We have sometimes occasion to regret the paucity of our biographical materials, and particularly in relation to the early part of the lives of those gallant men, with whose memoirs our work has from time to time been enriched. It is not a matter of curiosity only which leads us to desire to be acquainted with the manner in which an Officer who has distinguished himself in the service of his country spent his youth, with the Commanders under whom he served, and the actions in which he was engaged whilst he was a junior Officer. It is a source of instruction to trace the progress of an Officer's professional services from his first entrance into the Navy, to the mature period, when, full of years and honours, he retires from the concerns of active life. In the present instance we are sorry not to be able to give our readers an account of the early part of the professional career of an Officer, who has so highly distinguished himself as the noble subject of these Memoirs.

The first information we have concerning our hero is, that on the 17th of August 1757 he was promoted to the rank of Post Captain, on account of his meritorious conduct in the Fortune sloop, in which vessel he captured a French privateer of superior force.