Part 5

_Killed_ _Died_ Major 0 1 (Watson) Captains 0 5 First Lieutenant 1 0 Second Lieutenant 0 1 ---- ---- 1 7 ==== ====

DOUGLAS'S Marines, (succeeded by Lt. Col. COCHRAN.)

_Killed_ _Died_ Colonel (Douglas) 1 0 Captains 1 1 First Lieutenants 1 2 Second Lieutenants 0 1 ---- ---- 3 4 ==== ====

LOWTHER'S Marines.

_Killed_ _Died_ Captains 1 3 First Lieutenants 0 3 Second Lieutenants 1 1 ---- ---- 2 7 ==== ====

ROBINSON'S Marines.

_Killed_ _Died_ Lieut. Colonel (Thompson) 1 0 Captains 0 2 First Lieutenants 0 2 Second Lieutenants 1 0 ---- ---- 2 4 ==== ====

WYNYARD'S Marines.

_Killed_ _Died_ Major (Hall) 0 1 Captains 1 2 Captain Lieutenant 0 1 First Lieutenants 0 6 Second Lieutenants 1 3 ---- ---- 2 13 ==== ====

MORTON'S Marines.

_Killed_ _Died_ Colonel (Morton) 0 1 Lieut. Colonel (Blagrave) 0 1 Major (Macloed) 0 1 Captains 0 2 First Lieutenants 1 8 Second Lieutenants 0 2 ---- ---- 1 15 ==== ====

Being a total loss of nineteen Officers killed, and seventy-seven who died from disease or their wounds.

The casualties of the other auxiliaries which were drawn from America, were not proportionate to the above, as they were better calculated for the climate; but the regiments of Marines were newly-raised levies, and by an erroneous policy, they were too early destined for a country, the air of which alone will always outdo the works of the sword.

It is remarked, that young formed Corps are the worst adapted for it, as it is too sudden a transition of life with many who compose them, and are often strangers to that regulated system of discipline which, in establishing their comforts, secures their health. Upon no service, however, were men ever more distinguished for bravery, but all who ever visited these quarters of the globe well know, that its diseases will conquer and control the boldest minds.

Every thing having been arranged, the fleet sailed for Jamaica upon the 6th of May, where they arrived upon the 19th, and found their reinforcements and supplies, of which they now stood in much need.

CHAP. IX.

During 1741, the number of Marine Regiments was augmented to ten, and the sums voted to maintain them were £201,752 13 0. If the same force had been established before the peace of Utrecht, they would not have exceeded the estimate of £186,666 1 8, as the following indulgences were granted, and annual allowances made subsequent to that period:

For servants allowed to Officers £7,786 13 4 Allowance to the Widows of Officers 2,433 6 8 To Colonels, for clothing lost by deserters 2,129 3 4 To Captains, for recruiting their Companies 1,825 0 0 To Agents of different Regiments 912 10 0 ------------- £15,086 13 4 =============

At this time the whole Half-pay Establishment of Great Britain, including Horse, Dragoons, Foot, Invalids, and Marines, consisted of only five hundred and fifty-one Officers, and the annual expenditure upon the whole was £34,492 10 0, being at the rate of £94 10 0 per day, and so considerate and œconomical were the public measures, that the House of Commons addressed his Majesty, praying, that those upon this list, if fit for service, might be appointed to the first vacant commissions which occurred in the different Regiments. But an ill-judged parsimony, as to the _number_ of Officers attached to Corps, seemed also to exist, and the same spirit was constantly urging the conversion of the Land Forces into bodies of Marines.

The regulation for this establishment were nearly similar in their principles to those framed for the line. The Colonels of Marine Regiments clothed their respective Corps, and had the liberty of recommending for commissions--Excepting that the whole battalion was destined for a particular service, none of the Field Officers were embarked. The greatest number of men on board the largest ships did not exceed one hundred under a Captain, three Subalterns, and the smallest was not less than twenty under an Officer.

The Commanders of Marine detachments were enjoined to forward _effective_ returns of them every two months to the Commissary General of Marines, attested by the Captains and Pursers of each. This was necessary, in order to conduct the musters of the Regimental Companies, and to guide the recruiting service on shore. The same deductions were made from them as the Army, for clothing and Chelsea Hospital, whether embarked or not.

When attached to any ship, their indulgencies were equal to those of the Seamen, as to the receiving provisions without any deductions from their pay on that account, they had short allowance money, and the benefit of Naval Hospitals. When sent thither, either sick or wounded, they were deemed effective in the musters ashore, if producing a certificate from the Surgeon of the Ship to which they belonged, and another from the Commanding Officer at head-quarters, when in Great Britain.

