The majority of the British officers, who constituted a council of war held for this purpose,* having given their opinion, that it might be for his majesty’s service to make an attack upon St. Pierre, the fleet proceeded to that part of the island, and entered the bay on the nineteenth.
* The commodore did not attend at this council: it was convoked to deliberate upon the opinion of the chief engineer, who thought they should make another landing to the southward of the Carenage. In this case, the pilots declared it would be extremely difficult, if not impracticable, for the fleet to keep up a communication with the army.
The commodore told the general, that he made no doubt of being able to reduce the town of St. Pierre; but as the ships might be disabled in the attack so as not to be in a condition to proceed immediately on any material service; as the troops might be reduced in their numbers, so as to be incapable of future attacks; and as the reduction of the island of Guadaloupe would be of great benefit to the sugar colonies; Mr. Mooro proposed that the armament should immediately proceed to that island, and the general agreed to the proposal. The reasons produced on this occasion are, we apprehend, such as may be urged against every operation of war. Certain it is, no conquest can be attempted, either by sea or land, without exposing’ the ships and troops to a possibility of being disabled and diminished; and the same possibility militated as strongly against an attempt upon Guadeloupe, as it could possibly discourage the attack of St. Pierre. Besides, Martinique was an object of greater importance than Guadaloupe;* as being the principal place possessed by the French in those seas, and that to which the operations of the armament were expressly limited by the instructions received from the ministry.
* Only as being the seat of government; for Guadaloupe makes a much greater quantity of sugar, and equipped a much greater number of privateers, with the assistance of the Dutch of St. Eustatia, situated in its neighbourhood.
St. Pierre was a place of considerable commerce; and at that very juncture, above forty sail of merchant ships lay at anchor in the bay. The town was defended by a citadel regularly fortified, but at that time poorly garrisoned, and so situated as to be accessible to the fire of the whole squadron; for the shore was bold, and the water sufficient to float any ship of the line. Before the resolution of proceeding to Gua-daloupe was taken, the commodore had ordered the bay to be sounded; and directed the Rippon to advance, and silence a battery situated a mile and a half to the northward of St. Pierre. Accordingly, captain Jekyll, who commanded that ship, stood in, and anchoring close to the shore, attacked it with such impetuosity, that in a few minutes it was abandoned. At the same time the Rippon was exposed to the fire of three other batteries, from which she received considerable damage both in her hull and rigging; and was in great danger of running aground, when orders were given to tow her out of danger.
The whole armament having abandoned the design on Martinique, directed their course to Guadeloupe, another of the Caribbee islands, lying at the distance of thirty leagues to the westward, about fifteen leagues in length, and twelve in breadth; divided into two parts by a small channel, which the inhabitants cross in a ferry-boat. The western division is known by the name of Basseterre; and here the metropolis stands, defended by the citadel and other fortifications. The eastern part, called Grandterre, is destitute of fresh water, which abounds in the other division; and is defended by fort Louis, with a redoubt, which commands the road in the district of Gosier. The cut, or canal, that separates the two parts, is distinguished by the appellation of the Salt-river, having a road or bay at each end; namely, the great Cul de Sac, and the small Cul de Sac. Gua-daloupe is encumbered with high mountains and precipices, to which the inhabitants used to convey their valuable effects in time of danger; but here are also beautiful plains watered by brooks and rivers, which fertilize the soil, enabling it to produce a great quantity of sugar, cotton, indigo, tobacco, and cassia; besides plenty of rice, potatoes, all kinds of pulse, and fruit peculiar to the island. The country is populous and flourishing, and the government comprehends two smaller islands called All-Saints and Deseada, which appear at a small distance from the coast, on the eastern side of the island. The British squadron having arrived at Bassaterre, it was resolved to make a general attack by sea upon the citadel, the town, and other batteries by which it was defended. A disposition being made for this purpose, the large ships took their respective stations next morning, which was the twenty-third day of January. At nine, the Lion, commanded by captain Trelawney, began the engagement against a battery of nine guns; and the rest of the fleet continued to place themselves abreast of the other batteries and the citadel, which mounted forty-six cannon, besides two mortars. The action in a little time became general, and was maintained on both sides for several hours with great vivacity; while the commodore, who had shifted his pendant into the Woolwrch frigate, kept aloof without gun-shot, that he might be the more disengaged to view the state of the battle, * and give his orders with the greater deliberation.
* He shifted lus broad pendant on board the Woolwich, as well to direct and keep the transports together in a proper posture for the landing of the troops, as to cover the disembarkation; and also to consult proper measures with the general, who saw the necessity of Mr. Moore’s being with him; and requested that he, with the other general officers and engineers, might be admitted on board the Woolwich, in order to consult, and take the earliest opportunity of landing the troops, as the service necessarily required.
