Page:Final French Struggles in India and on the Indian Seas.djvu/185

Rh re-named in 1598 by the Dutch after their Maurice of Nassau, Mauritius; falling, after her abandonment by the Dutch between 1703 and 1710, into the possession of the French, the island had been subsequently known to the world by the name she bore when the English captured her. But the name did not suit the new conqueror. It was erased, and that bestowed in honour of the great Stadtholder was substituted. The Isle of France vanished from history with the last month of the year 1810!

With her conquest, too, ended the careers of the privateers on the Indian seas. They, too, vanished with the island which had nurtured them. Thenceforward the huge Indiamen of the Company could sail in comparative safety. In the course of a few years not only did the dread of the French cruisers vanish, but their exploits came to be listened to with a smile. Not the less, however, are the deeds which they did accomplish worthy of being recorded. They show that if, in a future war, privateering should again be legitimatized, it may be possible for a nation whose navy shall have been annihilated and whose ports shall be blockaded, to inflict, by means of it, on a nation which may even bear the title of the mistress of the seas, losses the full extent of which it would be almost impossible to estimate.