1810.
May.
upon the south side of the island, at Port Jacotet; where he cut out L'Estafette packet boat, spiked the guns of the fort, carried off the officer with two field pieces, and M. Etienne Bolger, commandant of the quarter of La Savanne, the same who had acted so ungraciously on my arrival at the Baye du Cap. This sullying of the French territory produced a fulminating proclamation from general De Caen, nearly similar in terms to that of the emperor Napoléon after the descent at Walcheren; its effect on the inhabitants, however, was not much, for on asking some of them what they thought of this second-hand gasconade, the reply was,—"Oh it is not to us, it is to Bonaparte "that the proclamation is addressed;" meaning that it was a bait to catch his approbation. Three days afterwards a flag of truce was sent out to negotiate an exchange for M. Bolger and the officer who had commanded the fort, for whom twenty soldiers of the 69th regiment were given; we afterwards learned that a proposal had been made to let the cartel sail, provided the squadron would suffer her to pass without being visited; but to this arrangement captain Pym, the then senior officer, refused his consent.
An order was given on the 8th for all the British officers to embark in the cartel, and we hoped to sail immediately; but the merchants of the town presented a petition to the captain-general for a delay, lest we might give information of the expected arrival of some ships from France. Our cruisers were stationed purposely to stop every French vessel, whether going in or out, and this petition therefore seemed to be ridiculous; it appeared however to be complied with, for we not only were prevented sailing, but denied all communication with the inhabitants for several weeks; and the five ladies on board were as much subjected to these restrictions as the officers. The French cartel returned from the Cape of Good Hope on the 10th, with exchanged prisoners; and the former reports of a projected attack on Mauritius and Bourbon were so strongly revived that general De Caen made a tour of the island, in order, as was said, to have batteries erected at all the landing places without defence,