had returned from the Deccan, was despatched to the northward with a force designed to alarm the Dutch authorities at Chiusura, as well as to intercept the troops of the enemy, if they should proceed by land. Heavy cannon were mounted on the batteries; and three Company's ships, all that were in the river, were ordered to pass the Dutch vessels and take their station above the batteries, where fire-boats were placed, and other preparations were made to destroy the Dutch ships, if they attempted to effect a passage.
On the 21st of November, 1759, the Dutch ships came to anchor a little below the English batteries, and on the 23rd they landed on the opposite shore a large body of European and Malay troops. On the same day orders were sent to the commodore of the English squadron, Captain Wilson, to demand from the Dutch commodore restitution of all the English persons, vessels, and property seized and detained by him; and, in the event of refusal, he was to "fight, sink, burn, and destroy" the ships of those of whom it would now be absurd to speak otherwise than as "the enemy," The demand was made and refused, whereupon Captain Wilson proceeded to act upon the concluding part of his orders with that spirit in which the marine of England, whether royal or commercial, have rarely been deficient. Undismayed by the inequality of force, he attacked the enemy; and, after an engagement of two hours, the Dutch commodore struck his colours. Five of his ships followed his example; and six out of seven vessels which constituted the Dutch fleet became at once prizes to the English. One succeeded in getting away, but was intercepted below and captured by two other English ships which had just arrived. The number of prisoners taken by Captain Wilson is said to have been three times the number of the men under his command.
On the same day on which the naval supremacy of England was thus nobly asserted and sustained, Colonel Forde was attacked by the garrison of Chiusura, while
