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HISTORY OP THE INDIAN ^XVY. 229

thirtj'-eight gun frigate, Captain Corbet, by the French frigates
' Astree and the kite prize ' Iphigenia.' In this desperate action
'
the 'Africaiue' lost her captain, mortally wounded, forty-nine
officers and men killed and one hundred and fourteen wounded.
Not long after the surrender, the British frigate ' Boadicea,'
Commodore Rowley, arrived on the scene of action, and recap-
tured the ' Africaine,' whose three masts had gone over the side,
and the two French ships declined to tight a second action, but
returned to Port Louis. On the 17th of September, the ' Ceylon,'
classed as a thirty-two gun frigate, but carrying forty guns and
two hundred and forty-five men, commanded by Captain Gordon,
and having on board General Abercromby and staff, was cap-
tured by the French ships ' Venus,' forty-four guns, and three
hundred and eighty men, and ' Victor,' sixteen, after a protracted
and gallant resistance. Once more Commodore Rowley was
enabled, on the afternoon of the same day, to prevent the
French from carrying off their prize, and also forced the Venus '
'
to strike her colours after a brief engagement, while her consort,
the ' Otter,' eighteen guns, took in tow the recaptured frigate
' Ceylon,' which was none other than the old ' Bombay,' of
thirty-eight guns, formerly belonging to the Bonibay Marine,
which has so frequently figured in our narrative.
The Indian Government had long seen the necessity of wrest-
ing the island of Mauritius from the French, who made it the
jwint d'appui for their depredations on British commerce in the
Eastern seas ;* here their ships of war and privateers found a
safe asylum, whence, after refitting, the}^ proceeded to sea
again and swept the waters of the Indian Ocean between the
Cape and Malacca. Hitherto they had preyed upon the Com-
pany's commerce, though, generally, not without having to fight
for their prizes, but now grown more bold, and well handled
by officers like Duperre, Hamelin, Bouvet, and others, they
encountered British frigates of equal force. Accordingly,
preparations were made at the Cape and at l^ombay, for the
reduction of the island and the retrieval of these disasters.
An army of 10,000 men was dispatched from India under the
command of General (afterwards Sir John) Abercromby, and
the following ships of the Company's Marine, which had shortly
before returned from an expedition against the .loasmi pirates
in the Persian Gulf, were directed to proceed from Bombay :
The ' Malabar,' twenty guns ; ' Benares,' fourteen ; and the ten-
gun brigs, 'Thetis,' 'Ariel,' and ' Vestal.'
By the 21st November, 1810, all the different divisions of
the expedition, except that expected from the Cape of Good
Hope, had assembled at the island of Rodriguez, and as. on
account of the lateness of the season, it was considered uii-
* In the year 1807aloue the loss to Calcutta shipping by capture was said to
have exceeded £yuO,UOO.