Mr. Carter attributed this alteration of the ship’s course to cowardice on the part of the steersman; and knowing only one punishment for such an action in presence of the enemy, he ran towards him, drawing a pistol as he did so, when the man cried out, “Don’t kill me, sir, it was the captain’s order.” The proper position of the Packet could not be regained until all the fighting which has been described had occurred. The “Lady Mary Pelham” then, however, intervened, and maintained a cannonade for some time. She was not engaged close alongside; she sustained very slight damages; her captain received a ball through his thigh, and one seaman was slightly hurt. There were no other casualties. The Privateer sheered off soon after four o’clock. She was evidently much damaged; and both the Packets chased her, but she outsailed them. The official papers from which the foregoing account is taken are very bulky. They contain many positive declarations of irreconcilable facts, with accusations and insinuations, which, as Mr. Freeling said in deprecating their publication, would inevitably lead to one or more duels if they should become known. The present writer has desired to record only those facts which are not open to dispute, and he believes that the story as told above is demonstrably true. The lawyer, whom an unkind destiny had placed temporarily in a position for which he was utterly unfit, made many charges against most of the persons concerned in this affair. His conduct was emphatically condemned by his own officers, and needs no further comment. Of Captain Norway, Mr. Freeling, who was certainly better qualified than any other person to form an impartial opinion, wrote in the following terms to the Postmaster General on receiving news of the action: “Your Lordship’s Service, distinguished as it is, cannot boast a more gallant officer, a better seaman, or a more honourable man.” Two years later, when the commander of the “Lady Mary Pelham” thought fit to have his case brought up in Parliament, and a member speaking in his interest had used some words depreciating Captain Norway’s seamanship, Mr. Freeling observed: “The reputation of Captain Norway stands too high to be assailed by anything which the partizans of Mr. —— can say. In conduct and in character he was alike irreproachable.” About the same time a merchant who had been in the Canary Islands at the time when the Privateer put in there to refit after the action, and had availed himself of opportunities of hearing the story from the American officers, wrote to Mr. Freeling a letter which is still extant, and which remarkably confirms the account of the affair which has just been given.