The Paymaster General of Marines issued the pay, upon receiving it, to the Colonels of Regiments, or their Agents, and the Paymaster of each settled all their accounts agreeably to the muster-rolls they had from the Commissary General.

These muster-rolls, with the receipts of the different Colonels or their Agents, were esteemed sufficient vouchers for passing the Paymaster's accounts, and for making out warrants or debentures for clearings; which terms shall undergo a more particular discussion, under the head of Examples.

When brigaded abroad, they were paid exactly in the same manner as the Army; but the arrears of Marine Officers were much longer withheld, and the Captains of Companies were exposed to very peculiar hardships, which will be stated more at length in a subsequent stage of the narrative.--It is enough at present to remark, that the Officers of these Regiments, when abroad, were often obliged to assign that branch of their pay, at fifty per cent. discount, in order to answer their temporary exigencies.

What a contrast does this system present to the reforms, which have been recently established, in favour of this class of men.

CHAP. X.

In consequence of the heavy losses sustained at Carthagena, and the mortality which still continued to rage after their arrival at Jamaica, the transit between the Regiments of Foot and Marines was rapid and immediate. Upon this service promotions were established by rotation in the whole line. Within the short period of five weeks, the Corps, originally Douglas's, numbered amongst its casualties, three Colonels, two Lieutenant Colonels, and two Majors.

It was not until the beginning of July that the fleet and army were in a state of readiness to renew their operations, when it was resolved to proceed against the Island of Cuba, where they anchored upon the 18th of July, in Walthenham Bay, immediately named Port Cumberland, in honor of his Royal Highness the Duke, about eighteen leagues to windward of St. Jago, the first object of their intended attack, and properly speaking, the Capital, although it was not then the seat of the Governor. The troops were all landed upon the 24th, consisting nearly of four thousand men, including one thousand chosen negroes, levied by the Island of Jamaica, with a view to sustain the laborious duties of this service. Having established a position upon the side of the river, nearly three leagues from the mouth of the harbour, the General on the 25th pushed some detachments into the country, which every where beat back the outposts of the enemy, and in a few days returned to the Camp, with plentiful supplies of provisions.

It was originally the intention of the Commanders in Chief to have made a joint attack upon St. Jago, but the want of unanimity which had sometime past, and now existed to a fatal degree, ruined every purpose.--Contentious debates, and dilatory measures, took place of cordial co-operation and pushing enterprize, while the Country's interests and the lives of the Soldiery were daily sacrificed to the bitterest feuds.

About the middle of August the General stated the impracticability of advancing into the interior country with his present force, and expressed a wish to await the arrival of fresh levies from America, and the expected reinforcements from Europe, which now became essential to complete the skeleton Corps of his Army. The first resource was planned at the outset of the West India expedition, and instructions had been early given to the Commander in Chief to avail himself of it, when compelled by emergency.

Accordingly, recruiting parties were sent to New England to raise volunteers, and General Wentworth, by a personal appeal to the Governor of that province, urged the necessity of their being seconded with public spirit and public liberality. Similar steps were adopted in the State of New York, to fill up the American Regiments of Marines; and the Governors, by an impressive address to the Legislative Houses of both, strongly recommended their energies, not only on the ground of patriotism, but of political expediency. Bounties of forty shillings were offered to volunteers, and the alluring inducements of conquered territory.--America then saw her interests in the subjugation of the Spanish dependencies in that quarter of the globe.

During a long interval nothing was attempted, even towards a partial reduction of Cuba, at the close of which, sickness, the never-failing result of total inactivity in these climes, began his ravages. It was therefore determined to evacuate the island, which was effected upon the 20th of November, when the regimental returns were as follow:

_Serj._ _Corp._ _Drum._ _Priv._ General Harrison's Foot 22 23 8 172 Wentworth's ditto 22 17 8 172 Colonel Wolfe's (Marines) 20 23 6 132 Frazer's 22 21 6 109 Lowther's 22 24 8 183 Wynyard's 23 20 11 123 Cochran's 15 11 7 158 Cotterell's 24 26 10 151 First Battalion, Gooch's (American) 16 11 3 129 Second ditto 10 7 3 90 Third ditto 10 7 3 79 Fourth ditto 6 7 1 107 ---------------------------- 212 197 74 1610 Sick in all 39 47 15 465 251 244 89 2073 ============================

The total loss of Officers, at the close of 1741, amounted to one Commander in Chief, five Colonels, ten Lieutenant Colonels, seven Majors, fifty-five Captains, one hundred and sixteen Subalterns, and fourteen Staff Officers.

