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the word was pass beat to quarters but she was alongside of us our guns nearly touching, I distinctly heared the order to break stop stand by fire. She was a 24 gun sloop of war 32 pounders. I never thought that 12 guns could do so much execution 3 of our [?] were knocked into one the nettings all knocked in the main and spar deck ripped up so that they gave way and the guns of the spar and gun deck by their weight fell thro this started the [?] deck besides there was a shot between wind and water and starting the beems of the [?] deck caused her to leak terrably. There was a cry of Terror thro the ship the Main [?] tree was shot away and the flapping of the sail with the confusion on deck and the fright of the man at the wheel put her up in the wind and flat aback. in less time than I have taken to tell it the 25th of May luffed under our stern [?] sharp up and gave us he same broadside a raking fire but tho this did us a great deal of damage it killed fewer men than the first fire for all the [?cholows?] ran down into the hold & cockpit and no one was to be seen at their quarters but the officers and the few Americans French English and dutch who were on board. many of the cholous were run thro by their officers or shot down by them for their base cowardice. as we were so superior to the 25 of May in every thing they concluded best to haul off tho had they given us another broadside we would have been obliged to surrender, so she hauled close on a wind. She had not got more than a mile before our Mizzen Mast went ripping up the spar deck in its fall. then she wove and stood for us but we even as damaged as we were could sail 2 miles to her one and soon distanced her the report of the officers when we got into Rio was 50 killed & 15 wounded altogather, we had to go watch and watch to the pumps and once during a squall tho we heeled over but little I thought we would founder as the water poured in in 20 holes, we got safe into Rio our Capt was broken and dismissed and several of the crew shot for cowardice she was 6 months there before she was again ready for sea. I had written to the American Commodore an account of our impressment he demanded us we were shoved into a dungeon where the mud was over our shoes fed on jerk beef & water until we were finally delivered up and sent home. I afterwards sailed