Virginia Argus

From the New York Evening Post.

THE PRIZE.—It appears that the British ship brought yesterday into our harbor as a prize to the French privateer Duke of Dantzic, is the Tottenham, a new vessel of 550 tons, and is a Letter of Marque of 10 guns, bound from London to Grenada, and was captured off Barbadoes. We learn that the privateer surprised the ship by running up alongside without being suspected, until a shot from her struck the ship just under her counter, entered the cabin, killed the steward outright and wounded a boy in the face.

The name of the captain of the privateer is Arrogaudie, a member of Bonaparte's legion of honor: his crew consists of 110 men of all nations, and his first lieutenant is a man by the name of John Givens, said to belong to this city.

Some of the crew told our informant, that a few days before they captured the Tottenham, they fell in with a ship Thames, a new vessel also bound from London to Barbadoes which they captured after an engagement of two hours; they also captured two British merchantmen, the Edinburgh and the Prince's Castle, both new ships, one of which they burnt, and sunk the other. The Tottenham after the French were in possession of her, fell in with the English sloop of war Echo, in the night, and immediately hailed, in reply to the question returned from the Echo, they answered that they were the Tottenham, a ship belonging to his Britannic majesty, and bound to the West Indies, on which they were permitted to pass, and thus effected their escape.