yet made a
perfect cure. She .enjoys a pension from His Ma-
jesty of 9.01, a-year, but is at present in very indi-
gent circumstances. 'lie may be admired for her
ritrepidity—but the rot:aing mind will rather con.
miserate her misfonuiles, tiara admire her character.

LAM week, WILLIAM UNDERWOOD, of Martin
Fen, Lincoln, aged nine years, was sent home by
his father, to get the dinner ready: the boy had
on a lab.aner's frock, and had only been in the cot-
tage a short time, when his father saw him running
from it with his clothes in a blase. The poor child
Languished until Thursday, and then died.
On Wednesday evening, as Mr. RuIIVIT RAI Nth
tanner. was returning from ! iessle to Hull, in a gig,
with his wife aid tan young children, by some mis-
adventure, in passing the W Iton and South Cave
coach, sear Anlaby, the wheels of these two vehicles
got entangl-d, and Mr. RA IN ca's horse setting off at
full speed, the whole co. the party were thrown out of
the gig. We are sorry to state that the yoisno,,est
child, a fine girl about seven mouths old, was killed
in Mrs. R.'s arms, by the coach *heel running over
it, which also passed over Mr It and the other
child laid under him, ban without materially injur-
ing them. The gig being broke to pieces. the pas-
sengers kindly took Mr. it and his family ii.to the
coach, till their arrival at Hull; the death of the
ist-
Got Was MJAMOWM to them.

.‘1#14117.11. INTELLIGENCE.

• aoarssaouru, StPr. 3.
Arrived, and sailed again nn a cruise, the M.
nerve cutter; also arrived the Phits sloop of Iva.,
Captain Janverin, from the squadron otT 1-14•,, •
The nrooletionnaire frigate, with the East
convoy, are detained by contrary winds at St.
Helen's.
Passed by this port for the River three East India.
men from Bengal : one of them had captured
French corvette, which was seen in company %%:!1
them, by a pilot• boat, which arrived here this mom.
ing. Wind S.W.

TEM. SICPT. 3.
Arrived and sailed for the river the Uric v. rvrt,
Lees, from Magadore.
Arrived the Coehoirtee sloop of war with a convoy
from Plymouth, which are sailed for the River.
The Code:trice remains with a sign.d for a conve7
to the westward.

The Discovery, Sa!,oher.keno. and Fury
which sailed yesterday from the Downs for S'
lICSS, were last night by signal recalled ; and ri:nl,l:
in the Downs with the 3foreare.4, Utirc4l, and 1,.
men of war; Castes frigate I *rile. Rex,
Scourge, and km sloops of war; Sir Andr,-.; 1:
Chef!, Aurora, Andersen, Dasher Kinastm,
Ana. Lord Elden, Peragou, Robert, e, .s
Monarch, Peggy, Sonreis, and the Are tette, a:
defence ships, several transp.mts, and outward houud
vessels.—Wind S. W.