stronghold. The name Tamana is still to be found at a small place ten
miles up the river. Here Brown brought his squadron on the 18th October.
The usual desultory and harmless bombardment followed; the _Phram_ and the
bombketch being equally inefficient. Then, when Brown suggested a landing
party to storm the place, the officers refused to second him, and so, with
some additional loss, the attack on Deoghur came to an end. Not a word is
said as to any assistance rendered by the Kempsant. At daybreak on the
21st, the whole squadron sailed northward, but the tale of Brown's
incompetency was not complete.

A little before noon next morning four strange sails were seen in the
offing, which, before long, were made out to be the dreaded Madagascar
pirates, with the _Cassandra_, _Victory_, and two prizes they had just
taken. The sight of them struck Brown with terror, though a little
reflection would have shown him that the pirates would have little or no
inducement to attack armed ships carrying no valuable merchandise. He
directed his whole squadron to anchor off Gheriah, which must have
appeared puzzling to his late antagonists in that place. Hoping to evade
the pirate ships, anchor was weighed in the night, and the squadron sailed
northward, no order being preserved, and the fleet getting much scattered.

As it happened, the pirates had mistaken them for Angria's fleet, and were
standing to the northward in search of prey, without any thought of
attacking them. Without any hostile intention on either side, the two
squadrons became intermingled. While it was still dark, the party on the
_London_ was startled by a cannon shot flying over them, and in the faint
morning light they saw a large ship on their quarter. On hailing to ask
her name, an answer came back that it was the _Victory_. Brown preferred
to believe that it was his own ship of that name; but his answering hail,
giving the name of the _London_, was replied to with a broadside, to which