The action of 10 December 1800 was a minor engagement of the Napoleonic Wars in which the Spanish privateer gunboat San Francisco Javier, alias Poderoso, under Don Miguel Villalba, captured a hired brig of the Royal Navy commanded by Lieutenant Charles Niven (or Nevin). On 20 December the British hired armed brig Sir Thomas Pasley (or Admiral Pasley, or Pasley), left Plymouth, England with despatches for Lisbon, Gibraltar, and Malta. After calling at Lisbon, Sir Thomas Pasley was off Ceuta when on 10 December a Spanish gunboat approached using sails and sweeps.