On the 6th inst. Capt. James Duncan, in the ship Rose, of 20 guns and 60 men, a Letter of Marque, belonging to this port;1 fell in with a French frigate of 32 guns and 400 men, which he engaged six hours and fifteen minutes, when finding his ship was sinking, he was obliged to strike. Capt. Duncan and his first Lieutenant were wounded, the latter, it is imagined, mortally:2 He had 16 of his officers and men killed in the action, which was fought in view of the French fleet, commanded by Count D'Estaing, then about 4 miles distant, and unable to get nearer, by reason of a calm. The Frenchmen, no doubt, were greatly mortified at the gallant resistance of such a handful of men, in a vessel of such inferior force, and probably formed melancholy conjectures of the event of a war, in which their honourable connection had drawn them, from the specimen of the intrepidity and valour of British seamen;
The Tryon, Capt. Sibbles, was outside Sandy-Hook, when the French fleet appeared, and was chased by one of their frigates,3 but fortunately outsailing her, escaped, and by that means the fleet, under the convoy of the Hope, from Halifax,4 avoided the snare they would have fallen into, had they proceeded to the Hook. Capt. Sibbles also assisted in convoying the fleet through the Sound,5 having been directed (by Capt. Henry, of the Fowey)6 to bring up the rear. They were dogged by a rebel privateer in the Sound, but she kept so much aloof that there was not an opportunity of bringing her too; she put into New Haven.
Two schooners, one of them from France, the other from South-Carolina, that were taken by the Active Letter of Marque, Capt. Powell,7 are retaken and carried into Egg-Harbour.
