1809.] REVOLT OF EUROPEAN OFFICERS. of his arrival was so obnoxious, that he applied for their removal, a measure openly resented by the rest. Three companies being ordered to do marine duty on board of our war ships in the Bay of Bengal, they refused to embark, the officers having persuaded their men that this was but a preliminary step to breaking up the regiment and turning it into the navy. Colonel Innes was seized, placed under arrest, and Major Storey assumed the command, on the plea that he did so to prevent worse consequences; and a managing committee of the officers, to communicate further with the disaffected elsewhere, was formed. Sir John Malcolm was dispatched to Masulipatam; after various attempts to restore subordination, he returned to report that "the only means of allaying the most dreadful calamities were to modify the orders of May 1st, restore all the officers who had been suspended, and inform the army that its claim to the Bengal allowance would be laid before the Court of Directors." This advice, if acted on, would have destroyed the civil power in India. Matters fast grew darker, and it was evident that the officers were bent on armed rebellion. A battalion at Hyderabad, when under orders for Goa, refused to march, on the plea, as they plainly told Colonel Montressor, that their services might soon be wanted elsewhere. At this painful juncture the king's troops remained faithful and firm. In order to ascertain who among the Company's officers could be depended on, it was resolved to apply a test, in the form of a document, copies of which were sent to the commanders of stations, with instructions to require the signatures of all to it. Those who refused to sign were to be removed from their regiments to stations on the coast, there to remain till better times might allow of their being employed again; while the sepoys were to be instructed that the dispute was purely a personal and not a general affair. The royal troops were stationed so as to be a check upon those of the Company; but the test was not very successful, and was openly declined by many of whose loyalty there could be no doubt. Out of 1,300 officers, then on the strength of the Madras army, it was signed by only 150. The officers commanding in Travancore, Malabar, and Canara, hesitated at first, from dread of the consequences, to offer it; and when Colonel Davis attempted to do so at Seringapatam, the European officers revolted at once. After driving the king's troops out of the fort, they seized the treasury, drew up the bridges, loaded the guns, 435 formed a committee of safety, sent out a detachment, which captured the sum of 30,000 pagodas on its way to the paymaster, and summoned to their assistance two battalions from Chitteldroog. There was nothing for it but fighting now. A squadron of H.M. 25th Dragoons, a native regiment of cavalry, and another of infantry, under Colonel Gibbs, set out from Bangalore for Seringapatam, to which place the two Chitteldroog battalions, under the command of Captain Macintosh, were on the march, which they continued till they came in sight of the citadel, when, on beholding Gibbs' cavalry, they were seized with a panic, and breaking, dispersed. The revolters in the citadel having made a demonstration in their favour, they all got in, save 200 or more, who were sabred on the spot. During the night Gibbs' camp was cannonaded; and a sortie was made upon him, but repulsed; after which, Colonel Davis, though labouring under severe indisposition, took command of the loyal troops, and, aided by our Resident at the court of the Rajah, the Hon. Arthur Cole (son of Lord Enniskillen), acted fearlessly. This act of hostility at Seringapatam was almost the last on which the disaffected officers ventured, and doubting their chances of success, they made their submission; for the government, to crush the rebellion, had determined to form an army of 12,000 men, of whom more than one-third should be European, and place it under Colonel Barry Close. That officer arrived at Hyderabad on the 3rd August (before these troops were mustered), where an obstinate resistance was expected. With some difficulty he made his way into the cantonments, but becoming apprehensive of being made a prisoner, he withdrew to the residency. As soon as he did so, the committee of officers sent for the divisions at Jaulna and for those in the Northern Circars. "The troops at the former place, at once obeying the summons, made two marches in advance, and those in the Circars were preparing to take the field, when the views of the officers at Hyderabad underwent a change, which they themselves, in a penitential letter to the Governor-General, attributed to a kind of sudden conversion, though there is much reason to suspect that they were influenced as much by fear as