Our materials for composing a biographical memoir of Captain Forrest are confessedly scanty; but, to their extent, they may be fully relied on, in point of accuracy; and, slight as they are, they possess such interest and importance, as fully entitle them to preservation, in a work which, like the Naval Chronicle, is devoted to the record of maritime discovery, and heroic exploit.

The subject of the present sketch was the son of Austen Forrest, Esq. a member of the corporation of Plymouth, and the store-keeper of the Victualling Office, at that port. He was born at Plymouth — where he also received his education, in the year 1766; and, having been intended for the naval service, he went to sea under the patronage of Captain John Harvey, R.N. who was killed in Lord Howe's memorable action of the 1st of June, 1794.

Whether Mr. Forrest remained with Captain Harvey, during the whole of the services enumerated below, we know not; but we understand that, in consequence of the termination of the American war, before he could obtain a commission, as lieutenant, he went to India.

We regret our inability to trace his professional progress in the service of the East India Company; but, fortunately, we have been favoured with the following interesting account, from his own pen, of the most important event in his life — the shipwreck of the Sydney, of which he was at that time commander, and his consequent discovery of some islands in the Indian seas.