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356 CHAPTER XX.

Conquest of the Island of Bourbon – Naval Disasters – Memorable Defence of the Nereide Frigate – Retort Courteous of General Abercrombie – Expedition against the Mauritius – Successful Landing of the Troops – Their Advance on Port Louis – Defeat of the French Troops – Unhappy Mistake – Surrender of the Island – Conquest of Amboyna and the Spice Islands – Expedition against Java – Surrender of Batavia – Narrow Escapes from Treachery – Defeat of the Enemy at Weltevreden – Storming of the Redoubts and Fort Corselis – Total Rout of the Enemy – Surrender of General Jansens – Frightful Transactions at Palimbang – Capture of that Place – Defeat of the Sultan of Djoejocarta – Final Reduction of Java.

But it was a momentary eclipse which the fame of the Anglo-Indian Army suffered from these unhappy transactions: the sun of their glory soon after shone forth with even more than meridian splendour.

Our commerce in the Indian seas having suffered immense injuries from the French cruisers belonging to the Mauritius and the Isle of Bourbon, the British Cabinet at length resolved to put a check to their proceedings; and for this purpose a small naval force was despatched under Captain Rowley from the Cape of Good Hope in 1809. At the same time Colonel Keating, of H.M. 56th regiment, was sent with a small body of the Anglo-Indian Army to co-operate; and on the 20th of September they effected a landing seven miles from the town of St. Paul's, in the Isle of Bourbon; the force consisting of only three hundred and sixty-eight men and officers, with one hundred seamen and one hundred and thirty-six marines from the blockading squadron.

By seven o'clock in the morning the assailants, having made a forced march to St. Paul's, were in possession of the first two batteries, Lambousière and La Centière, and the guns were forthwith turned against the enemy's ship-