1811	Action off Madagascar	15

François Lemaresquier, sailed from Brest, each having on board 200 troops and a supply of munitions of war, bound, in the first instance, to the Isle of France ; the capture of which in the preceding December, was of course unknown, although as a contingency provided against, by the port of Batavia's being named for the succedaneous destination. Bad weather nearly separated the frigates the first night ; and a continuance of contrary winds occasioned the squadron to be 18 days going the first 200 leagues of the voyage. On the 24th of February, by some Lisbon newspapers found on board a Portuguese ship, the French commodore gained intelligence, that an attack was intended, and had perhaps already been made, upon the island to which he was first destined. The favourable change in the wind was taken immediate advantage of, and all sail crowded upon the three ships. On the 13th of March the frigates crossed the line ; on the 18th of April, in latitude 38�, doubled the Cape of Good Hope ; and on the 6th of May, at 11 p.m., being the ninety-third day since their departure from Brest, arrived within five miles of Isle de la Passe, situated, as already known, at the entrance of Grand-Port, or Port-Sud-Est. Soon after midnight a boat from each frigate was despatched to the shore, to gain intelligence.

The night was calm, and yet not a musket could be heard. This encouraged the hope, that the island was still in French possession. Daylight on the 7th arrived, and the colours hoisted at the fort upon Isle de la Passe were French ; but they were unaccompanied by the private signals. This gave the first serious alarm to commodore Roquebert and his companions. At sunrise five sail successively hove in sight to leeward ; and about the same time was observed, at Isle de la Passe and along the coast, the signal of three French frigates being to windward a signal fully understood by the latter, as being made according to the code in use at the island previously to its surrender.

Two of the five sail thus seen were unarmed vessels, probably coasters; but the remaining three were the British 18-pounder 36-gun frigates Phoebe and Galatea, Captains James Hillyar and Woodley Losack, and 18-gun brig-sloop Racehorse, Captain James de Rippe, part of a squadron which had been ordered by Rear-admiral the honourable Robert Stopford, the commander-in-chief on the Cape station, to cruise off the Isle of France, to endeavour to intercept these very frigates, and two others, in all probability, the new 40-gun frigates Nymphe and Méduse, from Nantes, of whose expected arrival intelligence had been received. The British ships were presently under all sail upon a wind in chase ; the Galatea's gig, with the intelligence, having previously been despatched to Captain Charles Marsh Schomberg, of the 18-pounder 36-gun frigate Astrea, lying in Port-Louis.

In the course of the forenoon the Renommée's boat returned on board, with information of what had befallen the colony ; the details of which were communicated by two negroes whom the

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