CHAPTER X.

THE GENERAL EMBARKS HIS ARMY, AND LANDS ON BASSE TERRE AT PETIT BOURG ... OCCURRENCES ON THE MARCH TOWARDS PALMISTE ... THE ADMIRAL ANCHORS IN ANCE DE BAILLIF ... GENERAL DUNDAS LANDS, AND FORMS A COMMUNICATION WITH SIR CHARLES GREY ... THE PALMISTE TAKEN BY ASSAULT ... GENERAL COLLOT DELIVERS UP FORT SAINT CHARLES AND THE ISLAND OF GUADALOUPE AND ITS DEPENDENCIES TO THE COMMANDERS IN CHIEF.

On the 13th, the forty-third regiment being landed to garrison Fort Prince of Wales (late Fleur d'Epée), the town of Point à Pitre, and the other ports on Grand Terre, the General and the rest of his army reimbarked on board of their respective ships; and in the evening the Sea Flower brig, Captain Pierrepoint, sailed for England with dispatches. At twelve o'clock the next day, the Quebec and the other frigates, with the transports, sailed over to the other side of the bay; and in the afternoon the troops, consisting of the grenadiers and light infantry, commanded by his Royal Highness Prince Edward, landed at a village called Petit Bourg, where many of the principal people of the island were assembled, who received the Commander in Chief and the Prince with the greatest demonstrations of joy. A party of sailors also, under the command of Captain Rogers of the Quebec, landed at the same time. That night the General returned to the Boyne; the next morning he landed at St. Mary's, where he found Colonel Coote, with the first battalion of light infantry, who had marched in before day-break from Petit Bourg. The troops now marched forward, principally along shore, without any remarkable occurrence, and halted for the night at a small village between Cabes Terre and Petit Bourg. On the 16th the troops, still advancing along shore, reached Trou Chien, a very strong post, which the enemy had abandoned; and before dark the army halted on the high ground over Les Trois Riverres, from whence they saw the enemy's two redoubts and their strong posts on the heights of Palmiste. The General intended to have attacked the enemy that night; but the troops were too much fatigued from the long and difficult march they had just finished. Here, at a beautiful plantation belonging to Monsieur Bellisle, the Prince and several of his officers were sumptuously entertained at supper by that gentleman, who repeated his hospitality the next day. All this time the Admiral stood off and on near the shore, to be ready to pour in assistance in case there should be any necessity for it: but on the army retiring up the country towards Palmiste on the 17th instant, he came round towards the town of Basse Terre. Fort St. Charles fired a few shot and shells at the Boyne without effect. At half past one P. M. we were becalmed off the town, and had a beautiful view of the country round it, which, rising gradually inland, presents a varied amphitheatre of plantations, woods, hills, and vallies, interspersed with elegant and well-built houses, ornamented by many fine plantations of palms, cocoa-nut, and other tall and majestic trees. By five P. M. we anchored in Ance de Baillif, about a mile from the town of Basse Terre, which was hid from our view by an high point of land forming the bay. On the 17th Major General Dundas, with the third battalion of grenadiers, and second and third battalions of light infantry, landed at Vieux Habitant, some miles north-west of Basse Terre, meeting with little opposition and no loss, taking possession of Morne Magdalene, and destroying two batteries, then detaching Lieutenant Colonel Blundell with the second battalion of light infantry, he in the night forced several difficult posts of the enemy. On the 17th General Sir Charles Grey made a disposition for the attack of a redoubt called d'Arbaud, and a battery named d'Anet, both near Grand Ance; the troops pushed forward, and halted within a league of the village of Trois Riviere. By day-break on the 18th Lieutenant Colonel Coote, with the first battalion of light infantry, attacked and stormed the battery; every man in it was either killed, wounded, or made prisoner, and not one of our own was hurt. At the same time the grenadiers were ordered to advance against the redoubt, which was commanded by this battery, and which they found had been deserted by the enemy early in the night, who burnt and destroyed every thing in and near it. On the night of the 17th instant, the enemy in the town of Basse Terre (being divided in their opinions, and party running very high among them) set fire to the town, the whole of the west end of which was consumed, containing much valuable property, and many fine houses. The motives for this mischief we never could learn, as they were at that time in full possession of the town; and as it was entirely commanded by Fort St. Charles, there could be no danger of its falling into our hands until the fort was taken. At one o'clock in the morning of the 20th, the Commander in Chief, at the head of his troops, advanced to the attack of the principal dependance of the enemy, which was a chain of batteries on the heights of Palmiste, extending above a league. The grenadiers