This expedient of an admiral’s removing his flag, and retiring from the action while his own ship is engaged, however consonant to reason., we do not remember to have seen practised upon any occasion, except in one instance, at Carthagena, where sir Chaloner Ogle quitted his own ship, when she was ordered to stand in and cannonade the fort of Boca-Chica. In this present attack, all the sea-commanders behaved with extraordinary spirit and resolution, particularly the captains Leslie, Burnet, Gayton, Jekyll, Trelawney, and Shuldam, who, in the hottest tumult of the action, distinguished themselves equally by their courage, impetuosity, and deliberation. About five in the afternoon the fire of the citadel slackened. The Burford and Berwick were driven out to sea: so that captain Shuldam, in the Panther, was unsustained; and two batteries played upon the Rippon, captain Jekyll, who, by two in the afternoon, silenced the guns of one, called the Morne-rouge; but at the same time could not prevent his ship from running aground. The enemy perceiving her disaster, assembled in great numbers on the hill, and lined the trenches, from whence they poured in, a severe fire of musketry. The militia afterwards brought up a cannon of eighteen pound ball, and for two hours raked her fore and aft with considerable effect: nevertheless, captain Jekyll returned the fire with equal courage and perseverance, though his people dropped on every side, until all his grape-shot and wadding were expended, and all his rigging cut to pieces; to crown his misfortune, a box, containing nine hundred cartridges, blew up on the poop, and set the ship on fire: which, however, was soon extinguished. In the meantime, the captain threw out a signal of distress, to which no regard was paid,* till captain Leslie of the Bristol, coming from sea, and observing his situation, ran in between the Rippon and the battery, and engaged with such impetuosity, as made an immediate diversion in favour of captain Jekyll, whose ship remained aground, notwithstanding all the assistance that could be given, till midnight, when she floated, and escaped from the very jaws of destruction.
* In all probability it was not perceived by the Commodore.
At seven in the evening, all the other large ships, having silenced the guns to which they had been respectively opposed, joined the rest of the fleet. The four bombs being anchored near the shore, began to ply the town with shells and carcasses; so that in a little time the houses were in flames, the magazines of gunpowder blew up with the most terrible explosion; and about ten o’clock the whole place blazed out in one general conflagration. Next day, at two in the afternoon, the fleet came to an anchor in the road of Bassaterre, where they found the hulls of divers ships which the enemy had set on fire at their approach: several ships turned out and endeavoured to escape, but were intercepted and taken by the English squadron. At five, the troops landed without opposition, and took possession of the town and citadel, which they found entirely abandoned. They learned from a Genoese deserter, that the regular troops of the island consisted of five companies only, the number of the whole not exceeding one hundred men; and that they had lain a train to blow up the powder magazine in the citadel: but had been obliged to retreat with such precipitation as did not permit them to execute this design. The train was immediately cut off, and the magazine secured. The nails with which they had spiked up their cannon were drilled out by the matrosses; and in the meantime the British colours were hoisted on the parapet. Part of the troops took possession of an advantageous post on an eminence, and part entered the town, Which still continued burning with great violence. In the morning at day-break, the enemy appeared, to the number of two thousand, about four miles from the town, as if they intended to throw up intrenchments in the neighbourhood of a house where the governor had fixed his head-quarters, declaring he would maintain his ground to the last extremity. To this resolution, indeed, he was encouraged by the nature of the ground, and the neighbourhood of a pass called the Dos d’Ane, a cleft through a mountainous ridge, opening a communication with Capesterre, a more level and beautiful part of the island. The ascent from Basseterre to this pass was so very steep, and the way so broken and interrupted by rocks and gullies, that there was no prospect of attacking it with success, except at the first landing, when the inhabitants were under the dominion of a panic. They very soon recovered their spirits and recollection, assembled and fortified themselves among the hills, armed and arrayed their negroes, and affected to hold the invaders at defiance. A flag of truce being sent, with offers of terms to their governor, the chevalier d’Etriel, he rejected them in a letter, with which his subsequent conduct but ill agreed.504[See note 3 U, at the end of this Vol.]Indeed, from the beginning his deportment had been such as gave a very unfavourable impression of his character. When the British squadron advanced to the attack, instead of visiting in person the citadel and the batteries, in order to encourage and animate his people by his exhortation and example, he retired out of the reach of danger to a distant plantation, where he remained a tame spectator of the destruction in which his principal town and citadel were involved. Next morning, when he ought to have exerted himself in preventing the disembarkation of the English troops, who had a difficult shore and violent surf to surmount, and when he might have defended the intrenchments and lines which had been made to oppose their landing, he abandoned all these advantages, and took shelter among the mountains that were deemed inaccessible.
