by John Marshall

“ Captain Malcolm was soon after appointed to the Rhin, an 18-pounder frigate, employed in the British Channel, where he captured four French privateers, carrying in the whole 58 guns and 310 men. On the 31st Jan. 1812, he escaped sharing the fate of the Laurel frigate, by his promptitude in changing the Rhin’s course, at the very moment when her consort struck on the Govivas rock in the Teigneuse passage, from whence he himself was then not half a cable’s length distant. ”

“ The French squadron, consisting of three sail of the line and two frigates, from l’Orient, having taken shelter in the Saintes, in the vicinity of Guadaloupe, where they were blockaded by Sir Alexander Cochrane with a superior force, I detached a corps, of between 2000 and 3000 men, under the command of Major-General Maitland, to co-operate with the navy in the reduction of those islands, and to destroy or capture the ships of the enemy, or to force them to sea. ”