Madras to Trincomalee. Here a fleet of Indiamen under his convoy was
joined by other ships, and went on to Europe in charge of the _Woolwich_
and _Duncan_; while the Admiral, with the _Culloden_, _Powerful_,
_Russell_, and _Belliqueux_ line-of-battle ships, and _Terpsichore_
frigate, proceeded to the Straits of Sunda, where the _Albion_ and
others were to join him. Lieutenant Owen, commanding the _Seaflower_
brig, was instructed to disguise her as one of the expected French
squadron, and to hasten on before. On the 23rd of November, they were
joined by the frigate _Sir Francis Drake_, Captain Pownoll Pellew; and
on the same day they learnt that Willaumez had gone to America. On the
26th they arrived in the Straits of Sunda, where they found the
_Seaflower_, which had already communicated with the Dutch authorities
at Bantam as one of the expected French force, and information was sent
accordingly to the Governor at Batavia. So completely were the enemy
deceived by this step, that the squadron sailed along the coast of
Java, and anchored on the 27th in Batavia Road, before its character was
suspected.

As soon as it was known to be British, the _Phoenix_, 40-gun frigate;
the _Aventure_ and _Zee-ploeg_, national corvettes; the _Patriot_, and
another ship of 20 guns, and three brigs of 14, Company's cruisers; with
more than twenty merchant vessels, ran themselves on shore under the
extensive batteries of Batavia. Another corvette, the _William_, struck
to the _Terpsichore_ as she was entering the road; but the
line-of-battle ships had sailed a few days before to Griessee, a
fortified harbour on the Sourabaya river, at the eastern extremity of
the island. The boats of the whole squadron, with five hundred picked
men, commanded by the Admiral's second son, Captain Fleetwood Pellew, of
the _Terpsichore_, and covered by the fire from the frigates, were sent
without delay to destroy the enemy's ships. The decision of Captain
Pellew, which scarcely allowed them time to man their guns, made their
fire almost harmless. He boarded the _Phoenix_, whose crew quitted her
on his approach; turned her guns on the other armed vessels; burnt all
the shipping except three merchant vessels, which were brought away; and
in less than two hours returned with the boats, having effected the
whole service with no greater loss than one man killed and four wounded.

One of the ships lay at the little island of Onroost, which is piled and
jettied al