Learning that regular French naval forces were in the region, Truxton set out in his flagship Constellation and sailed to Guadeloupe to engage them.

In order to prevent French attacks against American merchantmen in the Caribbean, the United States Navy maintained four squadrons of vessels in the region.

Taking command on 19 January 1800 after arriving at Saint Kitts in his flagship USS Constellation, Truxton's squadron consisted of four frigates, three schooners, and a ship-rigged man of war.

Previously her armament had consisted of 24-pounder guns, but these had proven inefficient during Truxton's action with L'Insurgente and as a result were removed and replaced with twenty-eight 18-pounder cannon and ten 24-pounder carronades.

Under such circumstances Pitot intended to avoid an engagement if possible,[4][6] even though La Vengeance was a more heavily armed vessel carrying eight 42-pounder carronades, twenty-eight 18-pounders, and sixteen 12-pounder cannon.

[7] The French also had a distinct advantage in the event of a boarding action, as Constellation had only 310 men to La Vengeance's complement of 380 crew.

Thinking the vessel chasing him was a superior 55-gun warship, he sought to avoid conflict, and continued to sail with the wind rather than head north as he had originally intended.

The behavior of Pitot's frigate signaled to Truxton that she was really a French warship, so he ordered Constellation cleared for action and gave chase.

With the French ship drawing off, the two vessels began a longer range round shot duel that lasted until 02:00 on 2 February 1800, when La Vengeance struck her colors for the second time.

La Vengeance remained out of action for months due to difficulties in acquiring support needed to repair the frigate from the Dutch officials there.

A French expedition to seize Curaçao brought the materiel needed to repair the frigate, but when asked to help attack the island Pitot refused and slipped away to Guadaloupe.

After escorting a convoy of 14 merchantmen back to the United States, Truxton sailed his battered frigate to Hampton Roads for a proper refit.