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 defence, but that he sought the above conflict with his usual ardour, and made use of a justifiable ruse de guerre to accomplish his wishes, we doubt not that it will be considered one of the most heroic, if not the most unequal, of all the frigate actions fought during the late war. We shall merely add, that he thereby saved the British frigates off Port Louis, from the consequences of an attack which the enemy would doubtless have made upon them with his united force, had M. Duperré proceeded thither instead of suffering himself to be decoyed into the harbour of Grand Port; and that by deterring the Windham from following her consorts, he rendered a most important service to his country, as the masts and stores of that ship enabled Captain Rowley to re-equip the Africaine frigate, at a most critical moment, and by doing so, to regain our naval superiority in the Indian ocean. The manner in which that ascendancy was for a short time lost by the British is thus described in an official letter from Captain Pym to Captain Rowley:

