This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

under Lieutenant commanding Thomas Ap Catesby Jones; gun-boat No. 162 with five guns and thirty-five men, under Lieutenant Robert Spedden; gun-boat No. 163, with three guns and thirty-one men, under Sailing-Master Ulrick--total five gun-boats, twenty-three guns and one hundred and eighty-two men. This was certainly a small force to repel the powerful flotilla which was bearing down upon them, having about 2,500 men.
?The morning was bright, cool and bracing. There was not a breath of air to stir the surface of the placid entrance to the lake. The men in the British flotilla took their breakfast as gaily and pleasantly as if it were a sportive occasion and then stood to their arms. The flotilla approached with all the precision of soldiers in line; Jones? gunners fixed their eyes steadily upon the imposing array of bristling barges, measuring coolly the distance, in order to ascertain when they might come in range of their long guns. Just as the Americans are about to level their pieces, the flotilla comes to a grapnel and appears to be deliberating on the expediency of attacking so determined a little squadron. A division of the barges is now detached from the main line of the flotilla, and bears towards the west. The object of this movement is understood in Jones? fleet,' when a little white speck is discerned in the distance, which soon assumes the shape of a small fishing smack. This proves to be the Alligator, a little tender, armed with a four-pounder and eight men, under sailing master, Richard
S.	Sheppard.
?The Alligator was making every effort to 30m Jones? squadron to take part in the approaching combat, but the wind had lulled and she could make no progress. Lockyer detached four boats, with nearly two hundred men, under Captain Roberts, to capture this formidable ship-of-war, with her eight sailors and toy gun. It is due to the British Navy to state that they succeeded in effecting this object without much loss. Roberts returned to the flotilla in triumph with his splendid prize, and was received with three Joud cheers. The stout sailor could not, howrever, suppress a smile when he boarded his capture and ascertained her force and metal. Perhaps, under all the circumstances, Captain Lockyer may be excused for the slight exaggeration, in his description of this little cockle-shell ?as an armed sloop.? But it is due to history to state, that this high-sounding designation has been conferred 011 Commodore Porter?s old gig!
?Somewhat animated by this little achievement, Lockyer ordered his men to refresh themselves with a hearty