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The Portuguese conquest of French Guiana, also known as Conquest of Cayenne (Portuguese: Conquista de Caiena), was a military operation against Cayenne, capital of the South American colony of French Guiana, launched in January 1809 in the context of the Napoleonic Wars. The invasion was undertaken by a combined expeditionary force that included Portuguese (from Portugal and from Colonial Brazil) and British military contingents.
The invasion was part of a series of attacks on French-held territory in the Americas during 1809, and due to commitments elsewhere, the British Royal Navy was unable to send substantial forces to attack the fortified river port. Instead, appeals were made to the Portuguese government, which had fled Portugal the year before during the Peninsular War and was resident in Brazil, its largest colony. In exchange for providing troops and transports for the operation, the Portuguese were promised Guiana as an expansion of their holdings in Brazil for the duration of the conflict.
The British contribution was small, consisting solely of the corvetteHMS Confiance. Confiance however had a highly effective crew and an experienced captain in James Lucas Yeo, who was to command the entire expedition. The more substantial Portuguese contingent consisted of 700 regular soldiers of the colonial Army of Brazil, led by Lieutenant-colonel Manuel Marques de Elva Portugal, 550 marines of the Royal Brigade of the Navy detached in Brazil and several warships to act as transports and provide offshore artillery support.[2] The French defenders were weakened by years of Royal Navy blockade and could only muster 400 regular infantry and 800 unreliable militia, formed in part from the territory's free black population. As a result, resistance was inconsistent and despite Cayenne's strong fortifications, the territory fell within a week.
It is considered to be the baptism of fire of the Brazilian Marine Corps, as there was a participation of the Royal Brigade of the Navy that would give origin to it.[3]
Background
During the Napoleonic Wars, French colonial territories in the Caribbean were a drain on both the French and British navies. The fortified harbours on the islands and coastal towns provided shelter for French warships and privateers that could strike against British trade routes at will, forcing the Royal Navy to divert extensive resources to protect their convoys.[4] However, the maintenance and support of these bases was a significant task for the French Navy. It had suffered a series of defeats during the war that left it blockaded in its own harbours and unable to put to sea without attack from British squadrons waiting off the coast.[5] Cut off from French trade and supplies, the Caribbean colonies began to suffer from food shortages and collapsing economies, and messages were sent to France in the summer of 1808 requesting urgent help.[6]
Some of these messages were intercepted by the patrolling Royal Navy. Based on the description in those messages of the low morale and weak defences of the Caribbean territories, the decision was taken to eliminate the threat from the French colonies for the remainder of the war by seizing and occupying them in a series of amphibious operations. Command of this campaign was given to Rear-Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane, who focused his initial efforts on Martinique, gathering a substantial force of ships and men at Barbados in preparation for the planned invasion.[7] While the main British forces concentrated in the Leeward Islands, smaller expeditionary forces were sent to watch other French colonies, including the small ship HMS Confiance, deployed to the northern coast of South America under Captain James Lucas Yeo.[8] Supplementing this meagre force were reinforcements provided by Rear-Admiral Sir Sidney Smith, the commander of the Brazil Station who had negotiated with the Portuguese government, then situated in Brazil, where they had been forced to relocate in 1808 following the French invasion that began the Peninsular War.[8]
Smith had secured the assistance of a Portuguese squadron, consisting of two armed brigs, Voador (24 guns) and Vingança (18 guns), an unarmed brig, Infante Dom Pedro, and the unarmed cutter Leão.[9]
This force carried at least 550 regular Portuguese soldiers, supplemented by sailors and marines on board the ships, all under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Manuel Marques.[10] Yeo, who was to retain overall command of the operation, joined the Portuguese force off Belém in early December 1808. On 15 December he attacked the coastal districts of Oyapok and Appruage, seizing both without resistance, in preparation for the advance on Cayenne, the capital of French Guiana.[10]
