British Mauritius was a British crown colony. Despite the only French naval victory (during the Napoleonic Wars) of Battle of Grand Port on 20–27 August 1810 by a fleet commanded by Pierre Bouvet, Mauritius was captured on 3 December 1810 by the British under Commodore Josias Rowley. Their possession of the island was confirmed four years later by the Treaty of Paris (1814). French institutions, including the Napoleonic Code of law, were maintained.