1807.] FLIGHT OF THE PORTUGUESE ROYAL FAMILY.

233

themselves to Brazil, pending the termination of the troubles with France. Dom João needed but little convincing that Great Britain was really his best friend, and that Napoleon aimed at the deposition of the house of Braganza; and he readily agreed to proceed with his family to America, leaving his European dominions to be governed by a regency until he should be able to return to them. The greater part of the Portuguese fleet happened to be ready for sea; and on November 29th, after only a few hours of preparation, the Regent, with Queen Maria II., the whole of the royal family, and a very large number of adherents, embarked in it, and left the Tagus, accompanied by a fleet of about twenty armed merchantmen. The fleet, being met outside by the British squadron, was given, and returned, a salute of twenty-one guns. On the following day the troops of General Junot entered Lisbon.

2

Sir Sidney escorted the Portuguese ships3 as far as lat. 37° 47′ N. and long. 14° 17′ W., and then, on December 6th,* detached Captain Graham Moore, with the Marlborough, London, Monarch, and Bedford to see them to Bahia and Rio de Janeiro, while he himself, with the rest of the squadron, returned to look for the Russian sail of the line which, under Vice-Admiral Seniavine, were attempting, as has been seen, to get round from the Mediterranean to the Baltic. They were nine in number, and they had with them one frigate. Deterred by the large force of British ships in and about the Bay of Biscay, they had put into the Tagus; and, when Sir Sidney found them there, he took the responsibility of retaining with him the Foudroyant, Conqueror, and Plantagenet, which he had been previously ordered to detach to Rear-Admiral John Child Purvis (1), off Cadiz. With these ships, and with the Hibernia and Elizabeth, he cruised off the Tagus, until he was joined by the Ganges, 74, Commodore Peter Halkett, Defence, 74, Captain Charles Ekins, Alfred, 74, Captain John Bligh (2), Ruby, 64, Captain John Draper (2), and Agamemnon, 64, Captain Jonas Rose,

1 Principe Reale, 84, Rainha de Portugal, 74, Conde Henrique, 74, Medusa, 74, Principe de Brazil, 74, Affonso de Albuquerque, 64, Dom João de Castro, 64, Martino de Freitas, 64, Minerva, 44, Golfinho, 36, Urania, 32, a frigate, name unknown, Voador, 22, Libre, 22, Vinganza, 20, and Curioza, 12. These constituted the whole of the serviceable Portuguese navy except the Vasco da Gama, 74, repairing.

2 Smith to Pole, Dec. 1st, 1807.

3 Except one ship of the line, which, being unseaworthy, bore up for England. Smith's dispatch of Dec. 6th, 1807.

5 Where the Prince Regent landed on Jan. 19th, 1808.

which had left Portsmouth on December 6th, three days after the news of Russia's hostile declaration of October 31st had been received in England. Thus reinforced, Sir Sidney maintained an effective blockade of Lisbon, and of Seniavine's squadron, until the end of 1807. At the same time a squadron under Sir Samuel Hood (2), with troops under Major-General W. C. Beresford, proceeded to Madeira, effected a landing without any opposition on December 24th, and, on December 26th, took over the island from the Portuguese authorities in accordance with the terms of capitulation.2

The appointment of Rear-Admiral Charles Stirling to supersede Sir Home Riggs Popham in the Rio de la Plata has been already noted. Stirling, with a small convoy, reached Maldonado on January 5th, 1807. He was presently followed by BrigadierGeneral Sir Samuel Auchmuty, who had been sent out to take over command of the troops from Brigadier-General Backhouse. The Rear-Admiral's view was that Maldonado was too exposed and resourceless to serve as a good base at which to prepare for the recovery of Buenos Aires. He therefore evacuated it on January 13th, leaving only a small garrison on Gorrete island, and took measures to make himself master of Montevideo, which, though strongly defended and held, seemed to be the best position on the river for his purpose. On the 16th, accordingly, a landing was effected about eight miles to the eastward of the city; on the 19th, the troops, with about eight hundred seamen and Royal Marines under Captain Ross Donnelly and Commander John Palmer, of the Pheasant, moved forward, and the ships and transports anchored off Chico Bay; on the 25th, the batteries were opened; on February 2nd, a breach was made; and before daybreak on February 3rd, the city was gallantly stormed and carried. During the whole of the operations the army lost 192 killed, 421 wounded, and 8 missing.3

The water in front of Montevideo is so shallow, and such high winds and heavy swells prevailed, that the ships of the squadron could do but little towards the reduction of the place beyond landing

1 Centaur, 74, Rear-Adm. Sir Samuel Hood (2), Capt. William Henry Webley; York, 74, Capt. Robert Barton; Captain, 74, Capt. Isaac Wolley; Intrepid, 64, Capt. Richard Worsley; and frigates Africaine, Alceste, Shannon, and Success. 2 Hood to Pole, Dec. 29th, 1807.

3 Gazette, 1807, 473.

1807.]

WHITELOCKE'S DISGRACEFUL SURRENDER.