Invasion
Map of the fortifications at Cayenne, made in 1760
The town of Cayenne is situated on an island in the mouth of the Cayenne and Mahury Rivers. In 1809, its approaches were protected by a series of forts and gun batteries, while the town itself was dominated by a modern star fort.[11] Acknowledging that his force was not large enough to invade the island directly, Yeo decided instead to attack a series of outlying forts on the Mahury River in an effort to draw out the French defenders.[11] On 6 January 1809, preparations were complete and Yeo launched an attack during the night, landing at Pointe Mahury at 03:00 on 7 January in five canoes despite heavy rains, which continued throughout the campaign. The surf was strong and all five canoes were wrecked on the beach, but there were no casualties. Yeo detached a Portuguese force under Major Joaquim Manuel Pinto against the Dégras de Cannes battery while he advanced on Fort Diamant with a force of seamen and marines. Both positions were rapidly carried, the British suffering seven men wounded to French losses of six killed and four wounded. Four cannons were seized, as were 90 French soldiers. Both fortifications were then garrisoned with soldiers from the squadron.[12]
With the capture of the Mahury forts, the French in Cayenne risked being cut off from external help and besieged. In response, Governor Victor Hugues mustered most of the 600 troops available to him and marched on the Allied positions.[13] Consolidating his forces at Dégras de Cannes, Yeo demolished Fort Diamant and sent scouts down river, where two further forts were discovered at Trio and the Canal de Torcy. The latter fort had been constructed to defend the approaches to Hugues' residence, which was situated on the canal. Yeo immediately ordered the Portuguese cuttersLeão and Vingança into the river to attack the forts, the Portuguese bombarding the positions for an hour while Yeo prepared assault forces. Yeo himself led the attack on the Trio fort while a Portuguese party attacked the fort on the canal. Both positions were captured and their 50 strong garrisons driven off.[14]
As Yeo secured his position from attack from the river, Hugues arrived at Dégras de Cannes. Despite attacking Lieutenant Colonel Marques' garrison immediately, Hugues was unable to defeat the Portuguese before Yeo returned, and was forced to retreat after a three-hour engagement.[14] A secondary force sent against Fort Diamant saw the British demolition party on the walls and, assuming the garrison there to be larger than expected, retreated without an assault. The following morning, as Hugues fell back on his residence, Yeo followed, using the river and canal to close with the position. Hugues had fortified his property with 100 men and two artillery pieces, and ordered his men to fire on a party of British sailors offering a truce. A second attempt was met with cannon fire, and although a third attempt via one of Hugues' slaves drew a response, the French general's overtures were only an attempt to stall the Allies while his men laid an ambush in the trees near their landing point.[13]
At a signal from one of the artillery pieces, the French ambush party began a heavy fire on the troops advancing up the lane towards the house. Charging forward, Yeo led an attack on the ambushers at the head of his men and in hand-to-hand fighting seized the house and its artillery. Gathering his forces, Yeo then marched on Cayenne, expecting to meet Hugues at the Beauregard plain, where the French general had stationed his remaining 400 men.[15] Reaching the position on 10 January, Yeo sent two junior officers into Cayenne offering an armistice, which was accepted, Hugues recognising that he was outnumbered and outmanoeuvred. Over the next four days, Yeo's men took the surrender of the outlying French garrisons and units, with the entrance to Cayenne planned for 14 January.[15]
Topaze
To Yeo's consternation, dawn on 13 January showed a sail approaching from the north. This vessel was the French frigateTopaze, a powerful 40-gun vessel that was significantly stronger than any of the British or Portuguese ships in the expeditionary force (the large Infante Dom Pedro having returned to Brazil some time earlier). Topaze had been sent from France under Captain Pierre-Nicolas Lahalle to reinforce the Cayenne garrison in December 1808. In addition to extra troops and military supplies, Topaze's main cargo was 1,100 barrels of flour, Cayenne suffering from severe food shortages due to the British blockade of the French Caribbean.[16] Lahalle was cautious on approaching Cayenne, and soon spotted Confiance at anchor off the harbour.
