by John Marshall

“ Devonshire is every thing that you or his mother can wish him to be, and now first-lieutenant of the Terpsichore. Should she have the good fortune to fall in with a French frigate, I will be responsible for the issue being successful, when he will get promotion off his own bat. It is a lamentable thing that Lord Spencer, in all other respects an unexceptionable man, should have deprived commanders-in-chief on foreign stations of the means to reward merit. ”

“ At this period she appeared almost entirely disabled, and we had drawn close up alongside with every gun well charged and pointed. It was nevertheless with considerable difficulty that I prevailed on the Spanish commander to decline receiving such a broadside, by submitting; and from every thing I have since heard, the personal courage, conduct, and zeal of that officer, whose name is Don Thomas Agalde, was such during the action, notwithstanding the event of it, as reflects on him the greatest honor, and irresistibly impressed on my mind the highest admiration of his character. ”

“ After (from the effect of our fire) his booms had tumbled down, and rendered his waste guns unserviceable, all the standing rigging of his lower masts shot away, and I believe every running rope cut through, and a great number of his people killed and wounded, he still persevered, though he could rally but few of his men, to defend his ship, almost longer than defence was justifiable. Had there been the smallest motion in the sea, every mast must inevitably have gone by the board. Our loss [2] has been much less than could have been expected ”