But, howsoever deficient the governor might have been in the article of courage, certain it is, the inhabitants behaved with great spirit and activity in defence of their country. They continually harassed the scouring detachments, by firing upon them from woods and sugar plantations, which last the English burned about their ears in resentment. Their armed negroes were very expert in this kind of bush fighting. The natives or militia appeared in considerable parties, and even encountered detached bodies of the British army. A lady of masculine courage, whose name was Ducharmy, having armed her slaves, they made several bold attempts upon an advanced post occupied by major Melville, and threw up intrenchments upon a hill opposite to the station of this officer, who had all along signalized himself by his uncommon intrepidity, vigilance, and conduct. At length the works of this virago were stormed by a regular detachment, which, after an obstinate and dangerous conflict, entered the intrenchment sword in hand, and burned the houses and plantations. Some of the enemy were killed, and a great number taken. Of the English detachment twelve soldiers were slain, and thirty wounded, including three subaltern officers, one of whom lost his arm. The greatest body of the enemy always appeared at the governor’s head-quarters, where they had raised a redoubt, and thrown up intrenchments. From these a considerable detachment advanced on the sixth day of February, in the morning, towards the citadel, and fell in with an English party, whom they engaged with great vivacity; but, after a short though warm dispute, they were obliged to retire with some loss. Without all doubt, the inhabitants of Guadaloupe pursued the most sensible plan that could possibly have been projected for their own safety. Instead of hazarding a general engagement against regular troops, in which they could have no prospect of success, they resolved to weary them out by maintaining a kind of petty war in separate parties, to alarm and harass the English with hard duty in a sultry climate, where they were but indifferently supplied with provisions and refreshments. Nor were their hopes in this particular disappointed. Both the army and the navy were invaded with fevers, and other diseases, epidemical in those hot countries; and the regimental hospitals were so crowded, that it was judged convenient to send five hundred sick men to the island of Antigua, where they might be properly attended.
GEORGE II. 1727-1760
In the meantime, the reduction of the islanders on the side of Guadaloupe appearing more and more impracticable, the general determined to transfer the seat of war to the eastern and more fertile part of the island, called Grandterre, which, as we have already observed, was defended by a strong battery, called Fort-Louis. In pursuance of this determination, the great ships were sent round to Grandterre, in order to reduce this fortification, which they accordingly attacked on the thirteenth day of February. After a severe cannonading, which lasted six hours, a body of marines being landed, with the Highlanders,* they drove the enemy from their intrenchments sword in hand; and, taking possession of the fort, hoisted the English colours.
* A reinforcement of two or three hundred Highlanders, had joined the fleet immediately before the troops landed on Guadaloupe.
In a few days after this exploit, general Hopson dying at Basseterre, the chief command devolved on general Barrington, who resolved to prosecute the final reduction of the island with vigour and despatch. As one step towards this conquest, the commodore ordered two ships of war to cruise off the island of Saint Eustatia, and prevent the Dutch traders from assisting the natives of Guadaloupe, whom they had hitherto constantly supplied with provisions since they retired to the mountains. General Barrington, on the very first day of his command, ordered the troops who were encamped to strike their tents and huts, that the enemy might imagine he intended to remain in this quarter; but in a few days the batteries in and about Basseterre were blown up and destroyed, the detachments recalled from the advanced posts, and the whole army re-embarked, except one regiment, with a detachment of artillery, left in garrison at the citadel, the command of which was bestowed on colonel Debrisay, an accomplished officer of great experience. The enemy no sooner perceived the coast clear than they descended from the hills, and endeavoured to take possession of the town, from which, however they were driven by the fire of the citadel. They afterwards erected a battery, from whence they annoyed this fortification both with shot and shells, and even threatened a regular attack; but as often as they approached the place, they were repulsed by sallies from the castle. *
* The battery which they had raised was attacked at noon, taken, and destroyed by captain Blomer, of the sixty-first regiment.
In the midst of these hostilities, the gallant Debrisay, together with major Trollop, one lieutenant, two bombardiers, and several common soldiers, were blown up, and perished, by the explosion of a powder magazine at the flanked angle of the south-east bastion. The confusion necessarily produced by such an unfortunate accident, encouraged the enemy to come pouring down from the hills, in order to make their advantage of the disaster; but they were soon repulsed by the fire of the garrison. The general, being made acquainted with the fate of colonel Debrisay, conferred the government of the fort upon major Melville, and sent thither the chief engineer to repair and improve the fortifications.