The heavy casualties in the Marine Regiments may easily be known, when it is recollected, that upon their leaving Europe each consisted of more than one thousand men.

The transports, under a proper escort, returned to Jamaica upon the 29th of November, while the squadron continued at sea to meet the anxiously looked-for reinforcements.

CHAP. XI.

It was not until the 15th of January, 1742, that nearly three thousand men, including two thousand Marines, arrived at Jamaica. Another expedition was now meditated, which put to sea early in March, but adverse winds, the separation of transports having on board the working negroes, and the expectation of the periodical rains now nearly setting in, suggested to a Council of War held at Porto Bello, at the close of that month, the immediate return of the whole armament, to the port they had left. This afforded another instance of unfortunate discord. The fleet arrived at Jamaica upon the 15th of May.

In order to give a specious appearance to things, and to compensate for the national expenditures and past miscarriages, it was now judged proper to detach a force to take possession of Rattan, an island in the Bay of Honduras, and a situation highly proper for maintaining a commercial intercourse with South America, as well as the trade in logwood.

An establishment there having been formed early in the year, it was determined in a Council of War to send a force of fifty Marines and two hundred Americans, under Major Caulfield, in order to place the island in a state of military defence.

On the 23d of August, they reached Port Royal, on the south side of it, where they formed a camp and erected Fort George to defend the harbour, as well Fort Frederick, on the western part of it. A great proportion of the American soldiers being papists, they formed a plot to render the settlement abortive, and to rise upon the Marines and the well-affected of their countrymen.

His Majesty's ship, Litchfield, then in the harbour, hearing the alarm guns, instantly landed her party of Marines, who with those on shore soon checked this daring mutiny, secured the delinquents, and preserved the settlement to his Majesty.

Nothing farther was done during the inauspicious commands of Admiral Vernon or General Wentworth, who both soon afterwards returned to Great Britain, excepting the detaching five hundred men of different descriptions to the aid of General Oglethorpe, in South Carolina, and repelling the menaces of the Spaniards against the infant colony of Georgia.

Orders of recall for both arrived at Jamaica upon the 23d of September, and the General was directed to provide the fleet with a number of commissioned Officers, and men, from the Marines, sufficient to supply its wants; also to fill up the vacancies in the eight Independent Companies raised for the defence of Jamaica. For the former purpose, eleven hundred were required, which were nearly all that were now left and fit for duty. The supernumerary Officers and sick were sent home, and the American troops were invited to become volunteers for both.

Government, under the experience of past disasters, now vested the controul of the Marines in Sir Chaloner Ogle, upon whom the naval command devolved after the departure of Admiral Vernon. Notwithstanding the personal animosities that had existed, this Officer bore his testimony to the zeal and distinguished bravery of the Soldiery, whose gallant efforts and patient endurance under the greatest privations, were uniformly conspicuous throughout a series of misfortunes.

Upwards of seven thousand Marines and nearly four thousand of other troops were the lamentable victims to pestilence and disunion, but not to defeat. The objects which were accomplished, although not adequate to their country's hopes, were still distressing to the enemy. Their principal harbours were in a manner rendered defenceless, and the Spanish government experienced much embarrassment from nearly a total suspension of these pecuniary supplies, which could alone enable it to maintain the war with vigour and effect, while the distress pervaded every class of its subjects.

Our forces were ever after too feeble to undertake any enterprize of importance against the enemy in that quarter of the world.--Self-defence was now the system adopted by Sir Chaloner Ogle, as the Spanish squadron at the Havannah was superior to his own, since the departure of Admiral Vernon.

The supplies which were voted for the year 1743 provided for a large levy of Marines to fill up their casualties--eleven thousand five hundred and fifty being the number decreed, and forty thousand seamen.

Nothing further, consistent with my subject, appears on the face of the public transactions of the year 1742.

CHAP. XII.

Early in 1743, an impression upon some part of the continent of South America being resolved on, the conduct of these operations was entrusted to Captain Knowles, of the Navy, having on board his squadron four hundred of the regiment of Dalzell, and about six hundred Marines. They were first ordered to rendezvous at Antigua, from which island they sailed upon the 12th of February, with a view upon La Guira, a town in the district of the Caraccas, in Terra Firma. The attack against it was commenced on the 18th, but owing to a very heavy swell, the men of war could not approach the shore, and in consequence, the troops were not landed.--After a very heavy cannonade, which was only ended by the night, the ships withdrew from the combat. The town suffered extremely, many breaches were made in the fortifications, and the enemy sustained a loss of more than seven hundred men.

