Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/175

Rh calling upon the colonists to aid the army and navy in the defence of the island, promising them victory, should they respond to his call. He could do no more in that way. Then, massing his troops, he took up a position near Port Louis, whence he would be able to move at once upon any threatened point.

Meanwhile the transports carrying the expeditionary force arrived, on the morning of the 29th November, before a narrow passage dividing from the mainland a small island called Gunner's Quoin. It had previously been ascertained by careful survey that this passage offered openings through the reefs by which several boats could enter abreast. Here, then, at ten o'clock in the morning, the fleet came to anchor. The debarkation on the mainland commenced at one p.m., and was conducted to a successful result, without the loss of a single man, in three hours — the small French party which had held Fort Malartic, situated at the head of the bay, retiring on the appearance of the British fleet.

The English army had, previously to its debarkation,