rendered to the English; adding a request that he would give orders to prevent firing on them, which, after some hesitation, was reluctantly complied with. The prizes thus taken were two 40-gun frigates, a brig of war, an armed schooner, and twenty-two sail of merchantmen, partly laden. General Rochambeau who commanded the French garrison, appears on this occasion to have pursued a very extraordinary line of conduct, having proposed to surrender the place to the British at the moment when he had concluded a capitulation with his black opponent, Dessalines.
In the following month, Captain Bligh assumed the command of a squadron, consisting of the Theseus, Hercule, and Vanguard, 74’s, Blanche and Pique frigates, and Gipsey schooner, with which he proceeded to attack Curaçoa. Having landed a body of 700 men, he took possession of the height of Amsterdam, where he remained twenty-eight days, erected batteries, and fired away every eighteen-pound shot in the squadron. Although this expedition was not attended with the desired success, every thing was done by himself and the officers and men under his orders, which bravery and human foresight could suggest. The party was re-embarked on the 25th Feb. 1804, with the loss of 18 killed and 43 wounded.
In the ensuing month of July, Captain Bligh was appointed by Sir John T. Duckworth to the Surveillante, one of the frigates taken at Cape François, in which he cruised with considerable success, capturing several privateers, and upwards of forty sail of merchant vessels. Previous to his departure from the West Indies, he landed with his crew, under cover of the night, on the Spanish island of St. Andreas, of which he obtained complete possession, and made the Governor and garrison prisoners of war. He returned to England with two hundred sail under his convoy, the whole of which arrived in safety in the Downs. The Surveillante was paid off at Deptford, Sept. 30, 1806.
Captain Bligh’s next appointment was, in March, 1807, to the Alfred, 74; and in that ship we find him serving under Admiral Gambier at Copenhagen, where he superintended the landing of the army, ordnance, stores, &c. On his return from thence, he was placed under the orders of Sir Charles Cotton, with whom he served upwards of a year, on the coast of Portugal.