The Spaniards behaved well, as the squadron suffered very considerable damages, besides having nearly four hundred killed and wounded.

It proceeded to Curaccoa to refit, where they prepared for another attempt upon the sea-coast of Terra Firma. Having been reinforced by some Dutch Volunteers, Commodore Knowles sailed from this island upon the 20th of March, and shaped a course for Porto Cavallo, where there was a respectable force, and a town in the best state of defence.

Owing to strong lee currents, it was not until the 15th of April that the ships anchored under the keys of Barbarat, to the eastward of the place. Having reconnoitred the different points of opposition, which were every where formidable, two ships were ordered upon the 16th of April against Ponta Brava, to commence upon it a flanking fire, which its low situation, and the injudicious construction of the works, evidently permitted.

After they were silenced, it was agreed to land the troops of every description, in order to take possession, and to turn the guns against the Castle; their retreat being secured by a man of war within pistol shot of the shore.--By sunset the ships had accomplished their object, and by dark a force of twelve hundred sailors, soldiers, and Dutch Volunteers were disembarked under the command of Major Lucas.

About eleven at night the Van gained one of the fascine batteries upon Ponta Brava, when a Spanish centinel discharged his musquet, and gave a general alarm.

Two guns being fired from the other battery, which was the next for capture, put into an unaccountable confusion nearly the whole of this mixed detachment, when under the influence of a panic they retreated to the ships with precipitation.

Upon the 21st it was resolved to wipe away the disgrace of the late miscarriage, by an attack of the squadron and forces against the Castle and fascine batteries.--Four ships were destined to batter the former upon the 24th, while three others were placed against the latter. The cannonading began at eleven on the noon of that day, and was maintained with a mutual obstinacy till nine at night, when after a short interval the firing was renewed. Some of the ships having now expended all their ammunition, and others being damaged, they were ordered to slip, and to anchor without the reach of the enemy's shot.

This attack being fruitless in its object, which was to land the troops, and fatal in its consequences, by a loss of more than two hundred men, it was now deemed impracticable to push any farther enterprize, and upon the 28th, in a general consultation, it was resolved to return to Jamaica.

The extended operations of our fleets in other quarters being marked with no events in which his Majesty's Marine forces were particularly called forth, no farther details connected with my narrative appear within the annals of 1743.

CHAP. XIII.

Although Great Britain, as a guarantee of the balance of continental power, had, during a past period, exerted her resources in the cause of her Allies, opposed to the interests of France, although his Majesty King George the Second, in quality of Elector of Hanover, had been highly distinguished in the field at the head of these armies, still a specious cordiality continued to exist between the two nations.

Since the declaration of hostilities against Spain, our restless and intriguing neighbours enjoyed all the advantages of war, without experiencing any of its evils.

At the outset of this year, however, their projects were developed by the equipment of powerful naval armaments in their ports, and the assembling of armies upon their sea-coasts; the avowed aim of which was against the Crown and Liberties of the British Empire.

A Prince, delegated by his Father, and drawn from his retreat in another country, mild in his temper, and amiable in his manners, was induced to renew their almost forgotten claims upon our monarchy, and to revive the quickly decaying prejudices within our land, in favour of his family and himself.

Unable now no longer to restrain her views, France declared war upon the 20th day of March, which was answered by a similar proclamation of the 31st, on the part of England.--That Providence which has often so signally interposed for our country was now conspicuous.--The elements were employed in the destruction of many of their transports and troops at Dunkirk, while our floating bulwarks chased their covering fleet from our coasts.

At this time the whole property of naval prizes was vested in the captors, his Majesty having generously relinquished that share which hitherto had pertained to the Crown.

The arrival of Commodore Anson from his expedition, which was originally intended to co-operate across the isthmus of Darien, with the fatal one conducted by Admiral Vernon, diffused a joy into the nation.

The specie which was gained by his enterprize, courage, and perseverance was immense; and although it was obtained antecedent to the royal grant, still it was divided amongst his squadron, unimpaired by claims.

About three hundred and thirty marines shared in the toils, and the many debarkations which took place in his tedious progress; having been drafted from the different regiments to fill up the complement of his ships, and to supply the place of a number of Invalids under Lieutenant Colonel Cracherode, who dreading their approaching hardships, deserted from the service.

Fleets were now detached to every quarter of the globe, and a force of eleven thousand five hundred and fifty-six Marines, was again the establishment of 1744.