Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/112

84 upon them at half-past three o'clock on the third day (22nd October.) The combat which followed was obstinate, bloody, and, as it appeared at the moment, indecisive. The French lost more men than the English; Renaud was wounded; his flag captain, Flouet, was killed; the same fate befell the first lieutenant of the Cybèle. Yet, in spite of these losses, the French succeeded in their main object. The two English ships renounced the blockade and disappeared.

At this time Robert Surcouf was engaged in cruising between the Isle of France and the coast of Africa. Born at St. Malo on the 12th December 1773, descended by his mother from the illustrious Duguay-Trouin, he had been sent to sea at the age of thirteen. In 1790 he made a voyage to India in the Aurora, On the breaking out of the war with England he was transferred to the French navy and returned to France. Arriving, he left the navy and set out as captain of a slaver, le Créole, for Africa. Having landed on the islands the negroes he had obtained, he quitted for ever that service, and accepted, in September 1765, the command of a privateer of 180 tons burden, carrying four six-pounders, and a crew of thirty men. The name of the vessel was la Modeste, but Surcouf changed it to l'Emilie.

For some reason the Governor of the islands, M. de Malartic, declined on this occasion to give Surcouf a letter of marque. He granted him permission only to defend himself in the event of his being attacked. Surcouf's ostensible mission was to proceed to the