In the meantime, commodore Moore having received certain intelligence that monsieur de Bompart had arrived at Martinique, with a squadron consisting of eight sail of the line and three frigates, having on board a whole battalion of Swiss, and some other troops, to reinforce the garrisons of the island, he called in his cruisers, and sailed immediately to the bay of Dominique, an island to windward, at the distance of nine leagues from Guadaloupe, whence he could always sail to oppose any design which the French commander might form against the operations of the British armaments. For what reason Mr. Moore did not sail immediately to the bay of Port-Royal in Martinique, where he knew the French squadron lay at anchor, we shall not pretend to determine. Had he taken that step, M. Bompart must either have given him battle, or retired into the Carenage, behind the citadel; in which last case, the English commander might have anchored between Pigeon-Island and Fort-Negro, and thus blocked him up effectually. By retiring to Dominique, he left the sea open to French privateers, who rowed along the coasts of these islands, and in a very little time carried into Martinique above fourscore merchant-ships, belonging to the subjects of Great Britain. These continual depredations, committed under the nose of the English commodore, irritated the planters of the English islands, some of whom are said to have circulated unfavourable reports of that gentleman’s character.505[See note 3 X, at the end of this Vol.]
General Barrington being left with no more than one ship of forty guns for the protection of the transports, formed a plan of prosecuting the war in Guadaloupe by detachments, and the success fully answered his expectation. He determined to make a descent on the division of the island called Grandterre, and for that purpose allotted six hundred men; who, under the command of colonel Crump, landed between the towns of St. Anne and St. Francois, and destroyed some batteries of the enemy, from whom he sustained very little opposition. While he was thus employed, a detachment of three hundred men attacked the town of Gosier, which, notwithstanding a severe fire, they took by storm, drove the garrison into the woods, set fire to the place, and demolished the battery and intrenchment raised for its defence. This service being happily performed, the detachment was ordered to force their way to Fort-Louis, while the garrison of that castle was directed to make two sallies in order to favour their irruption. They accordingly penetrated, with some loss sustained in forcing a strong pass, and took possession of a battery which the enemy had raised against the English camp, in the neighbourhood of Fort Louis. The general, having hitherto succeeded in his designs, formed the scheme of surprising at one time the three towns of Petitbourg, Gonoyave, and St. Mary’s situated on the Basseterre side of the little Cul de Sac, and committed the execution of it to the colonels Crump and Clavering: but the night appointed for the service proved exceedingly dark and tempestuous; and the negro conductors were so frightened, that they ran several of the flat-bottomed boats on the shoals that skirt this part of the island. Colonel Clavering landed with about eighty men; but found himself so entangled with mangrove trees, and the mud so impassably deep, that he was obliged to re-embark, though not before the enemy had discovered his design. This project having miscarried, the general detached the same commanders, whose gallantry and conduct cannot be sufficiently applauded, with a detachment of fifteen hundred men, including one hundred and fifty volunteers from Antigua, to land in a bay not far from the town of Arnonville, at the bottom of the little Cul de Sac, under the protection of his majesty’s ship Woolwich. The enemy made no opposition to their landing; but retreated, as the English advanced, to a strong intrenchment thrown up behind the river Licorne, a post of the utmost importance, as it covered the whole country as far as the bay of Ma-haut, where provisions and supplies of all sorts were landed from St. Eustatia. The river was rendered inaccessible by a morass covered with mangroves, except at two narrow passes, which they had fortified with a redoubt, and intrenchments well pallisadoed, mounted with cannon, and defended by a numerous militia: besides, the narrow roads, through which only they could be attacked, were intersected with deep and wide ditches. Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the English commanders determined to hazard an assault. While four field-pieces and two howitzers maintained a constant fire upon the top of the intrenchments, the regiment of Duroure and the Highlanders advanced under this cover, firing by platoons with the utmost regularity. The enemy, intimidated by their cool and resolute behaviour, began to abandon the first intrenchment on the left. Then the Highlanders, drawing their swords, and sustained by part of the regiment, threw themselves in with their usual impetuosity, and followed the fugitives pell-mell into the redoubt, of which they took possession: but they still maintained their ground within the intrenchments on the right, from whence they annoyed the assailants both with musquetry and cannon. In half an hour, an occasional bridge being made, the English troops passed the river in order to attack this post, which the enemy abandoned with precipitation; notwithstanding all their haste, however, about seventy were taken prisoners, and among those some of the most considerable inhabitants of the island. This advantage cost the English two officers and thirteen men killed, and above fifty wounded.
