crews which board the enemy's vessels a sufficient number of
crowbars, for the purpose of breaking up their water casks, leaving
only water enough to carry them, on short allowance, into Bahia, to
which port you are to order them immediately to return.

Their papers being essential to the justification of this or any
other hostile act, the boarding officer will take especial care to
secure them.

COCHRANE.

In addition to this, the masts of all troopships which might be
boarded, were directed to be so far cut away as to prevent their
escape--a written order instructing them to return forthwith to Bahia,
on pain of being treated with great severity if found on any other
course. Singular as the order may appear, it was in most cases obeyed,
and thus the captured vessels navigated themselves into our hands.

The Portuguese squadron consisted of _Don Joaõ_, 74; _Constitucaõ_,50;
_Perola_, 44; _Princeza Real_,28; _Calypso_, 22; _Regeneracaõ_, 26;
_Activa_, 22; _Dez de Fevereiro_, 26; _Audaz_, 20; _S. Gaulter_, 26;
_Principe do Brazil_, 26; _Restauracaõ_, 26; _Canceicaõ_, 8; with
between sixty and seventy merchant vessels and transports filled with
troops.

As soon as they were clear of the port, we fell upon the rearmost ships,
disabling their main and mizen masts, so as to render it difficult for
them to sail otherwise than before the wind, which would carry them to
the Brazilian coast, and ordering them back to Bahia. The flagship and
the _Maria de Gloria_ then resumed the pursuit, but the latter being