by genuine repentance. . . . They signed the test, and began to preach submission, by sending to the different stations of the army a circular, in which they entreated their brother-officers to lose no time in following their example." When Lord Minto reached Madras, on the 11th September, 1809, he found the rebellion subdued, and he had only to take measures for punishing those who had taken a prominent part in it. Lieutenant-Colonels Bell and Doveton, and Major Storey, were ordered for trial, with eighteen other officers, whose names were struck out of the amnesty. Colonel Bell was cashiered, and declared incapable of serving in any military capacity whatever. The same sentence was passed on Major Storey, and though he was recommended to mercy, it was confirmed. Colonel Doveton, in defence, maintained that he had only marched with the mutinous troops for the purpose of preventing greater evils, and was, therefore, honourably acquitted. Major Boles was restored to the service, but, without special permission, was never more to set foot in India. With reference to these startling affairs at Madras, papers were called for in the House of Commons; but no motion was founded on them. The conduct of Sir George Barlow in the Court of Directors, was generally approved of, with two important exceptions the one was the unjust suspension of Major Boles for circulating the order of his superior officer, General Macdowall; and the other, the unwise suspension of a number of officers, in an arbitrary manner, upon secret information, to which he should never have listened. In appointing a new commander-in-chief, his exclusion from the council-the express grievance of the deceased Macdowall-was so strongly recognised, that one of the civil members was removed to make way for him. A motion for the recall of Sir George Barlow— though negatived in July, 1811-was renewed and carried at the end of the following year. The most clear, terse, and best of all comments on these remarkable disturbances will be found among the "Wellington Despatches," in a letter written to Sir John Malcolm by the Great Duke, dated from Badajoz, on the 3rd of December, 1809. Notwithstanding the local disturbances which have been related, the general peace of British India was not interrupted during the administration of Lord Minto, though many stirring and brilliant achievements took place in relation thereto. These were chiefly naval exploits, and expeditions for the reduction of the enemy's settlements. CHAPTER LXXXIII. CAPTURE OF COA, MACAO, ISLE OF FRANCE (MAURITIUS)—THE MOLUCCAS. WHEN Portugal was occupied by the invading armies of France, in accordance with instructions received from the Ministry, Lord Minto ordered possession to be taken of her settlements in the East, a measure somewhat unnecessary with regard to Goa, where an arrangement, reserving the civil administration to the Portuguese, and assigning the military authority to Britain, had been previously made. To effect a similar arrangement at Macao, an expedition sailed from Calcutta and Madras in the month of July, and arrived off that place on the 11th of September, 1809. The Governor of Macao saw it with astonishment, and as he was without instructions from Lisbon, refused to receive the sanction of the Viceroy of Goa for giving up the colony to Britain. Force was therefore employed, and our troops took possession, thus very nearly provoking a war with the Chinese, who thought they had some right to be consulted in this matter, which led to a complete stoppage of our trade with China. The month of May, in the following year, 1810, found the Isle of France blockaded by Captain Pym in the Sirius, with the Magicienne, Iphigenia, and the Nereide, under his orders. The last was a forty-four gun ship, commanded by Captain Willoughby, who landed at Point du Diable, attacked Port Jacotel, where he stormed two strong batteries, followed by Lieutenant Deacon and a hundred blue-jackets from the Nereide, who burned the signal-post, spiked the guns, destroyed the carriages, and carried off the field-pieces and military stores. He distributed among the inhabitants certain proclamations, issued by Governor Farquhar, of the Isle of Rodriguez, which sought to undermine their loyalty to the Emperor of France, after which he embarked, having suffered small loss; but had he been taken with the proclamations on his person, he ran the risk of a death of ignominy. It was now determined to make a conquest of the Isle of France, and the expedition, to which each of the three presidencies contributed, anchored 1810.] THE DUTCH SETTLEMENTS ATTACKED. on the 29th of November, 1810, in Grand Baye, near the north-east extremity of the isle, and about fifteen miles from its capital, Port Louis. The troops were commanded by Major-General Abercrombie, and