Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 12.djvu/252

 tical Magazine, September 1880, xlix. 719) [see ; and ]. More fortunate than most of her consorts, the Canada escaped with the loss of her maintop-mast and mizen-mast, and arrived in England in October.

In January 1783 Cornwallis was appointed to the Ganges, and two months later to the Royal Charlotte yacht, which command he held till October 1787. He was then appointed to the Robust, and in October 1788 to the Crown, with a broad pennant on being nominated commander-in-chief in the East Indies, where he arrived in the course of the following summer. The force under his command was small, though objected to by the French commodore as exceeding what had been agreed on, to whom Cornwallis replied that he knew of no such convention. Although the two nations were at peace, there was some jealousy of the French negotiations with Tippoo, which was intensified when war with Tippoo broke out and it was reported that he was supplied with munitions of war by French merchant ships. In November 1791 Cornwallis was lying at Tellicherry when he learned that the French frigate Résolue was leaving Mahé with two merchant ships in company. The Phœnix and Perseverance frigates, each more powerful than the Résolue, were ordered to search these ships for contraband of war. The Résolue refused to permit the search, and fired a broadside into the Phœnix, but after a short, sharp action, in which she lost twenty-five men killed and forty wounded, she struck her colours. The Perseverance had meantime examined the merchant ships, which, being found clear of contraband, were directed to pursue their voyage; but the Résolue, insisting on being considered as a prize, was taken into Tellicherry, whence Cornwallis sent her to Mahé. The French commodore, M. St. Félix, complained angrily of the conduct of the English, but made no further attempt to resist the right of search on which Cornwallis insisted, and the dispute finally merged in the greater quarrel that broke out between the two countries. On the first intelligence of the war Cornwallis seized on all the French ships within his reach, made himself master of Chandernagore, and, in concert with Colonel Braithwaite, reduced Pondicherry; shortly after which he sailed for England, which he reached in the spring of 1794. He had meantime, on 1 Feb. 1793, been promoted to be rear-admiral, and in May 1794 he hoisted his flag on board the Excellent for service in the Channel. On 4 July he was advanced to be vice-admiral, when he moved his flag to the Cæsar of 80 guns, and in December to the Royal Sovereign of 100 guns.

In the following June, still in the Royal Sovereign, and having with him four 74-gun ships and two frigates, he was cruising off Brest, when on the 16th, to the southward of the Penmarcks, he fell in with the French fleet under M. Villaret-Joyeuse, consisting of twelve ships of the line and as many large frigates, together with small craft, making an aggregate of thirty sail. Cornwallis was compelled to retreat. Two of his ships, the Bellerophon and Brunswick, proved to be very heavy sailers; in consequence of which, and a slight shift of wind to their advantage, the French were able to draw up in two divisions, one on each quarter of the English squadron. By the morning of the 17th they were well within range, and a brisk interchange of firing took place between their advanced ships and the rearmost of the English, especially the Mars, which suffered considerably in her rigging; so that Cornwallis, fearing she might be cut off, wore round to her support. This bold front led the French to suppose that the English fleet was in the immediate neighbourhood, a supposition which was confirmed by the English look-out frigate making deceptive signals, and by the fortuitous appearance of some distant sail. They bore up and relinquished the pursuit, leaving Cornwallis at liberty to proceed to Plymouth with intelligence of the French fleet being at sea. This escape from a force so enormously superior, and especially the bold manœuvre of the Royal Sovereign, raised the reputation of the vice-admiral to a very high pitch. But it is clear that had the French attacked seriously the English must have been overpowered, and so considered Villaret-Joyeuse loses even more credit than Cornwallis gains (, Naval Hist. 1860, i. 264;, Naval Battles, p. 231).

In the following February (1796) Cornwallis was appointed commander-in-chief in the West Indies, and ordered to proceed to his station with a small squadron of ships of the line and a number of transports. In going down Channel the Royal Sovereign was fouled by one of these transports, and sustained such damage that, after seeing the convoy well to sea, Cornwallis judged it right to return. The admiralty disapproved of his doing so, and sent him an order to hoist his flag in the Astræa frigate and proceed to Barbadoes with all possible despatch. This order, conveyed—not, as has been said, in a private note from Lord Spencer, but—in a formal letter signed by the board, was