1808	Terpsichore and Sémillante	69

dégréer n'eût mis la frégate de sa majesté dans l'impossibilité de manoeuvrer au moment décisif, et si le capitaine, blessé à la tête et à l'épaule, n'eût été mis hors de combat." *

Little do French officers imagine what a permanent injury they do to their reputations by this habit of boasting, or rather, for such it is, of telling downright falsehoods ; and all merely to gain a little temporary applause from the credulous and uninquisitive part of the community. For his activity as a cruiser, and his ability as a navigator of the Indian seas, Captain Motard claims from us the need of praise. Had he given any thing like a fair account of the different meetings of the Sémillante with British ships of war, we could have excused him for running away from them all ; because we know that, what, in one navy, is looked upon as disgraceful and brings down the severest punishment, is, in the other navy, not merely overlooked, but almost enjoined. The captain of a French frigate, that runs from a dozen English frigates in succession, and executes his mission, or returns home from his cruise, receives five times as much applause as the captain, who gallantly engages, and after a hard struggle is compelled to yield to a decidedly superior force.

For a contrast to the conduct of Captain Motard, we need look no further than to the behaviour of Captain Montagu in the case we have just done relating. With a frigate, carrying 28 guns and 180 men, he was cruising in the hope to fall in with a frigate mounting 48 guns, of a much heavier caliber than his own, and carrying a crew of at least 340 men ; and although, fortunately for him, he did not encounter the Canonnière, Captain Montagu met, fought, and fairly beat, a French frigate mounting 40 guns, with a crew of at least 300 men. Could the Terpsichore, at any one time during the five days' chase that succeeded the battle, have got fairly alongside the Sémillante, the officers and crew of the former would, we have no doubt, have had their wishes realized. As it was, the Terpsichore returned to Pointe de Galle to refit, and the Sémillante, early in the month of April, reanchored in Port-Louis for the same purpose. The Sémillante, however, was found to be too much cut up in her hull to serve again as a cruiser ; especially as, to escape from the Terpsichore, she had thrown overboard a great part of her armament. Captain Motard, therefore, as soon as his frigate was repaired, loaded her with a cargo of colonial produce, valued at seven million of francs, and set sail for Europe. The same good fortune, which had attended the Sémillante, ever since she escaped from the British frigate Venus in May, 1793,† still accompanied her ; and, in the month of February, 1809, this richly-laden French frigate succeeded in entering a port of France.

* Dict, historique, tome iv., p. 7. † See vol. i., p. 94.

^ back to top ^