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A FORGOTTEN BATTLE: A STUDY IN OBSCURE NAVAL HISTORY.

I.

To the north of the Tropic of Capricorn, and lying about as far east of Madagascar as that immense island lies from the coast of Africa, are the two smaller islands of Mauritius and Réunion. In 1810 these were the only possessions left to the French in the East Indies, and were known respectively as the Isles of France and Bourbon. Both are small, but are not to be easily attacked: for while there are one or two good harbours, a tremendous surf beats eternally upon their coasts. The Isle of France was far the more important of the two. It was the seat of the Government; its harbour of Port Louis possessed a dockyard capable of fitting out and repairing large ships of war, and, sailing from this base, a number of heavy frigates had proved an endless annoyance to our East Indian trade. The two islands constituted the command of General Decaen, who, with a very inadequate garrison, contrived to delude the Indian Government into the belief that he had a powerful one.

Away to the north-east lies the little island of Rodriguez, then the British base in those waters. From here in 1809 was despatched a small expedition that captured Bourbon, did much damage, and

then returned, the Government being unable to spare troops for a permanent occupation. The following year, however, it was determined that a serious effort should be made to take possession of both islands for good and all, and in July a powerful combined force put out from Rodriguez for this purpose.

Bourbon fell at once. The most serious obstacles were interposed by nature, and the only casualties sustained were caused by the surf, which stove in several boats. The expeditionary force now turned its eyes toward the more important Isle of France, and, pending the interruption which appears inevitable in such operations, it was determined to tighten the somewhat haphazard blockade of this island. Port Louis, on the west or leeward side, was already blockaded by Captain Lambert with several frigates; but on the east coast the important anchorage of Grand Port-or Port Imperial, as it was then calledlay open and unobserved. And early in August the 36-gun frigates Sirius and Néréide, with the Staunch (gun-brig), sailed, under Captain Pym of the Sirius, to remedy this omission.

They arrived off the harbourmouth on the 10th of August. Their immediate objective was

a diminutive islet, the Isle de la Passe, which lies in the jaws of the intricate entrance like a cork in the neck of a bottle; and they found mounted upon this quite a formidable battery of four 24-pdrs., nine 18-pdrs., three 13-in. mortars, and two howitzers. It was determined, however, to attack without delay. The same evening Captain Nisbet Josiah Willoughby, of the Néréide, led in 400 men in boats; but the sea was heavy; the flotilla, overtaken by darkness, broke up and became disorganised, and the attack was relinquished. The following day the English vessels weighed and sailed, apparently discomfited.

Their departure, however, partook of the nature of a ruse. On the afternoon of the 13th Pym was back again off the islet and looking for the Néréide, which should have been there also; but the latter frigate, which had the Staunch in company, was foul-bottomed and sailing badly, and was not in sight. Night drew near and she had not come. By morning the garrison on the islet might be reinforced, and Pym determined not to wait. At eight o'clock 70 men in five boats pulled in towards the battery. Although 400 had been repulsed two days before, the garrison on this occasion do not seem to have offered a very strenuous resistance, and, at the cost of 18 killed and wounded, the Isle de la Passe was captured.

The belated Néréide and her consort arrived on the follow

ing morning. Willoughby had

on board his ship 100 men of the 33rd and 69th Regiments and a dozen Madras artillerymen; and he was now left with his frigate and the brig to hold the islet and harass the enemy on the main island. On the 15th Pym sailed to rejoin Captain Lambert off Port Louis.

Willoughby was a man of a singularly active and daring temper, and filled with a most exalted public spirit. He was ingenious, capable, rash to excess; cast, in fact, in that heroic mould which is typified for all time in the person of Nelson. He was now in just such a situation as he might have prayed for. The day after the Sirius left him he took his frigate into the channel and anchored her behind the islet. On the latter he put Captain Todd of the 69th with 50 soldiers; and with the other half-hundred and his ship's company commenced a series of audacious descents upon the mainland.

For three days he was very busy disseminating anti- Napoleonio pamphlets with one hand and musket-bullets with the other about the Isle of France. On the 17th the capture of a fort, the rout of a detachment of troops, and the ignominious ignominious discomfiture of three boats fitted up as gunvessels, which had the temerity to intercept his return, triumphantly inaugurated these excursions. On the 18th, the Staunch, for some reason, left him for Bourbon. By the 20th he had over-run a large tract of country: he had routed all the

enemy's detachments, and befriended and bepamphleted all the indigenous inhabitants; and he doubtless looked forward to continuing indefinitely this exhilarating pastime. But he was now to have a bigger matter on his hands.

The French squadron, during the capture of Bourbon and these subsequent operations, had effected little or nothing. The larger part of it was now shut up in the harbour of Port Louis, off which Captain Lambert with several frigates maintained a sedulous blockade; while at large, upon the Indian Ocean, Commodore Duperré, with two heavy frigates and a ship-corvette, was wasting his energies upon the side issue of our Indian trade. Early in August this officer, when off the north coast of Madagascar, fell in with three outward-bound East Indiamen, the Ceylon, Windham, and Astell. Captain Meriton of the Ceylon, the commodore of this little squadron, had some years before, while in command of another merchantman, assisted at the capture of a French frigate; and with this in his mind he seems now to have thought his three ships equal to the three of Duperré. He saw himself transcending the famous exploit of Sir Nathaniel Dance, and obtaining for himself and his fellow-captains knighthoods and jewelled swords from grateful corporations; and with much gallantry and lack of judgment, instead of bending all his energies to the saving of his valuable

VOL. CXCII.-NO. MCLXI.

cargoes, he prepared for battle. But Duperré, at any rate, was not a Linois; and although the merchantmen fought with the greatest spirit, they were hopelessly overmatched. The Ceylon and Windham were captured, and the Astell only escaped through the coming of night. The prizes being valuable, Duperré determined to escort them to the Isle of France; and on the morning of the 20th he was sighted by the lookout on the Néréide approaching Grand Port.