235

men and guns, and cutting off communication with Colonia and Buenos Aires. The ships employed were:

The Navy lost on shore six killed, twenty-eight wounded, and four missing, among the wounded being Sub-Lieutenant George Stewart (2), and Midshipmen the Hon. Charles Leonard Irby, Henry Smith (1a), and John Morrison (2). The siege had almost exhausted the stock of powder in the squadron, and the fall of the city did not provide the victors with any large fresh supply. Nor were the Spanish vessels taken at Montevideo of much value. The expedition remained, in consequence, comparatively inactive until May, when Sir Samuel Auchmuty was superseded in the military command by Brigadier-General Crauford, who brought with him about five thousand troops from Europe, and who was himself superseded on June 15th by Lieutenant-General J. Whitelocke. At the same time, Rear-Admiral George Murray (3), in the Polyphemus, 64, Captain Peter Heywood, arrived from England to assume the chief naval command, Stirling remaining as second. The shoal water before Buenos Aires prevented the squadron from having more than a very small share in the disastrous and indeed disgraceful operations which were undertaken against that city. The army was landed on June 28th; the place was attacked on July 5th; the troops gained a Pyrrhic and terribly costly success; 2 and on the 6th, Whitelocke weakly agreed to the proposal of Liniers that all prisoners should be delivered up, conditional upon the attack being discontinued and the Rio de la Plata being evacuated by the British forces within two months.3 For this miserable surrender,

1 A 28-gun corvette (burnt), two or three unserviceable sloops, and 21 gunboats, besides a number of merchantmen.

2 Losing 2500 men.

Whitelocke to Windham, July 10th; Murray to Marsden, June 30th, July 8th, July 10th, 1807.

and for his general mismanagement and ill-conduct, Whitelocke was subsequently tried, cashiered, and declared "totally unfit and unworthy to serve his Majesty in any military capacity whatever." Happily no blame fell upon the Navy.

By far the most brilliant exploit of the year 1807 was witnessed in the West Indies. Vice-Admiral James Richard Dacres (1), who commanded on the Jamaica station, desired to ascertain the state of

(From H. R. Cook's lithograph, after the painting by J. Northcote, R.A., of Brisbane

as a Post-Captain.)

affairs in the Dutch island of Curaçoa, and to make practical test of whether it had been truly reported to him that the inhabitants were anxious for a British alliance. On November 29th, 1806, therefore, he dispatched from Port Royal the Arethusa, 38, Captain Charles Brisbane, Latona, 38, Captain James Athol Wood, and Anson, 44, Captain Charles Lydiard,' with directions to Brisbane to also take

1 The Morne Fortunée, 10, Lieut. John James Rorie, also took some part in the operations to be described. O'Byrne, 1003. Admiralty Order of Jan. 25th, 1849. But Brisbane's dispatch mentions neither the brig nor the officer.

1807.]

CAPTURE OF CURAÇOA.

237

under his orders, upon falling in with her, the Fishguard, 38, Captain William Bolton (1). The squadron, delayed by adverse winds and currents, did not reach the island of Aruba until December 22nd. There it anchored; and, on the 23rd, it was joined by the Fishguard. Realising that Curaçoa was strongly fortified, that his force was but a modest one, and that parley or procrastination would be all to his disadvantage, Brisbane, an officer of distinguished bravery, resolved to give the Dutch as little time as possible for preparation, and, sailing straight into the harbour, to negotiate only when the muzzles of his guns should be pointed directly upon the town and forts. He therefore weighed on the 24th, with the intention of striking the blow on New Year's Day, 1807. He had already clearly made known his plans to his Captains. At 1 A.M. on January 1st, he sighted the high land at the east end of the island, having decided to utilise the regular south-east trade wind for running for the harbour of St. Anne, which lies on the south-east side. The ships then hove to, hoisted out their boats, and took them in tow. The task which Brisbane had set himself was an heroic one.

"The entrance to the harbour, according to Mr. Mantor's chart," says James, "is only 50 fathoms wide, and is defended by regular fortifications, the principal of which, Fort Amsterdam, standing on the right of the entrance, mounts 60 pieces of cannon, in two tiers. Athwart the harbour, which nowhere exceeds a quarter of a mile in width, were the Dutch 36-gun frigate Kenau Hasselaar, Captain Cornelis G. Evertsz, and 22-gun ship corvette Suriname, Captain Jan van Nes, exclusive of two large armed schooners. There was a chain of forts on Misselburg heights; and that almost impregnable fortress, Fort Republiek, situated upon a high hill at the bottom of the harbour, and almost within grape-shot distance, enfiladed the whole.”1

At 5 A.M., after he had made every preparation for an immediate storming of the town, Brisbane, with an easterly wind, bore up for the mouth of the harbour, the Arethusa leading, and being followed in order by the Latona, Anson, and Fishguard. At daylight, under a flag of truce, the Arethusa entered the port; but the Dutch, ignoring the flag, opened fire on her. At that moment a shift of wind to the north checked the frigate's progress; but within a few minutes another shift enabled all the squadron, except the Fishguard, which grounded on the west side, to take up its assigned position and

1 James (Ed. 1837), iv. 352. I have corrected the spelling of proper names, etc., and should add that, so far as I can discover from the Dutch official reports, there were not two armed schooners, but only one, the Vliegende Visch, and she was not manned. Brisbane, however, mentions two armed schooners. Disp. to Dacres, of Jan. 1st; C. M. on Changuion; Ver Huell to Louis, July 31st; Rep. of de Quartel.