were commanded by Prince Edward, and the light infantry by Lieutenant Colonel Coote. At five in the morning the attack commenced by the light infantry advancing to the assault of the highest and most formidable battery, which, though well defended by nature and art, was soon obliged to yield to the superior activity and bravery of our troops, who with their bayonets forced the works, putting thirty of them to death. It is remarkable, that in this affair the three first sentries at the advanced batteries, on firing their muskets on the alarm, shot two advanced men of the light infantry and their guide. The instant our men had made themselves masters of this post, perceiving that it commanded all the others, they with infinite spirit and address turned the guns against them, under cover of which our troops marched up and took them all in succession, without much further opposition, although, by every appearance, they had determined to make a vigorous resistance, having felled trees and laid them across the road, and at the entrance of their batteries, and the guns being mostly loaded with grape-shot, or bags of musket balls, it seemed as if they expected to have come to close quarters. General Dundas had now formed a communication with Sir Charles Grey by Morne Howell, and the Palmiste (the key of the town and Fort St. Charles) being thus in our possession, the governor, Monsieur Collot, sent a flag of truce to Sir Charles Grey, offering to deliver up Guadaloupe and its dependencies on the same terms as had been granted to General Rochambeau at Martinique, and Ricard at St. Lucia: the garrison to march out with the honours of war, and lay down their arms, and to be sent to France, on condition that they should not serve against the British forces and their allies during the war; General Collot and his suite to be allowed a certain time to settle their affairs, and to be conveyed to North America in a frigate. Accordingly, the light infantry being left in the batteries on the Palmiste, the remainder of the troops marched down and took possession of the gates of both town and fort that night. The next day the Boyne weighed anchor, and was towed by boats round from the bay of Baillif to the road of Basse Terre, where she anchored within a cable's length of the shore. At night a design of the garrison, to rise upon our people and murder them, was happily made known to General Dundas, who instantly rode down to the fort, and took the necessary precautions to prevent the completion of this infamous plot. At eight o'clock in the morning of Tuesday the 22d of April the French garrison of Fort St. Charles marched out, consisting of fifty-five regulars of the regiment of Guadaloupe, and the fourteenth regiment of France, and eight hundred and eighteen national guards and others; Prince Edward, with the grenadiers and light infantry, taking possession immediately, struck the republican and hoisted the British colours, changing the name of it to Fort Matilda. From the returns found among General Collot's papers it appeared that the number of men capable of bearing arms in the island of Guadaloupe was at that time five thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven; and the number of fire-arms actually delivered out to them was four thousand and forty-four[38]. On the 26th Prince Edward with his suite embarked on board the Blanche frigate, commanded by Captain Faulknor, and sailed for North America; his regiment, the seventh or royal fuzileers, being stationed at Quebec. The spirit and enterprise of his Royal Highness on this expedition, with his strict attention to discipline, merits the highest applause, and deservedly gained him the respect and esteem of all who served with him. Before the troubles (occasioned by the revolution) commenced in these islands, the town of Basse Terre was a place of very considerable traffic, and much resorted to by merchants and others: it is regularly built, well watered, and beautifully situated on the sea-shore, and well defended by several batteries and forts, particularly to the eastward by Fort St. Charles (now called Fort Matilda), which is a regular fortification of great strength and extent; but being commanded by surrounding high lands, particularly Houelmont, a steep hill, on which is a battery that overlooks, not only the fort and town, but the bay, and much of the country near it, it is incapable of maintaining a long defence against a powerful attack by land, but is impregnable by any that can be made against it from the sea only. In the centre of the main street is a spacious walk shaded by handsome well grown trees, which forms an agreeable relief from the heat which in this climate is so very oppressive. Above the town is a large and commodious hospital, which at this period we found of infinite use. The island of Guadaloupe was discovered by Columbus, who named it after some mountains in Spain to which it bore resemblance, but by the native Caraibs it is called Karukera: it is situated thirty leagues N. W. from Martinique, and is reckoned the largest and most valuable island the French