The roads being mended for the passage of the artillery, the troops advanced towards Petitbourg, harassed in their march by flying bodies of the enemy, and arrived late at night on the banks of the river Lizarde, the only ford of which the French had fortified with strong intrenchments, protected by a battery of four cannon erected on a rising ground in the rear. Colonel Clavering, while he amused them all night at this place by a constant fire into their lines, transported in two canoes, which he launched about a mile and a half farther down the river, a sufficient number of troops, by day-break, to attack them on the other side in flank, while he advanced in front at the head of his little army; but they did not think proper to sustain the assault. On the contrary, they no sooner perceived his intention, than they forsook the post, and fled without order. Colonel Clavering, having passed the river, pursued them to Petit bourg, which they had also fortified; and here he found captain Uvedale, of the Grenada bomb-ketch, throwing shells into the redoubt. He forthwith sent detachments to occupy the neighbouring heights; a circumstance which the enemy no sooner observed, than they deserted the place, and retired with great expedition. On the fifteenth day of April, captain Steel destroyed a battery at Gonoyave, a strong post, which, though it might have been defended against an army, the French abandoned at his approach, after having made a hasty discharge of their artillery. At the same time colonel Crump was detached with seven hundred men to the bay of Mahaut, where he burned the town and batteries which he found abandoned, together with a vast quantity of provisions which had been brought from the island of St. Eustatia. Colonel Clavering, having left a small garrison at Petitbourg, began his march on the twentieth day of the month towards St. Mary’s, where he understood the enemy had collected their whole force, thrown up intrenchments, and raised barricadoes; but they had left their rear unguarded. The English commander immediately detached colonel Barlow with a body of troops to attack them from that quarter, while he himself advanced against the front of their intrenchment. They stood but one cannon-shot, and then fled to their lines and batteries at St. Mary’s, the flanks of which were covered with woods and precipices. When they perceived the English troops endeavouring to surmount these difficulties, and turn their lines, they quitted them in order to oppose the design, and were immediately attacked with such vivacity, in the face of a severe fire of musketry and cannon, that they abandoned their ground, and fled in the utmost confusion, leaving the field and all their artillery to the victors, who took up their quarters for that night at St. Mary’s. Next day they entered the charming country of Capesterre, where eight hundred and seventy negroes belonging to one planter surrendered at discretion. Here colonel Clavering was met by messieurs de Clainvilliers and Duqueruy, deputed by the principal inhabitants of the island to know what capitulation would be granted. These he conducted to Petitbourg, where they were presented to general Barrington; who, considering the absence of the fleet, the small number of his forces daily diminishing, the difficulty of the country, and the possibility of the enemy’s being reinforced from Martinique, wisely took the advantage of the present panic, and settled terms of capitulation without delay. The sanity of this resolution soon appeared. The inhabitants had just signed the agreement, when a messenger arrived in their camp with information that M. de Beauharnois, the general of the French islands, had landed at St. Anne’s, to the windward, with a reinforcement from Martinique, consisting of six hundred regulars from Europe, about fifteen hundred volunteers, besides a great number of the militia drafted from the companies of Martinique, with a great supply of arms and ammunition, mortars and artillery, under convoy of the squadron commanded by M. de Bompart, who no sooner learned that the capitulation was signed, than he re-embarked the troops and stores with all possible expedition, and returned to Martinique. Thus we see the conquest of this important island, which is said to produce a greater quantity of sugar than is made in any of the English plantations, was as much owing to accident as to the valour of the troops and the conduct of the general; for, had the reinforcement arrived an hour sooner than it actually landed, in all probability the English would have found it impracticable to finish the reduction of Guadaloupe. Be that as it may, the natives certainly deserved great commendation, not only for persevering so gallantly in defence of their country, but also for their fortitude in bearing every species of distress. They now quitted the Dos d’Ane, and all their other posts, and returned to their respective habitations. The town of Basseterre being reduced to a heap of ashes, the inhabitants began to clear away the rubbish, and erect occasional sheds, where they resumed their several occupations with that good humour so peculiar to the French nation; and general Barrington humanely indulged them with all the assistance in his power.
The small islands of Deseada, Los Santos, and Petit-terre, were comprised in the capitulation of Guadaloupe. The inhabitants of Marigalante, which lies about three leagues to the south-east of Grandterre, extending twenty miles in length, fifteen in breadth, flat and fertile, but poorly watered and ill fortified, having refused to submit when summoned by the squadron to surrender, general Barrington resolved to reduce them by force. He embarked a body of troops on board of transports, which sailed thither under convoy of three ships of war and two bomb vessels from Prince Rupert’s Bay, and at their appearance the islanders submitting, received an English garrison. Before this period, commodore Moore having received intelligence that M. de Bompart had sailed from Martinique, with a design to land a reinforcement on Guadaloupe, and that his squadron was seen seven leagues to windward of Marigalante, he sailed from Prince Rupert’s Bay, and turned to windward. After having been beating about for five days to very little purpose, he received notice from one of his cruisers, that the French admiral had returned to Martinique; upon which information he retired quietly to his former station in the bay of Dominique, the people of which were so insolent as to affirm, in derision, that the English squadron sailed on one side of the island, and the French upon the other, that they might be sure of not meeting; but this, without doubt, was an impudent calumny.*
* The commodore declared that he carried a press-sail night and day, in order to come up with the French squadron, and took every step that could be devised for that purpose. He says, if he had pursued any other course, the French commander might have run into the road of St. Kitt’s, and destroyed or taken a great number of merchant ships which were then loading with sugar for England. He says he tried every stratagem he could contrive for bringing M. de Bompart to action. He even sent away part of his squadron out of sight of the inhabitants of Dominique, that they might represent to their friends at Martinique his force much inferior to what it really was; but this expedient had no effect upon M. de Bompart, who made the best of his way to Cape François, on the island of Hispaniols.
