Comet, immediately on the accident happening, made sail from the Pearl.[1] I suppose she was afraid there might be too many French for her to manage. On the 15th we arrived here" (Muscat) "for water, &c., and the French officer was so good as to give me my liberty."
The Pearl subsequently reached the Isle of France in safety, but the career of Mallerouse was over.
In addition to the preceding I may mention Pinaud of Nantes. One incident in the career of this brave adventurer deserves to be recorded.
In my notice of Surcouf I have mentioned the feats he was able to accomplish in the Clarisse, a brig carrying 14 guns. When Surcouf left the Clarisse for the Confiance, the command of the former was entrusted to Pinaud. Pinaud took her in 1800 to the Indian seas, made many captures, but was forced himself to succumb to an English man-of-war. Taken to Madras, he was thrown into prison, and finally placed, with about 600 other prisoners, on board the Prince, Indiaman, to be taken to England under the convoy of a squadron of six ships of war returning thither. The convoy sailed the
- ↑ James says that the Pearl escaped from the Comet. It would appear from the impartial statement of the Englishman in the text, the Comet fled from the Pearl. But let the facts speak. The Pearl remaining on the scene of action picked up by successive trips of her boats about thirty Frenchmen and two Englishmen. The captain of the Comet, in his official report, dated 18th February 1800, admits that he only picked four sepoys and a lascar, and those immediately after the accident! It is clear from this that it was not the Pearl which sailed first from the scene of the encounter.
