was to enable Captain Willoughby to land in the vicinity of Grand Port, to open a communication, and commence negociating with some of the principal inhabitants of that town; and at the same time to distribute among the islanders in general numerous copies of a proclamation addressed to them by the governor of Bourbon, “holding out to them not only the advantages they had enjoyed under the protection of France, but the pre-eminent advantages of British colonies – free trade, and the fullest protection to the produce of the island in the markets of Great Britain[1],” provided, when the British came to conquer it, they offered no resistance: in short, as the principal strength of the Isle of France, after its forts should be carried, would consist of the unembodied militia, the grand object was, by sapping their integrity, to render them comparatively powerless; which service Lieutenant Willoughby effectually performed.
On the 10th Aug., la Nereide arrived off Port Sud-Est, in company with the Sirius and Staunch; the latter a gun-brig, commanded by Lieutenant Benjamin Street.
Towards the evening, the boats of the two frigates, containing about 400 seamen, marines, and soldiers, under the command of Captain Willoughby, were taken in tow by the Staunch, and proceeded to attack l’Isle de la Passe; but the night becoming very dark, and the weather extremely tempestuous, so as to occasion several of them to run foul of each other, and some to get stove, la Nereide’s black pilot began to falter, and at length declared, that it was impossible to enter the channel under such disadvantageous circumstances.
- ↑ Sir Robert T. Farquhar’s speech in the House of Commons, June 3, 1825, when supporting a proposition then suggested and carried in favor of the trade of Mauritius; on which occasion. Captain Willoughby’s name was introduced by that gentleman in the following terms:–
“The House will excuse my intruding myself on its attention, as I naturally feel a strong interest in the prosperity of a colony whose affairs I so long administered. In 1810, I proceeded with the expedition to the capture of the Isle of Bourbon, accompanied by that meritorious officer. Captain Willoughby, who has shed his blood so often in the service of the country, and who distributed the proclamations holding out, &c., &c., &c.” See Hansard’s Parliamentary Debates, new series. Vol. 13, p. 1041, et seq.