General Barrington, having happily finished the conquest of Guadaloupe, gave notice to the commodore, that he intended to send back part of the troops with the transports to England, about the beginning of July. In consequence of this intimation, Mr. Moore sailed with his squadron to Basseterre road, where he was next day joined by two ships of the line from England, which rendered him greatly superior in strength to the commander of the French squadron, who had retired to the island of Grenada, lying about eight leagues from Guadaloupe. Here he was discovered by the ship Rippon, whose captain returned immediately to Basseterre, to make the commodore acquainted with this circumstance: but before he could weigh anchor, a frigate arrived with information, that Bompart had quitted Grenada, and was supposed to have directed his course to Hispaniola. The commodore immediately despatched the Ludlow Castle with this intelligence to admiral Coats, who commanded the squadron at Jamaica. General Barrington having made a tour of the island, in order to visit and repair such fortifications as he thought necessary to be maintained, and the affairs relating to the inhabitants being entirely settled, he sent the Highlanders, with a body of drafts, to North America, under convoy: he garrisoned the principal strength of the island, and left the chief command to colonel Crump, who had for some time acted as brigadier-general; colonel Clavering having been sent home to England with the account of the capitulation. Colonel Melville, who had signalized himself in a remarkable manner ever since their first landing, continued governor of the citadel at Basseterre; and the command at Grandterre was conferred on colonel Delgarno. Three complete regiments were alloted as a sufficient guard for the whole island, and the other three were embarked for England. General Barrington himself went on board the Roebuck in the latter end of June, and took his departure for England. About a month after, the transports, under convoy of captain Hughes, with a small squadron, set sail for Great Britain; while commodore Moore, with his large fleet, directed his course to Antigua.
While this armament had been employed in the conquest of Guadaloupe, North America exhibited still more sanguinary scenes of war and devastation; which, in order properly to introduce, it will be necessary to explain the steps that were taken on this continent, previous to this campaign. In October of the preceding year, a grand assembly was held at Easton, about ninety miles from Philadelphia; and there, peace was established, by a formal treaty, between Great Britain and the several nations of Indians inhabiting the country between the Apalachian mountains and the lakes. The Twightwees, however, settled between the river Ohio and the lakes, did not assist at this treaty, though some steps had been taken towards an alliance with that people. The conferences were managed by the governors of Pennsylvania and new Jersey, accompanied by sir William Johnston’s deputy for Indian affairs, four members of the council of Pennsylvania, six members of the assembly, two agents for the province of New Jersey, a great number of planters and citizens of Philadelphia, chiefly Quakers. They were met by the deputies and chiefs of the Mohawks, Oneidoes, Onondagoes, Cayugas, Senecas, Tuscaroras, Nanticoques, and Conoys; the Tuteloes, Chugnues, Delawares, and Unamies; the Minisinks, Mohicans, and Wappingers; the whole number, including their women and children, amounting to five hundred. Some of the Six Nations, thinking themselves aggrieved by the British colonists, who had imprisoned certain individuals of their nation, and had killed a few, and treated others with contempt, did not fail to express their resentment, which had been artfully fomented by the French emissaries, even into an open rapture. The Delewares and Minisinks, in particular, complained that the English had encroached upon their lands, and on that account were provoked to hostilities: but their chief, Teedyuscung, had made overtures of peace; and in the character of ambassador from all the Ten Nations, had been very instrumental in forming this assembly. The chiefs of the Six Nations, though very well disposed to peace, took umbrage at the importance assumed by one of the Delawares, over whom, as their descendants, they exercise a kind of parental authority; and on this occasion they made no scruple to disclose their dissatisfaction. The business, therefore, of the English governors at this congress, was to ascertain the limits of the lands in dispute, reconcile the Six Nations with their nephews the Delawares, remove every cause of misunderstanding between the English and the Indians, detach these savages entirely from the French interest, establish a firm peace, and induce them to exert their influence in persuading the Twightwees to accede to this treaty. Those Indians, though possessed of few ideas, circumscribed in their mental faculties, stupid, brutal, and ferocious, conducting themselves nevertheless, in matters of importance to the community, by the general maxims of reason and justice; and their treaties are always founded upon good sense, conveyed in a very ridiculous manner. Their language is guttural, harsh, and polysyllabical; and their speech consists of hyperbolical metaphors and similies, which invest it with an air of dignity and heighten the expression. They manage their conferences by means of wampum, a kind of bead formed of a hard shell, either in single strings, or sewed in broad belts of different dimensions, according to the importance of the subject. Every proposition is offered, every answer made, every promise corroborated, every declaration attested, and every treaty confirmed, by producing and interchanging these belts of wampum. The conferences were continued from the eighth to the twenty-sixth day of October, when every article was settled to the mutual satisfaction of all parties. The Indian deputies were gratified with a valuable present, consisting of looking-glasses, knives, tobacco-boxes, sleeve-buttons, thimbles, sheers, gun-locks, ivory combs, shirts, shoes, stockings, hats, caps, handkerchiefs, thread, clothes, blankets, gartering, serges, watch-coats, and a few suits of laced clothes for their chieftains. To crown their happiness, the stores of rum were opened; they drank themselves into a state of brutal intoxication, and next day returned in peace to their respective places of habitation.
