 To counteract Hamelin 's ships , the British commander in the region Admiral Albemarle Bertie had ordered Commodore Josias Rowley to operate off the islands with a squadron of Royal Navy frigates , with instructions to disrupt French movements and prepare for future invasion attempts . Rowley 's ships had some successes : one of the East Indiamen captured by Hamelin was retaken by a blockading frigate in December 1809 , but he was largely powerless to prevent the large French ships leaving their fortified anchorages at will . Rowley 's first action to address this problem was to request a British Army force from the government in Madras . This force , made up of British soldiers and Honourable East India Company ( HEIC ) sepoys , was used to capture the tiny island of Rodriguez . Rodriguez provided a secure harbour , at which Rowley 's ships could collect supplies and repair minor damage within a short sailing distance of the French islands : previously the British ships had been forced to return to Madras or the Cape of Good Hope , decreasing the time available for operations against the islands . Rodriguez also provided Rowley with a staging post from which he could prepare the planned invasions and , in September 1809 , he led an amphibious operation against the defences of the harbour of Saint Paul on Île Bonaparte . 