the fleet by Admiral Bertie, whose squadron consisted of eighteen sail, armed with 604 guns; making up, with transports and other vessels, seventy sail in all. The troops, marines, seamen, and gunners, to the number of 11,000 men, were landed on the same day without loss or delay, and the advance at once began into the interior of that beautiful isle, with the description of which the delightful romance of Bernardin St. Pierre has made most readers so familiar. The French governor was able only to muster about 2,000 Europeans, and some bands of undisciplined and half-armed creoles and slaves. The troops immediately commenced active operations, while the squadron watched their movements, and landed all supplies when necessary. General de Caen ventured to make a stand in an advantageous position from the capital, and was not driven from it till he had inflicted some loss. Preparations were then made to assault the town by land, while Admiral| Bertie should bombard it by sea; but the governor offered to capitulate, and, owing to the advanced state of the season, obtained favourable terms. The strength of the isle had been greatly overrated, and the conquest of it was made by a force so overpowering, that, if the honour was small the profit was great. It became a British colony, and as such has ever since remained. With the island, there fell into our hands an immense quantity of stores and valuable merchandise, six large frigates, and thirty-one sail of other vessels, with 200 pieces of ordnance in battery. The peculiarly favourable position of the Isle of France placed it, beyond all question, as a valuable acquisition to Britain. If properly defended, it is almost impregnable, save to such a combined force by land and sea as no power could bring against it in secret. It possesses the only harbour refuge within a vast extent of ocean, embracing the whole range of the African continent, Ceylon, and India, sweeping round by Borneo, the Eastern Archipelago and New Holland, and finishing the compass with the illimitable Southern Sea, situated in a direct line homeward from India and China, and with but a slight deviation from the colonies in New Holland. Thus its position must ever be deemed extremely valuable for the facilities which its harbourage offers for the repair of damages to shipping. | It was confirmed to Britain by the Treaty of Paris in 1814.* * Grant's "Mauritius, "Pridham's "Colonial Empire," &c. 437 The settlements of the Dutch, who, by compulsion rather than desire, had become the allies of Napoleon in Europe, were the next objects of attack by Lord Minto. Our naval commander-in-chief in the East Indies having been directed to put the island of Java and all the enemy's ports in the Moluccas under strict blockade, ordered Captain Edward Tucker, in the Dover (forty-four guns), to proceed to Amboyna, where he was joined by the Cornwallis (seventyfour) and the Dutch sloop-of-war, Mandarine, which she had taken in battle. With these ships, and a body of the Madras Europeans, he succeeded in taking the island by surprise. Having all his boats launched with the troops in them, he kept them at the sides of the ships most remote from the enemy, and getting under weigh, pretended to stand out to sea; but by skilfully keeping the sails lifting, he managed that the ships should drift into the very place where he intended to make the landing. On passing this, within two cables' length, he suddenly cast off the boats, which were crowded with soldiers, seamen, and marines, under Captains Court and Philips, who pulled steadily inshore, while the ships opened upon the batteries a cannonade, which lasted for two hours and a half. Meanwhile, the small-arm men advancing, stormed the heights commanding Portuguese Bay, into which the squadron immediately proceeded and came to anchor. Next morning the guns of the batteries captured on the heights were turned upon the town, when the governor, intimidated by the bombardment on the one hand, and the vigour of the attack on the other, capitulated, with 1,300 Dutch and Malay soldiers. Thus, on the 17th of February, 1810, was Amboyna again under the British flag, and the massacre perpetrated there, as related in the earlier annals of the Company, in some measure was avenged. The Dutch soldiers were sent to Java―a very strange policy, as we were about to attack it--but the Governor of Amboyna was brought before a court-martial, and paid the penalty of his treason, or timidity, with his life. The Malays were enlisted into the Company's service. Amboyna was the residence of the Dutch governor of the Moluccas; and with the island, were taken or destroyed, seven vessels of war and forty-three sail of other kinds; while the boats of the Dover, up to the 22nd of January, captured no less than twenty Dutch gunboats, with