1810	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	268

did so ; and the French and colonial soldiers instantly gave way, flying with a speed which the British could not equal, and leaving not only their two field-pieces, but their commanding officer, Lieutenant Rockman, of the 18th regiment, who was made a prisoner while in the act of spiking the two field-pieces and who, observes Captain Willoughby in his despatch, " deserved to command better soldiers."

Hitherto twilight had hid from view the force of the British but full day now showed the Néréide small band of volunteers to the enemy ; whose strongest battery was still unsubdued, and to gain which it was necessary to pass the river le Galet, running at the foot of a high hill covered with wood, and defended by the commandant of the Savannah district, Colonel Etienne Colgard, with two long 12-pounders drawn from the battery on the right, and a strong body of militia. Owing to the recent heavy rains, the river had become so swollen and its stream so rapid, that the tallest man could scarcely wade across. The short, however, were helped over ; and the whole party, more than half of whom were upon the swim, and all exposed to a heavy fire, succeeded in reaching the opposite bank, but not without the loss of the greater part of the ammunition. No sooner was the river crossed, than three cheers warned the enemy to prepare for the bayonet. On the gallant fellows rushed : and the hill, the two guns, and the battery, with its colours, were carried " in style ; " and the commandant, Colonel Colgard, was taken prisoner. " Nor," says Captain Willoughby, with the candour of a brave man, " do I think an officer or man of the party, except myself, had an anxious thought for the result of this unequal affair. "

Having spiked the guns and a mortar, burnt and destroyed their carriages, also the works and magazine, and embarked the two field-pieces, with a quantity of naval and military stores, Captain Willoughby was upon the point of returning to the Néréide when the party which had been driven from the first battery appeared to have recovered from their panic, and, strongly reinforced by the militia and the bourgeois inhabitants of the island, were drawn up in battle array on the left. Knowing that this was the first hostile landing which had ever been effected upon the Isle of France ; knowing, also, that its principal defence consisted in its militia, Captain Willoughby resolved to run some risk in letting the latter know, what they were to expect if ever the island was attacked by a regular British force. He accordingly moved towards the assembled French militia and regulars ; and these, on advancing within musket-shot, opened their fire. As a proof of his good general-ship, Captain Willoughby resolved to get into the rear of his opponents in order to cut them off in the retreat, to which he knew, they would again resort. The captain and his party immediately turned into the interior, in an oblique direction to the

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