The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1804-10-24 00:00:00

r slr it tob i'3.

FROM LAST NIGHTS GAZETTE.

Admire/IN-o're, Oct. 29, 1804.
Copy of a Letter Pram the Irmo. William Cornwillia, Admiral
of the White, &c. to Wdliain Marsden, El dated oa
boanl the Ville de Paris, in Toibah, the 20th .4 Oct. 1804.
SIR,

I have the honour to enclose, for the information
of the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty,
copies of the several communications transmitted to
me from Captain Moore, of the Indefatigable,
giving an account of his proceedings in the execu-
tion of the service he was sent upon, in which he
hes, in company with the Medusa, Lively. and
Amphion, succeeded in detaining the Spanish tri-
gatestherein named.

Admiral Montagu communicated to me the ar-
rival of the Lively at Spithead, on the 17th, with
the Fama.

I have the honour to be, &c.
W. Coati/mat LIS.
SIR, Indefatigable, at Sea, Oct. 6, 1804.
I have the honour to acquaint you, that I have
executed the service you did me the honour to charge
me with.

On the morning of the 29th of September, the
Indefatigable: got off Cadiz: on the 3thh, we tell in
with the Medusa; Captain Gore having informed
me the Amphion was in the Srreight's mouth, and
that the Triumph was off Gibraltar, and that Sir
Robert Barlow meant to go into Cadiz for the trade
there, on his way to England t I thought At to send
the Medusa to apprise Sir Robert Barlow of the na-
ture of my order, that he might then judge whether
or not he should go into Cadiz, and I direded Capt.
Gore to rejoin nit with the Amphion as soon as
'possible, off Cape St. Mary. On the 2J instant, 1
was joined by the Lively, and on the 3d, by the
Medusa and Amphion; the latter hiving cominuni-
cared what I thought oftener' ti Sir Robert
Barlow.

Yesterday morning, Cape St. Mary hearing N.E.
nine leagues, the Medusa made the signal for four
sail W. by S. 1 made the signal for a general cheer;
at eighte.m. discovered them to be four large Span-
ish frigates, which formed the line of battle a-head
on our approach, and continued to steer iu for Cadiz,
the van ship carrying a bread pendant, and the ship
rest to her a Rear-Admiral's flig ; Captain Gore,
the headmost ship, placed the Medusa on the
weather beam of : e Commodore ; the Indefarigabh
riok a similar position alongside es. Bear Admiral ;
the Ainphion and Lively each tall;ng an opponent
in the same manner, at they came up : after hail-
ing to make them shorten sail, without effeft,
fired a shot across the Rear-Admiral's fore-
:uot, on which he shortened sail ; and I sent
Lieutenant Ascott, of the Indefatigable, to in-
ferni him, that my orders were to detain his
straJrno ; that it was ray earnest wish to etecnte
them without bloodshed; but that his determina-
tion must be made instantly: after waiting some
time, I made the signal for the boat, and filed
-hot a-head of the Admiral. As soon as the
Officer returned with an unsatisfaaory answer, I
fired another shot a-head of the Admiral, and bore
down close' on his weather-bow; at this moment
the Admiral's second a-stern fired into the Aniphion;
the Admiral fired into the Indefatigable ; and
made the signal for close battle, which was instantly
commelced with all the alacrity and viKnonce of
English sailing. In less than ten minutes, La Mer-
cedes, the Admiral's second a-stern. blew up along-
side the Amphion, with a tremendoas explosion.—
aptain Sutton having, with great judgment, and
much to my satisfaffion, placed himself to leeward
of that ship, the escape of the Spanish Admiral's
ship was rendered almtist impossible ; in less than
half an hour she struck, as did the opponent of the
f.ively Perceiving, at this moment, the Spanish
Commodore was making off, and seeming to have
the heels if the Medusa, I made the signal for the
I.ively to join in the Chace, having before noticed
the superior sailing of that ship. Captain Ham-
mond did not lose an instant ; and we had the satis-
faaion, long before sun-set, to see from our mast-
head that the only remaining ship had surrendered
to the Medusa and Lively.
As soon as oar boats had taken possession of the
Rear-Admiral, we made s for the hosting frag-
ments of the unfortunate Spanish frigate which
blew up ; but, except forty taken up by the Am-
phion's boats, all on board perished. This squa-
dron was commanded by Don Joseph Bustamente,
St
Knight of the Order of . James, and a Rear-Ad-
miral. They ere from Monte Video, Rio de la Pla-
ta, and, from the information of the Captain of
the flag-ship, contained about four millions of dol-
lars, eight hundred thousand of which were on
board the Mercedes, which blew up. Other accounts
state the quantity of specie to be much greater,
public and private, and there is besides much value-
Me merchandise on board the captured ships. Our
loss has been very trifling. I havenot yet had the
returns from the other ships, but the Indefatigable
did not lose a man. The Spaniards suffered chiefly
in their rigging, which was our objea. The Cap.
tains of the different ships conduaed themselves so
ably, that no honour could accrue to me, but the
fortunate accident of being senior Officer.
The zeal, alivity. and spirit, of the Officers, sea-
men, and marines of the squadron, are Lest evinced
by the complete manner in which they ;performed
their work. Lieutenants Gore, Parker, and As-
cott, of the Indefatigable, and Lieutenants Ravi-
dual and Hole, of the marines, gave me that sup-
port which their uniform good tiondua formerly
taught me to rely on. Mr. Griffith's (the Master)
condos% has my perfea approbation. I presume to
recommend, in the strongest manner, Lieutenant
Jonn Gore, of the Indefatigable, to your favour
and proteaion. I have the honour to be, &c.

GI% *HAM Mu-Oat.

7011C11 Or Tilt SIPANISIT INVADION.
La Make (Elan Ship)--Furty4lim gum., pnuitJe...
thL main dec.l4 and SOU tiag. Laois j two ANSI kilksl
id 13 w.mikled.

La Fails& ‘ColarDialure's dap.`—Zhirtv.eiz ions, twelve

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1504.