Matamoras with the thousand dollars, on board the same vessel. Captain Thompson, with a view lo arrest the smuggling which was carried on in so scandalous a manner upon those coasls, thought proper, in performance of his duty, to examine an American brig, then lying at anchor near the bar of Velasco. With Lhis view he sailed towards her, and having summoned her master by means of a speaking trumpet, to show the papers necessary to prove the legality of his voyage, he discovered from them that her crew were engaged in han,ling the cargo clandestinely, for which reason he ordered her master to follow him to the port of Matamoras. l'v]eanwhile the colonists, learning, from the movements of the vessels, that the brig had been captured, got ready a steamboat, and having put a number of armed men on board her, made towards our vessel; a heavy fire was kept up against us from the steamboat and the shore, which we returned; and things were in this state, when a sail appeared about eight miles to the northeast; the steamboat then stopped her fire and went towards the sail, which proved to be the schooner San Felipe, armed apparently for a cruise. The steamboat took the schooner in tow, and having carried her alongside the brig, both vessels dropped anchor, and the steamboat began to land the cargo, which it was impossible for Captain Thompson to prevent, although he made every effort to do so, on account of the opposing currents and winds, which forced our vessel to keep up her sails until night; a breeze then springing up in our favor, Captain Thompson took advantage of it lo make an examination in his boat; by this means he found that the schooner San Felipe was under sail, and he therefore immediately prepared for action, charging me with the command of the marines. Being thus prepared to defend ourselves at aJI hazards, we saw the San Felipe coming towards us, getting the weather-gage, and acting otherwise in a suspicious manner. Captain Thompson upon this hailed the captain of the schooner by speaking trumpet, and afler saying something to him in English, which I could nol understand, he ordered a shot to be fired; the San Felipe returned it, and an action thus began which lasted about one hour, Lhere being, during that time, a brisk fire of cannon and musketry. In the course of the action, our boat, completely manned, disappeared, and we have not yet learned what became of it. This incident lessened our forces, which were, from the beginning, much inferior to those of our adversary, who, taking advantage of the circumstance of his enormous superiority,
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