Having burnt the Pluto, Revolutie, and Kortenaar, line-of-battle ships, and a large Indiaman, fitted as a frigate, and destroyed the military stores and batteries at Griessee and Madura, the squadron weighed on the 13th, and stood down the river in charge of the Dutch pilots.  On the 15th, they crossed the bar, and two days after, having completed their provisions and water, left the coast.  Not a man was lost in all the service.  When Java was taken, in 1811, a squadron was sent to Sourabaya; but none of the large ships could get over the bar; and their officers would scarcely credit the fact that the Culloden and Powerful had reached Griessee.

The Culloden arrived at Madras on the 10th of February, and found there the Russell and Duncan, with troops embarked to attack Tranquebar.  They sailed next day, and the place surrendered on being summoned.

But all these operations, complete as they were in their success, were of far less importance than the effectual protection which Sir Edward afforded to commerce.  His position, with reference to this point, had been peculiarly fortunate:  for the confidential intercourse which existed between him and his brothers, and the warm interest which they took in one another’s pursuits, had induced him to give much attention to the commercial system of the country.  Particularly, he had become familiar with the important subject of insurance and convoys, upon which his brother had been much in communication with the government.  At an early period of his command in India, he submitted to the merchants and underwriters a proposal to establish a regular system of convoys; and invited them to suggest from their own local experience the regulations likely to be the most convenient and effectual.  The merchants entered readily into his plans and the results were satisfactory.  Some loss was, indeed, still experienced through a frequent practice of masters of vessels to sail without convoy, or to separate from it on the passage.  The commanders of the enemy’s cruisers generally treated their prisoners well, and released them at the earliest opportunity; so that sailing without protection became a mere commercial calculation between a higher premium of insurance, and the profits from an early arrival, for little personal inconvenience was to be apprehended from capture.  To check this practice, the Bengal Government, in December, 1806, issued a proclamation, declaring that all masters of vessels who separated from their convoy without sufficient cause, should be removed from India; and in 1808, the Court of Directors ordered, that the master of every country ship should enter into a bond of 5,000 rupees, at the custom-house from which he cleared, as a penalty for any separation.  Not that the danger was often great, for the vigilance of the squadron seldom allowed an enemy’s cruiser a long career; but it sometimes happened, as was particularly the case while the force was assembled for the expedition to Sourabaya, that an enemy would unexpectedly show himself, and commit serious depredations.