In 1800 Bourayne was promoted to Capitaine de frégate, and appointed first officer on Redoutable, and later on Républicain,[1] before commanding the frigate Fidèle from June of that year.

On 18 July 1803 he received his promotion to Captaine de vaisseau, on taking command of the recently recaptured 40-gun frigate Minerve, which was now renamed Canonnière.

In a ruse common to marine warfare, the English forts and shipping at the bay flew the Dutch colours, and so Bourayne sent a boat to shore.

He was asked there by Mariano Fernández de Folgueras, the Governor-General of the Philippines, to fetch a large sum of money from Acapulco, across the Pacific Ocean in the Viceroyalty of New Spain.

This mission was carried out over a six-month round trip, and he continued to operate in the Pacific until making a return to the Île de France in 1808.

In September 1808, the British 22-gun frigate Laurel arrived off Île de France, and soon after recaptured a Portuguese ship which had been taken as a prize by the French.

Under a flag of truce, the captain of Laurel requested a boat to be sent out from Port Louis to retrieve French ladies captured on board the prize.

The Canonnière was found there to be now in such a state of disrepair that she was renamed Confiance and sent back to France as a semi-armed merchantman, with Bourayne aboard as a passenger.