Confiance, as a 20-gun ship armed with short range carronades, was significantly weaker than Topaze; more critically, she was also almost completely uncrewed, as Yeo had removed all but 25 men and two midshipmen for service with the expeditionary force on land. If Lahalle closed with the ship, the senior officer, Midshipman George Yeo, the captain's much younger brother, would have no option but to surrender, leaving the landing party cut off and at risk of total defeat. Reacting quickly, George Yeo mustered 20 local men, all free black civilians, and pressed them into service to complement his skeleton crew.[17] He then sailed from the harbour in an aggressive manner, as if to confront Topaze. Lahalle was under instructions to avoid combat if it placed his cargo in jeopardy and assumed that such a small vessel would not approach his frigate unless heavier support was hidden nearby, unwilling to risk losing his ship, he turned and sailed north, rapidly outdistancing Confiance and disappearing over the horizon in the belief that the British had already captured Cayenne.[17] Nine days later, as he neared Guadeloupe, Lahalle was spotted by a genuinely larger British squadron and defeated at the action of 22 January 1809.[18]
French capitulation
With the French reinforcements driven off and its defences broken, a proposal for capitulation was made to Hugues on 10 January, which he accepted the next day when he met with Lieutenant-colonel Marques.[19] The terms of capitulation included, among other things, the departure, aboard ships arranged by the invaders, of the French troops and staff with honours of war, the passage to mainland France aboard the same ships to other French individuals desiring to do so, and the preservation of the recently implemented Napoleonic civil code in the colony by the new Portuguese administration.[19] On 20 April 1809 the warship Infante Dom Pedro, commanded by the Brazilian captain Luiz da Cunha Moreira, arrived in the port of Morlaix with Hugues and his staff.[19]
Entering Cayenne on 14 January, Yeo's Anglo-Portuguese force took Hugues' 400 regular soldiers into captivity and collected the arms of 600 white militia and 200 black irregulars, all of whom were allowed to return to their homes.[15] Included in the surrender were 200 cannon, all military and government stores, and all of the various villages and trading posts of French Guiana, which stretched from the Brazilian border to the Maroni River, which marked the border with the British-held Dutch territory of Surinam.[20]
Casualties in the operation were light, the British losing a lieutenant killed and 23 men wounded, the Portuguese one man killed and eight wounded and the French 16 killed and 20 wounded.[15] The French prisoners were embarked on the expeditionary force's ships and taken to Brazil, and the colony was handed over to the Portuguese government for administration, with the stipulation that it be returned to France at the end of the war.[8]
La Gabriele
There was, in the region of Cayenne, a famous agricultural complex maintained by the French crown, formed by the Habitation Royale des Épiceries, better known as La Gabriele, by the Habitation de Mont-Baduel, by the Habitation Tilsit and by the Wood Factory of Nancibo, were the main ones examples of colonial establishments in Guyana, in extent, productivity and number of slaves.
The possession of La Gabriele would become one of the greatest benefits obtained by the Portuguese with the annexation of such a troubled colony. In addition to being one of the main sources of income for the colony, it brought together all the plant species coveted by the Portuguese. [10] In April 1809, Rodrigo de Sousa Coutinho, responsible for the Brazilian vegetable gardens, sent the governor of the captaincy of Grão-Pará to provide transportation, from Cayenne to Belém and to other domains, "of the greatest possible amount of all spice trees". Together with them, they should follow "skilled gardeners", as long as they are not "contaminated with liberal ideology". In the same month, a new order determined the transfer of plants from the Pará garden to Rio de Janeiro, remembering that the search for "all kinds of cultures" was the "most essential point for Brazil" at that time. It was the French administrator of La Gabriele, Joseph Martin, who signed the list of plants and instructions for planting, in total, 82 species shipped in six boxes.
During the Portuguese occupation, various spices and fruits were sent to Brazil, such as nutmeg, cloves, breadfruit, in addition to walnut, camboeira, avocado and cayenne seedlings, much superior to sugar cane. then grown in Brazil. [6] This collection would be one of the precursors to the creation of the Rio de Janeiro Botanical Garden.
