CHAPTER VIII.

GENERAL PRESCOTT IS LEFT GOVERNOR OF MARTINIQUE ... THE COMMANDERS IN CHIEF SAIL FOR ST. LUCIA ... GENERAL DUNDAS LANDS NEAR PIGEON ISLAND ... THE FLEET ANCHORS AT MARIGOT DE ROSSEAUX ... PRINCE EDWARD LANDS WITH THE GRENADIERS, AND MARCHES TOWARDS MORNE FORTUNE ... COLONEL COOTE LANDS WITH THE LIGHT INFANTRY ... THE FLEET ANCHORS IN BARRINGTON'S BAY ... COLONEL COOTE STORMS A REDOUBT ON THE MORNE ... GENERAL RICARD SURRENDERS THE ISLAND ... COLONEL SIR CHARLES GORDON LEFT GOVERNOR OF ST. LUCIA ... THE COMMANDERS IN CHIEF SAIL TO MARTINIQUE.

His Excellency the Commander in Chief, having left Lieutenant General Prescott to command at Martinique, with the fifteenth, thirty-ninth, fifty-eighth, sixty-fourth, and seventieth regiments to garrison that island, on the 30th of March he embarked the following troops on board his Majesty's ships in the bay of Fort Royal, viz. the brigade of grenadiers, commanded by his Royal Highness Prince Edward; the brigade of light infantry, under command of Major General Dundas; and the sixth, ninth, and forty-third regiments, commanded by Colonel Sir Charles Gordon; with engineers under Colonel Dornford, and a detachment of Royal artillery, with some light ordnance, under Lieutenant Colonel Paterson.--On the 31st the Admiral made the signal for the fleet to sail by eleven A. M. and by half past nine the next morning was off the north part of the island of St. Lucia, where he lay to for the rest of the fleet that had fallen to leeward. Every thing having been previously arranged between the General and Admiral, they effected three different landings on the island with little resistance, and no loss. By half past one P. M. Major General Dundas's division, consisting of the third battalion of light infantry, under Lieutenant Colonel Close, and conducted by Captains Kelly and Lord Garlies of the navy, made good their landing at Ance du Cap, not far from Le Gros Islet[31]; and the second light infantry, under Lieutenant Colonel Blundell, conducted by Commodore Thompson, at Ance du Chocque, who were ordered to join the first column, taking the enemy's batteries in reverse, and to occupy a position for the purpose of investing the works of Morne Fortuné on the side of the Carénage; all which, notwithstanding a sharp fire kept up by the enemy from several small batteries, was executed by General Dundas with his usual spirit and abilities. As the Boyne and the rest of the fleet passed along the coast they received the fire of many small forts and batteries, without returning it; and though considerably within the range of their shot, which passed over and through their sails and rigging, not a man was hurt in any of them. At four P. M. the fleet anchored in twenty fathom water, within a cable's length of the shore, at Marigot de Rofeaux; at which place his Royal Highness Prince Edward with the grenadiers landed about six o'clock in the evening, under the immediate direction of the Admiral, and began their march soon after. At night they halted on the heights opposite to Morne Fortuné, from which they were separated by the Grand Cul de Sac, or Barrington's Bay. Soon after sun-set, Lieutenant Colonel Coote, with the first battalion of light infantry, landed from the Boyne at Ance de la Tocque, proceeded to and took the four-gun battery of Ciceron, investing Morne Fortuné on that side; at the same time covering Cul de Sac, or Barrington's Bay, for the entrance of our fleet, which anchored there the next morning, being the 2d of April. This morning early the Prince dispatched two companies of grenadiers, with Lieutenant Smyth of the 7th regiment, his brigade major, to attack two batteries on the coast, which they found evacuated, with the tri-coloured flag still flying; this they brought off with them, and spiked the guns. Sir Charles Grey, visiting the Prince's quarters, found his men were halted in a very swampy and unhealthy place, and ordered them to change their ground, and move on to a house at the bottom of Morne Fortuné, which they performed that night without any loss, though part of their road (near a mile in length) was exposed to the fire of the fort on the Morne, as also of a little two-gun battery on a point of land under the fort, which, as they passed the ravine at the head of the Grand Cul de Sac, played upon them with round shot and grape: however, the distance was too great for any mischief to happen from the latter. In their march they had to pass a swampy thicket of plantain trees, which concealed them from the view of the enemy, who nevertheless kept up a constant fire of random shot; and though the distance was now very trifling, and the cannonade extremely heavy for a long time, not a man was killed, and a few only slightly hurt by the splinters of stones and rock which flew in great plenty round them.--Early in the morning of the 3d of April, Lieutenant Colonel Coote, with four light companies, stormed a redoubt and two batteries close to the enemy's principal work on the Morne, and killed two officers and thirty men, made one prisoner (a surgeon), and liberated one British seaman from captivity: he then spiked six pieces of cannon, and fell back to Morne Ferré, where he established his quarters[32]. The Commander in Chief now determined to carry the works on Morne Fortuné by assault, and accordingly a plan was formed for a general attack to be made on it the next morning by the troops which now invested it, aided by a party of seamen under command of Lord Garlies: but General Ricard, perceiving the determined behaviour of our troops, prevented the plan being put in execution, by agreeing to terms of capitulation, which had been offered by Sir Charles Grey, who had sent in Major Maitland with a flag of truce to summon the garrison to surrender. The gates of the fort were put into our possession the same evening by nine o'clock. On the 4th the enemy marched out of the fort, with the honours of war, to the glacis, where they piled their arms, and were embarked on board of transports, which conveyed them to France, under conditions that they should not serve against his Britannic Majesty during the war[33]. When his Royal Highness Prince Edward marched into the fort of Morne Fortuné, and hoisted the British colours, he changed its name to Fort Charlotte, in honour of his august parent.--Major Maitland had been dispatched to Pigeon Island with a summons, which, by order of General Ricard, was delivered up to his Majesty's troops on the same terms as the Morne. The Commander in Chief left the sixth and ninth regiments, with detachments of artillery and engineers, as a garrison for this island, under the command of Colonel Sir Charles Gordon, who was appointed governor till his Majesty's pleasure was known.

