Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

By a gentleman from Lisbon we are favoured
with the following extract of a letter, dated September 4, off the Straits of Gibraltar, from one
Capt. Thompson, on board a Portuguese frigate,
cruising against the Algerines, to his friend, Commodore
Hardcastle, in Lisbon, informing him, that
"on that day, in the morning, a large xebeck,
mounting 14 guns, which for many days had remained
under shelter of the rock, came out about
4 o'clock in the morning with a very brisk breeze
of wind, passing most of the cruisers unnoticed,
except the Triton, who immediately engaged with
her, at about a league distance, giving chase at
the same time, the xebeck then standing with her
head to the eastward, and the Triton to the N. E.
the xebeck outsailing her withal ;--but the wind
hauling round to the eastward about 11 o'clock in
the morning, and the other Portuguese cruisers
being then stationed to the westward, gave the
Triton an opportunity of forcing the xebeck for
the land ; and coming near up with her, about
four o'clock, a smart firing then commenced by
both : but the xebeck, finding herself overpowered,
run for the shore at 8 o'clock in the evening.
She was set on fire, and by the postscript of the
5th, Capt. Thompson further says, that on the
morning they had the pleasure of seeing her
burnt to her keel ; 132 men getting ashore,
and 8 missing, which were supposed to be lost in
the action."