This treaty with the Indians, who had been debauched from the interest of Great Britain, auspiciously paved the way for those operations which had been projected against the French settlements in Canada. Instead of employing the whole strength of the British arms in North America against one object, the ministry proposed to divide the forces, and make impressions on three different parts at once, that the enemy might be divided, distracted, and weakened, and the conquest of Canada completed in one campaign. That the success might be the more certain, the different expeditions were planned in such a manner as to co-operate with each other, and even join occasionally; so practicable was it thought for them to maintain such a correspondence as would admit of a junction of this nature. The project of this campaign imported, that general Wolfe, who had distinguished himself so eminently in the siege of Louis-bourg, should proceed up the river St. Laurence, as soon as the navigation should be clear of ice, with a body of eight thousand men, and a considerable squadron of ships from England, to undertake the siege of Quebec, the capital of Canada: that general Amherst, who commanded in chief, should, with another army of regular troops and provincials, amounting to twelve thousand men, reduce Ticonderoga and Crown Point, cross the lake Champlain, and, proceeding along the river Richelieu to the banks of the river St. Laurence, join general Wolfe in the siege of Quebec: that brigadier-general Prideaux, with a third body, reinforced with a considerable number of friendly Indians, assembled by the influence and under the command of sir William Johnston, should invest the French fort erected at the fall or cataract of Niagara, which was certainly the most important post of all French America, as it in a manner commanded all the interior parts of that vast continent. It overawed the whole country of the Six Nations, who were cajoled into a tame acquiescence in its being built on their territory: it secured all the inland trade, the navigation of the great lakes, the communication between Canada and Louisiana, and opened a passage for inroads into the colonies of Great Britain. It was proposed that the British forces, having reduced Niagara, should be embarked on the lake Ontario, fall down the river St. Laurence, besiege and take Montreal, and then join or co-operate with Amherst’s army. Besides these larger armaments, colonel Stanwix commanded a smaller detachment for reducing smaller forts, and scouring the banks of the lake Ontario. How far this project was founded on reason and military knowledge may be judged by the following particulars, of which the projectors were not ignorant. The navigation of the river St. Laurence is dangerous and uncertain. The city of Quebec was remarkably strong from situation, and fortification, from the bravery of the inhabitants, and the number of the garrison. Monsieur de Montcalm, an officer of great courage and activity, kept the field between Montreal and Quebec, with a body of eight or ten thousand men, consisting of regular troops and disciplined militia, reinforced by a considerable number of armed Indians; and another body of reserve hovered in the neighbourhood of Montreal, which was the residence of monsieur de Vaudreuil, governor-general of Canada. The garrison of Niagara consisted of above six hundred men; the march to it was tedious and embarrassed; and monsieur de Levi scoured the country with a flying detachment, well acquainted with all the woods and passes. With respect to general Amherst’s share of the plan, the forts of Ticonderoga and Crown-Point stood in his way. The enemy were masters of the lake Champlain, and possessed the strong fort of Chambly, by the fall of the river Richelieu, which defended the pass to the river St. Laurence. Even had these obstacles been removed, it was hardly possible that he and Mr. Wolfe should arrive at Quebec in the same instant of time. The first that reached it, far from being in condition to undertake the siege of Quebec, would have run the risk of being engaged and defeated by the covering army; in which case the other body must have been exposed to the most imminent hazard of destruction, in the midst of an enemy’s country, far distant from any place of safety to which it could retreat. Had these disasters happened (and, according to the experience of war, they were the natural consequences of the scheme), the troops at Niagara would in all probability have fallen an easy sacrifice, unless they had been so fortunate as to receive intelligence in time enough to accomplish their retreat before they could be intercepted. The design would, we apprehend, have been more justifiable, or at least not so liable to objection, had Mr. Amherst left two or three regiments to protect the frontiers of New-York, and, joining Mr. Wolfe with the rest, sailed by the river St. Laurence to besiege Quebec. Even in that case the whole number of his troops would not have been sufficient, according to the practice of war, to invest the place, and cope with the covering enemy. Nevertheless, had the enterprise succeeded, Montcalm must either have hazarded an engagement against great odds, or retired farther into the country; then the route would have been open by land and water to Montreal, which could have made little resistance. The two principal towns