This loss was irreparable to the Algerines, who had picked out the seven men-of-war that were here burnt, on purpose to fight Sir Edward Spragge, and furnished them with their best brass ordnance from on board all the rest of their vessels, and between eighteen and nineteen hundred chosen men double-officered, under the command of old Terkey, their admiral. Of this force between three and four hundred men were killed; the castle and town were miserably shattered; and a vast number of people slain and wounded; and, what much increased the misfortune, all their surgeons' chests were burnt on board their ships, so that numbers died for want of having their wounds dressed. Besides the men-of-war there were burnt a Genoese ship, a small English prize, and a settee. In this engagement Sir Edward Spragge had only seventeen men killed and forty-one wounded. This and other misfortunes caused such a tumult among the Algerines that they murdered their dey and chose another, by whom peace was concluded to the satisfaction of the English on December 9th, 1671. THE STORY OF SIR JOHN BERRY. BY JOHN CAMPBELL. As an illustration of the way in which a man could rise to the highest honours of the navy in the good old days with no other influence or recommendation than his own merit, the case of Sir John Berry may be instanced here. John Berry, who was the second son of the Rev. Daniel Berry, Vicar of Knowestone, Devonshire--a clergyman who suffered for his loyalty to the cause of Charles I.--was born at the Vicarage, Knowestone, in the year 1635. His father, after being expelled from his benefice and losing his property by confiscation, died at the early age of forty-five, leaving a widow with nine children, of whom John, aged seventeen, was the second. Thrown entirely upon his own resources, John went to Plymouth, where he bound himself apprentice to Mr. Robert Mering, a merchant and part-owner of several ships. Going to sea in his service, he was extremely unfortunate, being twice taken by the Spaniards, and suffering a long imprisonment, which, however, did him no great harm. On his return to England, his master, who was suffering from a reverse in circumstances, released him from his indentures, upon which he came up to London; where, by the help of some friends, he was preferred to be boatswain of a ketch belonging to the Royal Navy, called the _Swallow_; which, under the command of Captain Insam, was ordered to the West Indies in company with two of the king's frigates. Both the frigates were lost in the Gulf of Florida; but the _Swallow_, by cutting down her masts and heaving her guns and provisions overboard, got clear, and in the space of sixteen weeks, during which the crew had nothing to eat but the fish they caught, or to drink but rain-water, the survivors arrived at Campeachy. There they furnished themselves with provisions, and then sailed for Jamaica, where they arrived in three weeks.