[31] By us called Pigeon Island. On it is a very strong battery, which commands a great distance.

[32] The conduct and abilities of Colonel Coote in this enterprise gained him the particular thanks of the Commander in Chief, whose orders he had so ably executed; and he was well supported by the whole of his department, particularly by Major Evatt, Captains Buchanan, Crosbie, Welch, Thomas Grey (one of the General's aid de camps), and Stovin; also by Major of Brigade Vischer, with Lieutenant Drozier, and the detachment of royal artillery, who spiked the guns.

[33] The garrison that marched out with General Ricard, and laid down their arms as prisoners of war, were about three hundred men, troops of the line (among which one hundred and twenty-five were of the regiment d'Aunai), some artillery, and a few people of colour. General Ricard, at his own request, was sent to America, as had been General Rochambeau, who chose that place in preference to his own distracted country, where the system of blood that was then the order of the day under the tyranny of Robespierre, would have immolated even these men, who had with so much bravery defended the posts intrusted to them by their country.

The island of St. Lucia had its name from the day, dedicated to the virgin martyr St. Lucia, on which it was discovered. It is about six leagues south of Martinique, and twenty-one north-west from Barbadoes: it is fifteen miles long, and eleven broad; is very hilly, and covered in a great many places with thick woods, of whose timber the planters of Martinique and the neighbouring islands build their houses and mills. The fustic and cocoa tree is found here also in great abundance. This island has frequently changed its masters, being alternately possessed by the French and English: it has many good bays and harbours, and is well watered by several fine clear rivers. Two of the mountains are said to have been volcanos. Morne Fortuné is a high hill which overhangs Basse Terre, the principal town of the island. On the summit of the Morne is a fortification, as yet unfinished; by nature it is very strong, but art has done little for it; for, when the outworks fall, the fort is incapable of withstanding a siege. We found but little ammunition or military stores, and one small uncovered tank was the only reservoir for water. Here is also a Pigeon Island, which is called by the French Gros Islet, and is so strongly fortified both by nature and art, that if it was well supplied with provisions and stores, would be capable of braving a very formidable attack. The bay of the Grand Cul de Sac is a fine harbour for ships of any size to ride in, during the hurricane months.

Lieutenant D'Arcy Preston, being promoted from a lieutenancy in the Boyne to the command of the Rattlesnake sloop of war, sailed for England this day, carrying Captain Mason, one of the aid de camps of the Commander in Chief, and Captain Parker of the Blanche, with an account of the further success of his Majesty's arms in the reduction of the island of St. Lucia[34], happily effected without the loss of a single man, though there had been a good deal of cannonading from the enemy's batteries and works. The flank battalions being reimbarked on board of their respective ships, and Sir Charles Grey with his suite being as usual with the Admiral on board the Boyne, the whole fleet weighed and made sail from this island by eight in the morning of the 5th of April, and by nine at night they anchored in Fort Royal harbour, Martinique. Thus, in the short period of something more than two months, by the efforts of this army and navy, inconsiderable indeed in numbers, but united in an ardent desire to prove themselves faithful to their country, and strenuous to defend and promote her welfare, and increase her consequence, was the British standard a second time hoisted on the walls of a republican fortress, and another island added to the British dominions.

[34] The General transmitted also a plan of the projected works on Morne Fortuné, earnestly recommending them to be finished, as it was a very strong post, not commanded, but commanding every other post around it.

To provide for the future order and good government of their conquests was now the task of Sir Charles Grey and his friend and colleague, Sir John Jervis; and as, in the attainment of them, their hearts and counsels were in unison, so in this most arduous business were their united exertions employed to establish a system of government for the conquered islands, which might be equally serviceable to their country, as conciliatory to the minds of the newly acquired subjects of it; but at a moment like this, when they were pushing on from one field of conflict and glory to another, it was impossible to render any system of government perfect; they therefore thought that the best mode would be to leave them a government which appeared to have been most desired by the majority of the people, and which agreed better with our own forms than the wild confusion of democratic and revolutionary power. Accordingly, they for the present left them in the exercise of their accustomed laws, such as they had been at the happiest period of their own government, and which appeared best calculated to forward a system of confidence among their own order, and to prepare them for that form of government (we from experience know the blessings of, and) which unquestionably, on the same experience, would become earnestly desired by all ranks of people. To further also the desirable object of conciliating the minds of the conquered by an act of moderation and indulgence, the conduct of all civil affairs[35] was principally entrusted to those whose influence in the colony pointed them out as proper to be confided in; and whilst every tendency to licentiousness would be checked by the vigorous direction of General Prescott under his military government, the former courts, for the administration of justice agreeable to the laws and customs before the revolution, were allowed to go on, that the affections and gratitude of his majesty's new subjects might in the surest manner be attached and secured. However an arrangement of officers, guided by the constitution of the other British colonies, was not neglected, and accordingly several nominations were made and transmitted home for approval. St. Lucia was left in the same state, as to its government, as Martinique.

[35] The revenue department was however an exception to this arrangement of the civil departments, as the purpose of trade could not of course be answered through the forms of a French custom-house, or the revenue laws adhered to but by the establishment of our own people to carry on that necessary branch. Those places therefore in the district of the island of Martinique, which were immediately necessary to be filled, were attended to, and a list of them sent home, that when his majesty's pleasure should be made known with regard to the future civil government, they might be put in motion without any delay.