Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/183

Rh the Emperor had declared that Cherbourg should become, — "an eye to see and an arm to strike." Protected for long, partly by the storms of the ocean, partly by the daring spirit of her children, partly by the timid counsels of the British Government, she had been, for the privateers who preyed upon the commercial marine of the East India Company, at once a harbour of refuge and a secure base of operation. She had been the terror of British merchants, the spectre which haunted the counting house, the one black spot in the clear blue of the Indian Ocean. The relief which was felt by the merchants of Calcutta was expressed in an address presented by them to Lord Minto, in which they offered their "sincere congratulations on the capture of the only remaining French colony in the East, which has for so many years past been the source of devastation to the commerce of India, to a magnitude almost exceeding belief."

The ease with which the Isle of France was captured in 1810 suggests the question why she was so long allowed to pursue her aggressive career? An investigation of the cause of this apathy on the part of the British, when so many interests were at stake, can only