A French force from Cayenne under the command of lieutenant de vaisseau Jean-Michel Mahė recaptured Gorée from the British on 18 January 1804.
At Dakar it added the schooner Rosalia and a detachment of troops from the 46th Brigade, and requisitioned the privateer Mon Oncle Thomas, from Rochelle, to join the expedition.
Facing an overwhelming force, Colonel John Frazer, the British commander, surrendered and signed terms of capitulation.
In April 1804, Lloyd's List reported that the French had captured the British slave vessel Diligence, Bowland, master, and had taken her into Gorée.
Pickford had only been sent ashore to report on why the French held the island, and Inconstant returned on 8 March with an invasion force in four transports, not expecting the garrison to have been taken.