1809	British Indiamen and French Frigates	203

country to Port-Louis; where they arrived on the 1st of January, and on the next day the Manche arrived, in company with the United-Kingdom and Charlton. The Windham, however, was not so fortunate. On the 29th of December, when close off the Isle of France, she was recaptured by the British 12-pounder 36-gun frigate Magicienne, Captain Lucius Curtis. The Windham was then sent to the Cape of Good Hope; where, shortly afterwards, Captain Stewart and his officers arrived in a cartel, and were allowed to rejoin their recovered ship.

On the 2d of November, in the afternoon, off the Sand-heads in the Bay of Bengal, the British 18-gun ship-sloop Victor, still commanded by Captain Edward Stopford,* fell in with and was chased by the French frigate Bellone. At about 10 p.m., after having had all her running rigging cut to pieces, her mainmast wounded in two, and her mizenmast in three places, and her fore topsail shot away, the Victor had no alternative but to haul down her colours. As the night was very dark, and the Victor lay very low in the water, her hull was comparatively uninjured, and her loss in consequence amounted to only two men wounded. Nor is it likely that her two 6-pounder chase-guns could have done any material injury to the Bellone.

Some newspapers stated, that Captain Stopford "determined to board the Bellone ; " and a contemporary historian has gone still further, by declaring that the captain " attempted to board his enemy but failed �. That no such attempt was made we are sure ; and, considering the immense disparity in size and force between the two vessels, one of which was nearly four times as large as the other, and had on board treble the number of men, we cannot believe that Captain Stopford had the least idea of undertaking so rash an enterprise.

On the 22d, being still off the Sand-heads, the Bellone, with the Victor and another prize or two in company, fell in with the Portuguese frigate Minerva, Captain Pinto, of 52 guns, including 30 long 18-pounders on the main deck. At 4 p.m. an action commenced between these frigates; and the French crew behaved so badly, notwithstanding they must have had the Victor to assist them, that, if the Portuguese crew had not been the most cowardly that ever manned a frigate, the Bellone would have been the prize of the Minerva. Instead of which, the Minerva became the prize of the Bellone, and was obtained at so trifling an expense as four or five wounded men and about twice as many cut ropes. As the striking of the colours remained with the officers, they, to their credit, did not surrender the ship until the fire of the Bellone had killed and wounded several persons on board of her. On the 2d of January Captain Duperré, with his two men-of-war prizes in company, anchored in Port-Louis.

* See p. 193
� Brenton, vol. iv. p. 400,

^ back to top ^