France.

American ships were everywhere seeking refuge from the privateers
under the tricolor, which fairly ran amuck in the routes of
trade. For this reason it meant a rich reward to land a cargo
abroad. The ship Mount Vernon, commanded by Captain Elias Hasket
Derby, Jr., was laden with sugar and coffee for Mediterranean
ports, and was prepared for trouble, with twenty guns mounted and
fifty men to handle them. A smart ship and a powerful one, she
raced across to Cape Saint Vincent in sixteen days, which was
clipper speed. She ran into a French fleet of sixty sail,
exchanged broadsides with the nearest, and showed her stern to
the others.

"We arrived at 12 o'clock [wrote Captain Derby from Gibraltar]
popping at Frenchmen all the forenoon. At 10 A.M. off Algeciras
Point we were seriously attacked by a large latineer who had on
board more than one hundred men. He came so near our broadside as
to allow our six-pound grape to do execution handsomely. We then
bore away and gave him our stern guns in a cool and deliberate
manner, doing apparently great execution. Our bars having cut his
sails considerably, he was thrown into confusion, struck both his
ensign and his pennant. I was then puzzled to know what to do
with so many men; our ship was running large with all her
steering sails out, so that we could not immediately bring her to
the wind, and we were directly off Algeciras Point from whence I
had reason to fear she might receive assistance, and my port
Gibraltar in full view. These were circumstances that induced me
to give up the gratification of bringing him in. It was, however,
a satisfaction to flog the rascal in full view of the English