To do this was a matter of great difficulty, since all the approaches to Hamburg were very closely watched. It was also dangerous, for if the messenger were captured, he would certainly have to face a long imprisonment; and worse than imprisonment might befall him, for he ran an excellent chance of being shot as a spy. A man of courage must therefore be chosen, and one of resource, of undoubted honesty, faithful to his employers, and adroit in action. Such a man was not easily found; but Mr. Thornton at last put forward his servant, James Giltinan, who had been long with him in Hamburg, and was well acquainted with all the surrounding territory. Giltinan accepted the dangerous mission very readily. He sailed from Harwich on a Packet bound for Heligoland, and within a few hours of his arrival in that island he left it again on board a schuyt, bound for the mouth of the Elbe. The Heligolanders were confident that he would never succeed in penetrating to Hamburg, and the event proved them right. A furious storm delayed all news for some days, but at last the schuyt returned with the melancholy news that Giltinan had been made prisoner between Neuwerk and Cuxhaven, and sent to Hamburg in close confinement. What befell him there does not appear ever to have become known. Upon the failure of this gallant venture various plans were considered, but all were laid aside as offering no prospect of success commensurate with the risk involved. The Post-Office declined to make itself responsible for any further efforts, and resolved to confine itself to landing the mails at Heligoland, where they must lie until good fortune provided some means of forwarding them. To such a condition of impotence the policy of Napoleon had reduced the Post-Office in the year 1807. It is now time to return to the operations of the Falmouth Packets. A new service to Gibraltar and Malta had been opened in the year 1806, in deference to the wishes of the Mediterranean merchants, and still more perhaps to the foresight of the Government which anticipated the closing of the Northern ports. The “Cornwallis,” Captain Anthony, was the first Packet despatched on this voyage, which the hostility of Spain rendered rather dangerous. The passage through the Straits brought the “Cornwallis” into close quarters with the Spanish coast, and six gun-boats sallied out from Tarifa to intercept her. These gun-boats carried 24 and 30–pounders, heavy guns for those days, with from fifty to seventy men each, and their plan of attack was a simultaneous onslaught. They were probably Privateers, for they fought under the bloody flag in token of their resolution to give no quarter. Captain Anthony had anticipated some such attack; and on meeting Collingwood’s fleet on the previous day, had asked for convoy through the straits. Collingwood, however, could not spare a convoy, being in constant hope of meeting the French fleet and bringing it to action.