On the 4th, which was the anniversary of his Majesty's birth, a singular occurrence took place. A sloop of war, and a number of boats armed with carronades, having detachments of troops in them, were despatched in the morning, to attack a battery situated on a projecting point of the main land, where it approaches nearest to Belleisle, and from which ships coming to our present anchorage, were liable to be fired upon. It lay about eight or ten miles from us: but as the wind was light, the sloop of war and the boats did not get near the battery, until it was past twelve o'clock. The battery then opened a fire from two 24 pounders, which played briskly upon them. The day was fine and clear, which permitted us to see the smoke of every gun that was fired, and where the shot struck the water. We looked on with eager anxiety, and observed all the movements of the sloop of war and the boats. It was near one o'clock before she was in a position to return the fire of the battery, which she did briskly. The armed boats then pulled towards the shore, under cover of her fire. At one o'clock they were close to the battery, and commenced a smart fire upon it from their carronades, and the contest was at the hottest, just at the instant that the ships we were in, were firing the salute in honour of his Majesty's birth day. The enemy precipitately retired from the battery, and the troops and seamen landed, dismounted the guns, broke the carriages, and did what other damage they could, and then returned to the fleet. We all remarked the singularity of the circumstance, that while we were saluting with blank shot, they were saluting with round, double headed, and grape shot, in real earnest, by which several lives were lost, and some were wounded, besides other damages.