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98 of fear would have lost him. But Surcouf was quite equal to the occasion. He steadily pursued his course, unquestioned and unmolested, his true character unsuspected, and he soon sailed out of sight. A few days later he captured a Portuguese vessel, the Oriente, and a fine ship under Arab colours, but whose papers attested her to be English property. Both these vessels were likewise despatched to the islands. His crew being reduced to seventy men, and he having received intelligence that a new English frigate had arrived with the express mission to capture him, Surcouf resolved to follow his prizes thither. Chased, though ineffectually, by an English man-of-war, he arrived at Port St. Louis on the 31st January 1808, and found that all his prizes had safely preceded him.

Surcouf shortly afterward set out for France in a vessel called the Charles with a cargo valued at five millions of francs. His vessel, the Revenant, after a short cruise under her first lieutenant, Potier, had been