Aftermath
Following the Portuguese conquest of French Guiana, João Severiano Maciel da Costa served as its only governor until 1817
Yeo's later career
Yeo was highly commended for his leadership during the operation, but his health had suffered during the extended campaigning in late December and was invalided to Rio de Janeiro to recover. On his return to active service, he was presented with a diamond ring by the Portuguese Prince Regent and knighted by both the Portuguese and British Royal families for his service in the campaign. He was subsequently made commander of the frigate HMS Southampton.[21] Four decades later the battle was among the actions recognised by the clasp "Confiance 14 Jany. 1809" attached to the Naval General Service Medal, awarded upon application to all British claimants.[22]
Cayenne is the prefecture of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America and its capital city. The city stands on a former island at the mouth of the Cayenne River on the Atlantic coast. The city's motto is "fert aurum industria", which means "work brings wealth". Cayenne is the largest Francophone city of the South American continent.
Sir James Lucas Yeo, KCB, KBA was a Royal Navy officer who served in the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812. Born in Southampton, Hampshire, he joined the British navy at the age of 10 and saw his first action in the Adriatic Sea. Yeo distinguished himself in combat multiple times, most notably during the Portuguese conquest of French Guiana, earning knighthoods in the Portuguese Order of Aviz and the British Order of the Bath. He was subsequently given command of the frigate Southampton in 1812, but she was later wrecked in the Bahamas, although he was acquitted of blame for its loss. Yeo was then given command of the British squadron on Lake Ontario and commanded it in several engagements on Lake Ontario with American forces. He died off the African coast in 1818.
The Guianas, also spelled Guyanas or Guayanas, is a region in north-eastern South America. Strictly, the term refers to the three Guianas: Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana, formerly British, Dutch and French Guiana. Broadly it refers to the South American coast from the mouth of the Orinoco to the mouth of the Amazon.
Jean-Baptiste Victor Hugues was a French politician and colonial administrator who served as the governor of Guadeloupe from 1794 to 1798. He is best known for his actions during the French Revolutionary Wars, where Hugues played a major role in implementing the Law of 4 February 1794 which abolished slavery in France's colonies.
Captain Sir William Howe Mulcaster CB, KCH, KTS was an officer in the British Royal Navy who played a distinguished part in the Anglo-American War of 1812, in particular in the Engagements on Lake Ontario.
Matoury is a commune of French Guiana, an overseas region and department of France located in South America.
Topaze was a Gloire-class 44-gun frigate of the French Navy. The British captured her in 1809 and she then served with the Royal Navy under the name Jewel, and later Alcmene until she was broken up in 1816.
The Cayenne Battery of the Brazilian Army is one of three military units that comprise the Brazilian president's honor guard, the others being the 1st Guards Cavalry Regiment – "Independence Dragoons" and the Presidential Guard Battalion.
HMS Topaze was a Royal Navy 32-gun frigate, originally completed in 1791 as a French Magicienne-class frigate. In 1793 Lord Hood's fleet captured her at Toulon. The Royal Navy took her into service under her existing name. She was broken up in 1814.
The British invaded and captured the French colony of Martinique between 30 January and 24 February 1809 during the West Indies campaign of 1804–1810 of the Napoleonic Wars. Martinique, like the nearby island of Guadeloupe, was a major threat to Britain's trade in the West Indies, providing a sheltered base from which privateers and French Navy warships could raid British merchant shipping and disrupt the trade routes that maintained the economy of the United Kingdom. Both islands also provided a focus for larger-scale French operations in the region and in the autumn of 1808, following the Spanish alliance with Britain, the Admiralty decided to order a British squadron to neutralise the threat, beginning with Martinique.
French Guiana is an overseas department and region of France located on the northern coast of South America in the Guianas and the West Indies. Bordered by Suriname to the west and Brazil to the east and south, French Guiana covers a total area of 84,000 km2 (32,000 sq mi) and a land area of 83,534 km2 (32,253 sq mi), and is inhabited by 295,385 people.