The hour was only ten; but already the indefatigable Willoughby and his landing-party were ashore five miles up the harbour, when the Néréide was observed signalling the approach of five sail from the E.S.E. Willoughby at once jumped into his gig; and leaving the heavier boats to follow as fast as they were able, started on the long row back to his ship. It was noon before he got on board; the rest of his flotilla were a mile or more behind; and out at sea the five strangers were now drawing near.

When the Isle de la Passe had been taken, the French commandant, with criminal negligence, had allowed his signal-book to fall into the hands of the captors; and of this Willoughby proceeded to make use. The tricolour was already flying at the Néréide's gaff, and he now signalled a variety of mythical statements as to the whereabouts of the British squadron; the build of his ship, an ex-French frigate, assisting this deception materi

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into the trap. The Victor, a ship-corvette recently captured from the British, led into the harbour; followed by the exPortuguese 50-gun frigate Minerve, the Ceylon, the Bellone 44, and finally the Windham.

ally. Duperré sailed placidly was in a position to obey; whereupon the Commodore put his ship also at the harbour mouth, and followed the others. He, too, exchanged broadsides with the Néréide, and while in the act the surrendered Victor, which had not yet been boarded from the British frigate, cut her cable, rehoisted her colours, and drifted down after the Ceylon-a proceeding in flagrant defiance of the accepted rules of capture. The Bellone, having safely passed the Néréide, brought up the rear. The Windham, still out at sea, determined to remain there, made sail, and fled.

The entrance to the harbour is exceedingly narrow. In the fairway was lying the Néréide; and the Victor, her topsails clewed up and her men aloft taking in sail, came drifting by within a few yards. She hailed the Néréide; and, at that instant, down came the latter's tricolour, Willoughby,

from the rail, ordered the corvette to anchor and strike. One can picture the consternation of the Frenchman; the sacres! the mon dieus; the helter-skelter scramble from the yards; one can well suppose there was pandemonium and delay. At any rate the Néréide, to expedite matters, fired a broadside into the corvette. This was sufficient: and she struck and anchored astern of the frigate.

The Minerve and Ceylon, following close upon the Victor, were already involved beyond repair in the intricate navigation of the channel. The Néréide had barely time to reload before the frigate was passing her; and immediately after, the Ceylon, in her turn, opened a vigorous cannonade. Both ships passed successfully into the anchorage. Mean

while Duperré, in the Bellone, had signalled to his squadron to come about and close with him, but only the Windham

And then followed an almost incredible incident. It will be remembered that Willoughby had returned to his frigate well ahead of the rest of his landing - party. These heavy boats, crowded with more than 100 men, were now toiling painfully down the harbour; and sailing to meet them, almost filling the fairway, came the four French ships. They were caught in the narrows: mud and marsh lay upon either hand, and there seemed to be no question of escape. They could only wait gloomily for the inevitable hail and surrender. On board the Néréide they were given up as lost. The four big ships and the tiny flotilla drew together: they met and past the four broadsides, without a shot, without a hail, the Néréide's boats rowed desperately into safety. They were so close that their oars scraped the ship's sides, and the Frenchmen, leaning over the bulwarks,

looked down into them; but the squadron passed on in stately and incomprehensible silence. The agonised and amazed spectators on the

Néréide broke into loud cheering as their comrades rejoined the ship.

The day's adventures were now over, and Willoughby could repair his damages, which were not inconsiderable, and lay his plans for the future. His trap had worked to a miracle: such a prize as he could hardly have dreamed of had tumbled ignominiously into it, and the last French squadron in those waters lay securely cooped up in his species of bottle, of which his frigate and islet were the stopper. They now lay anchored at the head of the harbour, under the proteotion of some guns on shore, and manifested no inclination to attack Willoughby. Such an attack would indeed have been a matter of enormous difficulty, since they would have to struggle one by one up the narrow and tortuous channel under the guns of the frigate and the battery; but it would become virtually hopeless when the Néréide was reinforced, as they must have known she was likely to be. In fact, on the afternoon of the action, Willoughby sent off a boat to Captain Pym, who was somewhere on the other side of the Isle of France, informing him of his success. In the meantime he employed himself by dropping bombs from the captured mortars among the French squadron, which was

eventually obliged to weigh and move closer inshore. He also despatched a boat under a flag of truce to demand from Commodore Duperré the surrender of the Victor, which had struck to him; but the Commodore, who had no intention of giving up the corvette, indulged in a variety of quibbles as foolish as they were dishonourable. So passed the remainder of the 20th and the 21st of August.

The Néréide's boat, after a long and adventurous voyage round the island, was picked up by Captain Pym. That officer, having sent to inform Captain Lambert-off Port Louis-of his intentions, immediately sailed for Grand Port. He had already some knowledge of the events at the latter place, for he had just previously recaptured the East Indiaman Windham under rather

remarkable circumstances. This ship had only escaped from Willoughby's trap to fall in with the Sirius; but the land being then close at hand, she seemed likely to escape up a creek defended by batteries before the frigate could overhaul her. The wind was light and the weather foggy, and from the Sirius it was impossible to make out the size of the chase. Conceiving her to be a small coasting vessel, an officer volunteered to take a boat's crew and board her; and having set off with but five men, he was shortly followed by a second boat with five more. The two little craft rapidly overtook the Windham, when, not only was

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