held in these parts; and, from its vicinity to Antigua and Dominica, as well as to several of our smaller islands, is of great consequence to us. The island is divided into two parts by a narrow channel called La Riviere Sallée, or the Salt River: the eastern part is called Grand Terre, and is comparatively flat; it is nineteen leagues long and nine broad: the western part is properly called Guadaloupe, but is now known by the name of Basse Terre, and is again subdivided (by a ridge of mountains extending from one end to the other) into Capes Terre and Basse Terre: this part of the island is thirteen leagues and a half in length, and about seven at the broadest part. The islands immediately dependent on Guadaloupe are Marigalante, Deseada, and the Saints. Marigalante is of a round form, about forty miles to the S. E. of Guadaloupe; it is about five leagues long and four broad, and was discovered by Columbus in 1493, who gave it the name of his own ship. Deseada, or Desirada (that is, the Desirable Island), was the first of these islands discovered by Columbus in his second voyage in 1493; it is about fifteen miles N. E. of Guadaloupe, and is not very fertile. The Saints are a cluster of islands on the S. E. side of Guadaloupe, of which the westernmost is called Terre de Bas, or the Low Island; the easternmost the High Island: there is a good harbour here for a few ships. These islands received the name of Sanctos from the Spaniards, who first discovered them on All Saints day. There is some good land in the valleys, but the hills are covered with rocks.--Thus, in the short period of three months, concluded a campaign, in which three valuable islands and their dependencies were added to his majesty's dominions. To the unanimity which subsisted between the Commanders in Chief, together with their allowed high professional knowledge, and seconded by the spirited conduct of all the inferior ranks, must this unlooked-for success be attributed, as the force employed to effect it was certainly far short of what it ought to have been for so great an enterprise. The originally small army was now obliged to be divided, to garrison and secure our newly-acquired possessions; the fatigue became the more burthensome, and the troops that had gone through the campaign with unexampled bravery and patience, at length began to feel the effects of a climate, that even in peaceable times is often found too trying for European constitutions; and which was at this period rendered tenfold more severe by that dreadful malady the yellow fever, which, though it had subsided when we first came to the West Indies, was now, as it were, awakened by the arrival of fresh victims, and acquired more strength from the small resistance that could be made against it by constitutions already broken by fatigue under hardships and difficulties unparalleled.--As there were no expectations of any reinforcements of consequence being sent till November, the General determined to return to England, after he had made a proper arrangement to render the conquests permanent, and secure them against any attempt that might be made by those perturbed spirits that, notwithstanding his utmost vigilance, might remain in the colonies; and which he in a short time effected to his satisfaction, so far as it related to any attempt that could be made by the enemy in these parts: but it is not to be imagined that, with the small number of men he originally brought out, now reduced by a variety of causes to half their number, and daily decreasing in an alarming degree, any resistance could be made against a strong reinforcement, if the French nation should be able to send out one, from Europe[39]. Previous to his return, however, he was determined to leave the islands in the best possible state of defence; and for that purpose he, with the Admiral, visited all the islands in this quarter, inspecting the strong posts and fortifications, while the Admiral paid attention to the naval department in each; and in the beginning of June, after having taken formal leave of the army in general orders, he sailed for Europe.

[38] Lieutenant George Vaughan of the Boyne was this day promoted to the command of the Zebra sloop, and the Chaplain of the Boyne was appointed to the chaplaincy of the garrison of Guadaloupe, there being no other chaplain on the expedition; but government at home did not think fit to confirm the appointment. Lieutenant Davers of the Boyne was promoted to be acting commander of the Inspector, from whence he was promoted to the command of the Bull Dog sloop. Lieutenant Ogle was also appointed acting commander of the Assurance.

[39] After the islands were captured, a small reinforcement arrived, which was to be retained by Sir Charles Grey, if he thought fit; but as he knew it was much wanted to carry on the war at St. Domingo, and as it was insufficient to enable him to undertake an expedition against Cayenne, which he at first intended, he sent it on to Jamaica, under the command of Brigadier General Whyte; and Lieutenant Colonel Lennox, who came out soon after, he dispatched thither also.