by John Marshall

“ On the 18th of June, Captain Grace, then the senior commander on the African station, reported to Sir Robert Mends, the deaths of 13 petty officers and seamen; the second lieutenant and surgeon had previously invalided, and several men were obliged to be sent home, as the only chance of saving them for future service. At this period of wretchedness and anxiety, Captain Grace was unremitting in his attention to the sick of the Cyrené, and alleviated by every means in his power the misery of their situation ”

“ From thence, the captain was soon permitted to depart ; but the officers and men, then under Lieutenant Grace, were kept for some time at Weltervreeden, a military post near that city; and afterwards suddenly marched to the fortress of Meester Cornelius, situated in a damp and unwholesome spot, where they were all closely confined for a period of nearly eight months; to answer for the acts of a person over whom they could have no controul. ”

“ Courtenay most judiciously to determine on returning and passing the bar while the water was high, which, after spiking the guns and destroying them and the factories as far as was practicable, he effected with as much coolness, judgment, and skill, as he displayed on entering; and I am happy to say, that although the natives assembled to the number of many additional hundreds, armed with muskets, lining the bushes on both banks of the river down to the very bar, and keeping up to the last a sharp fire, yet all was effected with the loss of one man mortally and three slightly wounded. ”

“ Grace (then again on board the Greyhound) assisted at the destruction of a Dutch armed brig, under the fort of Manado; and at the capture of another vessel of the same description, at the island of Tidore. On the 26th of the same month, he bore a part in an action with a Dutch squadron, which ended in the capture of the Pallas frigate and two East Indiamen, the latter armed for the purpose of war, and richly laden with the produce of the Moluccas: – on this occasion, he was officially recommended by Captain Elphinstone, as a “young officer deserving of promotion” [5] . ”

“ Fired signal guns for the boats to return. At 6-30, weighed and made sail in shore. At 8, the boats returned, with the loss of two men killed; Lieutenant Grace, Lieutenant Fanner, R.M., Messrs. West and Foster, midshipmen, Mr. Hyde, gunner, and fifteen men wounded, chiefly with spears and creases. Found that the boats had gained possession of the two proas, and were conducting them to the ship, for examination, in the quietest manner; but as soon as it became dark, the Malays rose upon our people, and by superior numbers obliged them to retreat. ”

“ A more rapid or merciless conflagration can scarcely be imagined. From the first discovery of the fire, by Captains Grace and Jervoise, to the total destruction of the house, an interval of two hours did not elapse.”
On the 17th of Jan. 1822, Captain Grace was appointed to the Cyrené 20, fitting out at Plymouth, for the African station, where he captured the Dutch schooner Aurora, of 144 tons, 4 guns, and 26 men; and detained l’Hypolite schooner (under French colours) , of 95 tons, 2 guns, and 19 men. ”

“ Mary’s island, in the river Gambia, and from thence to Sierra Leone, where, during her absence, the chief justice of the colony, two members of council, one clergyman, three missionaries, two merchants, and about 130 other Europeans, with many people of colour, were swept off by a malignant fever within the short period of one month. So great was the consequent panic, that few of the survivors visited each other; they no longer attended the dead to their graves ”

“ As the boats landed on the islands, they had the mortification to see those unfortunate beings whom they hoped to liberate, through the influence of the King, hurried from the factories, thrown into war-canoes, and carried out of sight higher up the river. ”

“ Feeling that a dispute between the two senior officers of H.M. squadron, particularly at a period when Cape Coast Castle and settlement were threatened with a formidable attack by the King of Ashantee, could not be otherwise than most prejudicial to the public service. ”

“ They then proceeded to the nursery, and had Lady Anna Eliza Mary Grenville, the then only child of Earl and Countess Temple, conveyed to the parsonage; but before the young lady had even left the house, a great burning beam, extending across the nursery-ceiling, fell in, and crushed the cradle from which she had just been removed. Fortunately no lives were lost ”

“ Both of these vessels were equipped in the most complete manner for slaving, and each had a cargo ready for embarkation at the factories on the Gallinas river; from whence 180 slaves were subsequently brought off, and sent to Sierra Leone, but not until after the boats of the Cyrené had had a sharp brush with the native dealers and their European instigators, the particulars of which are thus detailed by Captain Grace in his official report to the late Commodore Sir Robert Mends, dated Oct. ”