Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/130

102 the intelligence arrived that war had been declared between France and England. Instantly Lemême transformed the Hirondelle into a privateer. He armed her with twelve 4-pounder carronades, and manned her with eighty men. In addition to these, volunteers pressed forward to serve under him; of them, however, he could take only thirty.

Thus armed and manned, Lemême sailed from the islands in July, 1793, taking the direction of the Indian Ocean. On the 16th August he encountered and carried by boarding a Dutch corvette carrying eighteen 9-pounders, called The Good Werwagting. It is related that before Lemême had been able to lay the Hirondelle alongside her powerful opponent the fire from the latter had so damaged the French privateer, that one of her officers remarked to the captain that the enemy's fire would sink her. " That's just what I want," remarked Lemême, "we shall be obliged then to put our feet on the decks of that one." Immediately afterwards he brought the Hirondelle alongside and boarded.

Nine days later, in company with and aided by his prize, Lemême attacked, and, after a contest of forty minutes, captured the William Thesied, a large Dutch Indiaman, pierced for 60 but carrying only 40 guns. With these two prizes Lemême returned to the islands.

He did not stay there long. Transferred from the Hirondelle to the Ville de Bordeaux, carrying 32 guns, and having on board a crew of 200 men, Lemême started