1809	Light Squadrons and Single Ships	192

The capture of Guadaloupe, to be noticed hereafter, released Lieutenant Deecker and the other surviving officers and crew of the late Junon, that had been landed from the Loire and Seine ; and on the 19th and 20th days of February, a court-martial was held upon them for the loss of their ship. In addition to a sentence of the most honourable acquittal, the court strongly recommended the Junon's late commanding officer for promotion. The recommendation, we are happy to say, was attended to ; and on the 17th of the ensuing April, Lieutenant Deecker was rewarded with the commission of a commander. The late second and third lieutenants of the Junon, George Vernon Jackson and Henry Conn, had been taken on board the Renommée of which ship and her consort we will now give some account.

After parting from the Loire and Seine on the evening of the 15th of December, off the north point of Guadaloupe, the Renommée and Clorinde lent their course back to Europe. On the 16th of January, in latitude 48° 50' north, longitude (from Greenwich) 12° 9' west, M. Roquebert was fallen in with by, as it appears to us, the British 38-gun frigate Virginie, Captain Edward Brace ; who watched the Renommée and Clorinde during the day and until night concealed them from view : nor did the two French frigates evince any intention of molesting her. Thus avoiding by flight, even from an inferior force, all chance of being carried to a wrong destination, Commodore Roquebert, on the 23d, anchored in the road of Brest.

We formerly mentioned that, on the 12th of November, 1808, the French 40-gun frigate Venus, Commodore Jacques-Felix-Emmanuel Hamelin, sailed from Cherbourg for the East Indies. Some time previously, but exactly when we are uncertain, the 40-gun frigate Manche, Captain François-Désiré Breton, escaped from the same port, bound to the same distant station. Upon a similar destination sailed from the port of Nantes, the 40-gun frigate Bellone, Captain Victor-Guy Duperré ; also from Flushing the 40-gun frigate Caroline ; of whose captain's name we are uncertain, but we believe he died before, or very so, after, the frigate arrived at the Isle of France.

All four French frigates were at sea for the first time ; and, by an extraordinary piece of good fortune, all reached their destination in safety. So intent, indeed, were the respective captains upon their voyage to a station which had already enriched three or four of their number, that, on their passage out, these frigates, we are certain, did not capture, and, we believe, did not chase or molest, a single British cruiser. In fact, when news reached England, that so many French frigates were still in the Indian seas committing depredations upon eastern commerce, no one appeared to know how or when they got there. We will now endeavour to give an account of their more important proceedings, after they reached their appointed cruising ground.

On the 2d of May a small fleet of homeward-bound Indiamen

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