Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/125

Rh few days the Admiral Aplin, the Susanna, the Hunter, the Fortune (previously captured from the French), and the Success struck their flags to him. Such was the terror he inspired that the Governor-General in Council placed on all the vessels anchored in the Húghli an embargo to be binding as long as Surcouf might remain in the Bay of Bengal.

Hearing of this order Surcouf took an eastern course. On the 16th November he sighted three Indiamen conveying troops. These he avoided. But the next day he captured the New Endeavour, laden with salt; and two days later the Colonel Macauby. On the 12th December, returning from the Burmese waters, to which he had repaired without making a capture, he was chased, ineffectually, by a man-of-war and a corvette. Two days later he captured two brigs, from whose masters he learned that the embargo had been taken off the English vessels in the Húghli. On the 17th he captured the Sir William Burroughs of 700 tons, laden with teak, and bound from Rangoon to Calcutta. He sent her to the islands. Early on the morning of the third subsequent day he found himself within cannon-shot of an English man-of-war. The smallest indication