Raid On Saint-Paul - Withdrawal

Withdrawal

On the night of 21 September, the landing party embarked on the British ships in the bay having destroyed all of the fortified positions that surrounded the harbour. During 22 September, French forces were seen gathering in the hills around the town, brought from outlying garrisons to join the main garrison from the capital Saint-Denis by the island's governor General Des Bruslys. Rowley and Keating anticipated that this force, which outnumbered their own, would recapture the town on 23 September and accordingly ordered Willoughby to land with his marines and sailors to burn French government property along the waterfront. The most obvious and significant target of Willoughby's force was a warehouse on the docks that was stocked with the captured silk from the East Indiamen captured by Caroline. Willoughby ordered this building to be burned, destroying over £500,000 worth of captured textiles, (the equivalent of £28,000,000 as of 2013). Other nearby warehouses were not destroyed as it was not possible to rapidly determine their ownership. Although the French force had reached the outskirts of the town, Willoughby was able to land and rembark his troops without a single shot being fired. On 22 September, Rowley received a petition from a body of slaves in the town who had escaped during the fighting and demanded arms with which to attack the French. They also offered to burn the town to the ground. Rowley, who sought to cultivate good relations with the populace with a view to capturing the island in the near future, refused their demands and had the slaves returned to their owners, where eight were executed for plotting rebellion. There was however a noted example of a slave displaying loyalty to his owner: The painter Jean-Joseph Patu de Rosemont had served in the militia forces with the journalist Nicole Robinet de La Serve and was captured when Keating's troops entered Saint-Paul. Taken aboard the British squadron, Rosemont's son Amédée applied to exchange himself for his father as a prisoner but was refused. Shortly before the squadron departed, Rosemont's personal slave Félix swam to the squadron to serve his owner in captivity. For his loyalty, Félix was manumitted when Rosemont was freed in 1810.

On 23 September, Rowley and Keating planned another landing under cover of the guns of the Nereide to drive off the French reinforcements. On landing, however, it was discovered that the French force had disappeared. Lacking support for a counterattack from the local landowners, who favoured a return to the monarchy, Des Bruslys was unwilling to order an assault which he deemed would have inevitably led to an unnecessary bloodbath. Instead, he ordered his forces to abandon Saint-Paul and retire to Saint-Denis during the night. Without support from his commanding officer, Captain St-Michel, commandant of Saint-Paul, agreed to surrender the town entirely, withdrawing his remaining forces under a flag of truce. The agreed truce lasted five days, during which the British force loaded their ships with French government provisions, equipment, military and naval stores and those cargoes from captured British ships that had not been burnt by Willoughby. The French made no effort to prevent this, Des Bruslys having committed suicide some days before, torn between his refusal to surrender the island to the British and his reluctance to order a bloody battle for what he regarded to be an "open island".

Rowley also seized the East Indiamen Streatham and Europe and restored their previous captains and crews, who had been released as part of the truce. A number of smaller merchant ships were captured and all were refitted for the journey to Britain, to be convoyed there by the newly captured Caroline. This 40-gun frigate, only three years old and very large and powerfully built, was given to Corbett in recognition of his services in the operation and renamed HMS Bourbonaise, reflecting the British name for Île Bonaparte, Île Bourbon. Willoughby was promoted to post captain and immediately took command of Corbett's former ship Nereide. Late on 28 September, Rowley led his force to sea from Saint-Paul having burnt or seized all government shipping, stores and buildings in the town and surrounding areas.