INTRODUCTION. xlvii 



expedition was detained on the island until the 3rd 

 of July 1810, when another attack was made in 

 force on Bourbon, which was now taken and pro- 

 perly occupied, whilst a closer blockade of Mauritius 

 was effected. 



In November, Vice-Admiral Bertie having arrived 

 at Rodriguez, a division of troops from Madras 

 joined the convoy from Bengal, when the united 

 expedition sailed from Rodriguez, under General 

 Abercrombie, whose troops, being landed at Cape 

 Malheureux, accomplished the easy conquest of the 

 He de France by the 3rd of December, on which 

 date the capitulation was signed. 



Subsequent to the capture of the Mascarene 

 Islands by the British, Rodriguez long remained 

 little heard of and unnoticed by the outside world. 

 The open-boat voyage of Francois Leguat, which by 

 many had been regarded as an improbable feat of 

 navigation, in spite of the sneer of the Abbe Pingre, 

 has, notwithstanding, been repeated more than once. 

 M. Th. Sauzier records the fact that, about 1825, 

 Captain Doret, who later became a Rear-Admiral 

 and Governor of Reunion, and later a member of 

 the French Senate, left Rodriguez in an open boat, 

 accompanied by a few sailors, and reached Mauritius, 

 where he succeeded in obtaining assistance and rescue 

 for the remainder of the crew of his ship which had 

 been wrecked on the reefs outside the island. 



The interest in Rodriguez after the commence- 

 ment of the present century was felt only by 

 scientific naturalists, who now began to appreciate 