The action of 22 January 1809 was a minor naval engagement fought off the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe during the Napoleonic Wars. The action was fought as part of the blockade of Guadeloupe and neighbouring Martinique by a large British Royal Navy squadron, which was seeking to cut the islands off from contact and supplies from France by preventing the passage of shipping from Europe to the islands. The British blockade was part of their preparation for planned invasions during the next year.
The Invasion of Guadeloupe was a British amphibious operation fought between 28 January and 6 February 1810 over control of the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe during the Napoleonic Wars. The island was the final remaining French colony in the Americas, following the systematic invasion and capture of the others during 1809 by British forces. During the Napoleonic Wars, the French colonies had provided protected harbours for French privateers and warships, which could prey on the numerous British trade routes in the Caribbean and then return to the colonies before British warships could react. In response, the British instituted a blockade of the islands, stationing ships off every port and seizing any vessel that tried to enter or leave. With trade and communication made dangerous by the British blockade squadrons, the economies and morale of the French colonies began to collapse, and in the summer of 1808 desperate messages were sent to France requesting help.
The action of 3 February 1812 was a single-ship action fought off the western coast of Haiti between the British Royal Navy and a Haitian warship during the Napoleonic Wars. It was fought against the background of the collapse of the First Empire of Haiti in 1806 after the Haitian Revolution; after Haiti became independent from French colonial rule in 1804, it was first ruled by Jean-Jacques Dessalines, who was assassinated in 1806 and replaced by two of his advisors, Henri Christophe and Alexandre Pétion. They divided the country between them and in the confused political situation that followed a number of minor fiefdoms appeared, including one ruled by warlord Jérôme Maximilien Borgella in the department of Sud. The small Haitian Navy defected from Christophe to Borgella, who crewed his new ships with sailors from various countries.
The Capture of Cayenne was a minor military event on the 22 September 1667 during the final stages of the Second Anglo-Dutch War. The French settlement of Cayenne under the French Governor Lefebvre de Lézy was captured in an assault by English sailors and troops of Rear Admiral Sir John Harman's squadron. The English then occupied the settlement stripping it of anything of value before departing two weeks later.
Confiance, launched in 1797, was a privateer corvette from Bordeaux, famous for being Robert Surcouf's ship during the capture of the British East India Company's East Indiaman Kent. Confiance had captured a number of ships through the years before the British Royal Navy captured her in 1805, taking her into service under her existing name. The Royal Navy sold her in 1810, by which time she had taken part in two notable actions in British service. Confiance then sailed as a merchantman, until 1816.
Voador was a brig launched in 1790 at Lisbon. In 1808–1809, she was one of the vessels in the small Anglo-Portuguese squadron thatcaptured French Guiana. In 1820, she was re-classed as a corvette. In 1823, she was transferred to the Brazilian Navy.
Fort Cépérou was a fort that protected the city of Cayenne, French Guiana. It is named after Cépérou, a celebrated indigenous chief who ceded the land.
Daniel Guerin Spranger, or Quijrijn Spranger, Gerrit Spranger was a Dutch Jewish entrepreneur who was the commander of the colony of Cayenne, now in French Guiana, between 1656 and 1664. The island of Cayenne had earlier been abandoned by the French. Spranger established good relations with the indigenous people and founded plantations of sugarcane and other tropical plants. In 1664 the French returned in force, and Spranger ceded the colony on the best terms he could get. In 1676 the Dutch again captured Cayenne, and later that year the French again regained control. Spranger seems to have been among the Dutch prisoners shipped back to France in 1676.
Charles Poncet de Brétigny was founder and governor of the French colony of Cayenne, in what is now French Guiana, from 1644 to 1645. A brutal and despotic man, after just over a year he was murdered by a Carib, as were most of the other colonists. Accounts of the events and aftermath are somewhat confused, gathered from the few survivors several years later.
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