The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1805-10-04 00:00:00

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THE tRtTISH'iIREA'SS.

lA)NDON,

FiUDAY, OcToßta 4.

Mr. HARVEY, the late Master of the Leicester
7.,!:et, some time since captured on her passage
•n the West Indies, arrived late on Monday
iti;tht, at Falmouth, from Scilly, and reach-
ed town yesterday morning. Mr. H A ItVIY
came home from the West Indies, in a mer-
chant vessel, the William, of Newcastle, bound
to Lond.in, one of the Leeward Island fleet, from
whit h s'te parted company, about a month since.
On the 2.3 J last, the William fell in with the Had-
duet schooner, Lieutenant So LEY, with a Mail
from Jamaica, having been dispatched from thence,
in consequence of the capture of the packet, sup-
posed the Chesterfield, in sight of Jamaica. Mr.
HA ItV EY went on board the schooner, which WAS
then in company with the Cakufta man of war, of
50 guns, Capt. Wooont r F, with seven sail of vessels,
underconvoy from the East Indies. O:t the 25th, in lat.
49.40, long. 11.40, a French frigate came up, being
part of a squadron of five sail of the line, and two
frigates, then in sight, and engaged the ('aleutta
an hour and ten minutes, but was then silenced.
—Shortly after, a line-of-battle ship came up,
and commenced an engagement with the Calcutta,
but it soon ended ; and, it is supposed, the Cat-
es•qa struck. The French squadron took the WI:-
liam, and another of the Leeward Island fleet ;
and what became of the French squadron, or the
Calcutta's convoy, Mr. II A as, E v cannot say, as they
saw no mare of them after, it being nioe o'clock
at night, when the Haddock lost sight of them, at
which time the Calcutta was left in the all of en-
gaging the enemy. This account was sent fr,m
by the Placer sloop of war, to Admiral co RN-
W ALLIS. Mr. HARVEY land. 4 at Penzance, in a
cutter from billy, and the schooner, with the Mails,
is hourly expelled. Such, we understand, is the
report made by Capt. HARVEY. It circulated,
yesterday, with great rapidity in town, and excited
a considerable sensation iu the City. Recollecting,
however, the many false and exaggerated reports,
eqnally plausible, which prevailed during the late
chace of the French Fleet, by Lord ttlaistse,
we are encouraged to hope that our loss, if
any, is not so great as it has been represent-
ed. Some reports state, that the Calcutta, and
seven sail of homeward bound East-Indiamen,
have been altu.tlly taken; but Captain Ha a-
VEY'S account, which is the only one received,
falls far short of this representation. We kno
that even Captain 11 a vtv's account is not
supposed to be come at the East India House.
The Indiamen supposed to have been captured are,
the Ocean, Lord Eldon, Totientinm,Traeers, (In.-on, and
Indus. The Ocean had not arrived front Madras, at
Bengal, when the Belle Packet sailed from thence the
Ist of April. The Lord Eldon and Tottenham were to
proceed for Bencoolen to load, but had not left Ben-
gal on the Ist April. The Travers and Union are
outward bound, therefore, it is not possible, that
either of these ships could have arrived at St. Helena.
—The Calcutta man of war, with the Indus, were at
St. Helena, the 20th of July, and no other ships
were expelled. It is very probable, therefore, that
the Calcutta, which had been there some time. would
not remain longer than was necessary to bring home
some South Sea whalers, which,with a few straggling
ships that may have availed themselves of the ad-
vantage of coming home under her convoy, may,
no doubt, have made up the fleet seen by Captain
HARVEY. In this number, it is understood, were
two South Sea whale's, and two Swedes. The
enemy's ships were, probably, the Rochefort squa-
dron, so often seen in that quarter, but which was
generally supposed to have returned to port.

We had scarcely heard of the appointment of Sir
Si om ev SMITH to the command of the squadron
off Boulogne, when we find his enterprising spirit
displayed, in an attempt to annoy the flotilla in that
harbour. Various accounts have reached us, but,
we believe, the following is the most c3rreet :
Monday night, being very dark, two long galleys,
with some other boats, stoutly manned by a number
of volunteers from the Utrecht, Admiral's ship, the
Antelope, and some other ships, entered the harbour of
Boulogne, unperceived, and set two of those fire-ma-
chines, called carcases:, adrift, which ran along with
the tide, among the shipping. They were filled with
a quantity of combustible matter, and were to ex-
plode at a given time (fifte,4l minutes); in this they
succeeded; but, from the powder being too weak, or
some other cause, they had not the desired effea, al-
though a very considerable conflagration ensued.—
l'he men in the boats were, unfortunately, discovered
at the same moment, by the soldiers at the batteries,
who direftly commenced a heavy fire of musketry
upon them ; the shot flew about them like had, and
a great qnanti:y went throughthe boats ; one man