I beg your excellency will be pleased to convey my best thanks to every admiral, captain, and officer under your excellency's command, for all the attention and the very active zeal which they have on every occasion displayed. The care and attention which the worthy Dr. Jameson, and the surgeon Mr. Duke, have given to the sick, will ever be remembered with sentiments of sincere gratitude.

I have the honour to remain,
With the highest regard and consideration,
Your excellency's
Most obedient and very humble servant,

Nauckhoff, Rear-admiral.

Admiral Nauckhoff struck his flag on the 15th of November; at which time the mortality and sickness had been so great, that only three frigates could be manned to assist in the protection of the trade.

Sir James left Carlscrona on the 25th October, and, passing through the Great Belt, reached Gothenburg on the 29th of November. Here he remained in the Victory until the 3rd of December, during which interval he made the necessary arrangements for the protection of the trade in that quarter; and, leaving Rear-admiral Keats in the Superb, and, under his command, the Orion and two smaller vessels, he proceeded to the Downs, where he landed on the 8th, and appeared at the Admiralty on the 9th current. Their lordships were pleased to signify their high approbation of every part of his conduct, as far as the naval operations were concerned; but they considered his address to the Emperor of Russia a stretch of power. Of this the public will judge. Sir James did no more, in fact, than propose an armistice, which is undoubtedly the province of every commander-in-chief. It is indeed true that Buonaparte, who was at Erfurth when the Emperor Alexander received his letter, made this the basis of a deceitful overture for peace, in order to gain time, and thereby puzzle the ministers a little; but this circumstance can never be held out as a reason for preventing a commander-in-chief at a great distance from home concluding an armistice, when he is confident it would be beneficial to the cause on which he is engaged.

In the mean time, the Russian fleet, with the exception of two ships, which were lost on the passage, succeeded in returning to Cronstadt. It was said that Admiral Henikoff, who commanded, was degraded in consequence of his conduct in not engaging the Swedish fleet.

The mortality continued at Carlscrona among the seamen until the cold weather set in about Christmas, when it was calculated that the Swedes had lost a number nearly equal to the original crews of their ships, including sixty-four officers; among whom were fourteen of the rank of captain (lieut.-col. in their service).

The Orion sailed with the first convoy in November, which she carried successfully through the Belt. The next ship was the Africa, which, after seeing her convoy through the Malinö channel, was attacked by Danish gun-boats in a calm, and suffered so severely as to oblige her to return to Carlscrona. The Mars, Orion, and two bombs, made an unsuccessful attack on Eartholms.; but the last convoy which left Carlscrona, under the Salsette, Magnet, and two Swedish sloops of war, was the most disastrous undertaking of all. They sailed on the 23rd December, after the winter set in with unusual severity. A storm coming on from the northward, brought the already-formed ice down on the convoy. The Magnet (Captain Morris) was wrecked, with several others; the rest, with the Salsette and two Swedish armed ships, were carried back into the Baltic; and, excepting the Salsette, none of them were ever heard of.

The gallant Captain Bathurst, who afterwards fell gloriously at Navarin, after suffering severe hardships by being frozen out the whole winter, during which his ship was drifted twice round the island of Bornholm, was able to approach Carlshamn in March, and was cut into that harbour by the Swedes, who afforded him every assistance. The Swedish armed ships were lost by being carried by the ice on a sandbank in sight of the Salsette, which had then only four feet water to spare; the former, immediately they struck, turned bottom up, and all hands perished, being instantly covered with the ice. The thermometer, in January 1809, sank to forty-five degrees below zero; the Sound and Belt were completely frozen over, and many passed between Sweden and Denmark on horseback over the ice.

The Author did not escape the infection at Carlscrona, but was one of the first who recovered, and was sent for by the King to Stockholm; it was, however, the middle of February before he could undertake the journey.