from eight guns and sixty men on board to one gun and five men. The Bandas, Ternate and other isles of the group were speedily taken, till the only settlement that remained to the Dutch in the Eastern Archipelago was Java. land till the 28th, when 170 men were sent ashore in the night to surprise the forts which guarded a bay; but they were re-embarked, as the difficulties of the approach frustrated the scheme. "Early in the morning they were again put on shore, and while a frigate engrossed the attention of the enemy, they proceeded unobserved to an eminence supposed to command the fort of Kayomaira, the principal Dutch post. They arrived on the hill at noon, but, to their great vexation, they found the fort was screened from their view by an intervening forest. They then endeavoured to proceed by an inland route, but after incessant exertion throughout the day, it was found impossible to disencumber the path of the immense trees that had been surrendered. Few casualties impaired the exultation of the victors." * Captain W. A. Montague, in the Cornwallis, attacked, with success, the fort of Boolo Combo, in the fine isle of Celebes, the mountain ridges of which, when viewed from the sea, present, in many quarters, so bold an outline, as they tower above the rich grassy plains below. He spiked the guns, drove out the troops with pike and bayonet; after which three of his boats, under Lieutenant Vidal, boarded and cut out a brig from under the guns of the Dutch fort of Manippa, and she was found to be laden with turtle, fruit, and sago, all of which were greatly needed by his ship's company. On Mill. 1810.] THE CASTLE OF BELGICA TAKEN. the 2nd of March, 1810, Lieutenant Peachy (afterwards Viscount Selsey), of the same ship, captured with her boats a Dutch fourteen-gun brig, with the loss of only four men wounded, while that of the enemy was one officer killed and twenty men wounded. In June, Captain Tucker approached the Dutch fort of Goronoletto, in the bay of Tommine, on the north side of Celebes, where coffee is extensively cultivated. The colours of Holland were flying on the ramparts, but no Dutch officer was present; and he found that the whole settlement was held by the native sultan, and his two sons, who bore commissions under the Dutch, with whom the former consented to dissolve all connec 439 without dishonour," as the place was strongly fortified, defended by 700 men in commanding batteries, well armed with artillery. Night was chosen for the attack, and at a time when the howling of the wind and the hiss of the falling rain united to conceal the sounds of an approach. The landing was effected within a hundred yards of a ten-gun battery, which was stormed in reverse by Captain Keenah and Lieutenant Carew, without once snapping a flint. The garrison being made prisoners and secured, the party, with the assistance of a guide, pushed on to capture the castle of Belgica, where, through the gloom, and on the gusty wind, a bugle was heard rousing the troops to arms. tion, and quietly acknowledge the supremacy of the King of Great Britain; the whole trade of the island, which is estimated at 75,000 square miles in extent, was thrown open to British shipping. Menado (with Fort Amsterdam), the most northern settlement on the isle, where opium, Bengal stuffs, and steel were exchanged for gold, was given up in the same manner; and Captain (afterwards Sir Christopher) Cole, in the Caroline (thirtysix), with all the disposable men of the Madras European Infantry, was dispatched to assist Captain Tucker, whose operations in the Moluccas had now become so extensive as to require support. The Piedmontaise, frigate, Captain Foote, and the Barracouta, eighteen-gun brig, Captain Keenah, were under his orders; and with less than 250 men, he landed and reduced Bandaneira, the chief of the Spice Islands, "a conquest achieved under difficulties from which many might have retreated TYPE OF MALAY. The scaling-ladders were reared against the walls, and the outer pentagon was won. Then the Dutch, hurrying to the walls, opened fire; but unchecked and undaunted, our small-arm men captured the outworks in such rapid succession, that the enemy had not time given them to fire a single cannon. The darkness, the storm, and the suddenness of the assault, multiplied the force and number of the attacking foe; and the garrison of the castle fled through the gateway in terror and precipitation, leaving the commandant and ten dead men behind them, with two officers and thirty men prisoners. When day dawned, the Union Jack was floating over Belgica, and other sea-defences were visible far down below, at the feet of the stormers. The Dutch tricolour fluttered out on Fort Nassau, and its guns opened on our shipping. Then, leaving a guard in Belgica, Captain Cole descended with his |