Curacao, 12 January. According to an extract of a letter was the Spanish corvette of war Maria Francisca with on board 90 soldiers and a crew of 240 men and 40.000 dollars in cash captured while underway from Havana towards Porto Cabello. Since several days was a Colombian squadron commanded by admiral Daniels cruising off the harbor when the corvette was sighted and surrendered without a battle. The Colombian squadron fired 3 shots returned by two of the corvette and all was over. Three days later arrived at Curacao a French brig with troops on board destined towards Porto Cabello and her officers supplied more details. The captain of the corvette lost al his money and that of the crew while gambling and since they left Havana he did everything to get rid of the convoy in which he finally succeeded and he sold presumably his ship to the enemy. Two weeks later arrived the captain of the corvette himself on board of the American frigate Congress and he told another story. He thought that the Colombian squadron was a Dutch convoy mistaking the Colombian flag for the Dutch flag and when he discovered his mistake he was all ready in the middle of the enemy. While his crew refused to fight he was forced to surrender. The capture of the corvette was of utmost importance for the Colombians being a complete new 24-gun vessel causing a weakening of the Spanish navy and giving the Colombians control over the sea.