being taken, and the navigation of the river St. Laurence blocked up, all the dependent forts must have surrendered at discretion, except Niagara, which there was a bare possibility of supplying at an incredible trouble and expense, from the distant Mississippi; but even then, it might have been besieged in form, and easily reduced. Whatever defects there might have been in the plan, the execution, though it miscarried in some essential points, was attended with surprising success. The same good fortune that prospered the British arms so remarkably in the conquest of Guadaloupe, seemed to interpose still more astonishingly in their favour at Quebec, the siege of which we shall record in its proper place. At present, we must attend the operations of general Amherst, whose separate army was first in motion, though such impediments were thrown in his way as greatly retarded the progress of his operations; impediments said to have arisen from the pride, insolence, and obstinacy of certain individuals, who possessed great influence in that part of the world, and employed it all to thwart the service of their country. The summer was already far advanced before general Amherst could pass lake George with his forces, although they met with no opposition, and reached the neighbourhood of Ticonderoga, where, in the preceding year, the British troops had sustained such a terrible disaster. At first the enemy seemed determined to defend this fortress: but perceiving the English commander resolute, cautious, and well prepared for undertaking the siege; having, moreover, orders to retreat from place to place, towards the centre of operations at Quebec, rather than run the least risk of being made prisoners of war, they, in the night of July the twenty-seventh, abandoned the post, after having in some measure dismantled the fortifications; and retired to Crown -Point, a fort situated on the verge of lake Champlain, General Amherst having taken possession of this important post, which effectually covered the frontiers of New-York, and secured to himself a safe retreat in case of necessity, ordered the works to be repaired, and allotted a strong garrison for its defence. This acquisition, however, was not made without the loss of a brave accomplished young officer, colonel Boger Townshend, who, in reconnoitering the fort, was killed with a cannon-shot, and fell near the same spot which, in the former year, had been enriched with the blood of the gallant lord Howe, whom he strongly resembled in the circumstances of birth, age, qualifications and character.
GEORGE II. 1727-1760
While the general superintended the repairs of Ticonderoga, and the men were employed in preparing batteaux and other vessels, his scouting parties hovered in the neighbourhood of Crown-Point, in order to watch the motions of the enemy. From one of these detachments he received intelligence, on the first day of August, that the enemy had retired from Crown-Point. He immediately detached a body of rangers before him to take possession of the place: then he embarked with the rest of the army, and on the fourth day of the month landed at the fort, where the troops were immediately encamped. His next care was to lay the foundation of a new fort, to be maintained for the further security of the British dominions in that part of the country; and particularly for preventing the inroads of scalping parties, by whom the plantations had been dreadfully infested. Here information was received that the enemy had retired to the Isle aux Noix, at the other end of the lake Champlain, five leagues on the hither side of St. John’s; that their force encamped in that place, under the command of M. de Burlemaque, consisted of three battalions and five piquets of regular troops, with Canadians and marines, amounting in the whole to three thousand five hundred effective men, provided with a numerous artillery; and that the lake was occupied by four large vessels mounted with cannon, and manned with piquets of different regiments, under the command and direction of M. le Bras, a captain in the French navy, assisted by M. de Rigal, and other sea-officers. In consequence of this intimation, general Amherst, who had for some time employed captain Loring to superintend the building of vessels at Ticonderoga, being resolved to have the superiority on the lake, directed the captain to build with all possible expedition a sloop of sixteen guns, and a radeau eighty-four feet in length, capable of carrying six large cannon. These, together with a brigantine, being finished, victualled, and manned by the eleventh day of October, the general embarked with the whole of the troops in batteaux, in order to attack the enemy; but next day, the weather growing tempestuous, was obliged to take shelter in a bay on the western shore, where the men were landed for refreshment. In the meantime, captain Loring, with his small squadron, sailing down the lake, gave chase to a French schooner, and drove three of their ships into a bay, where two of them were sunk, and the third run aground by their own crew, who escaped; one, however, was repaired and brought away by captain Loring, so that now the French had but one schooner remaining. General Amherst, after having been some days wind-bound, re-embarked his forces, and proceeded down the lake; but the storm, which had abated, beginning to blow with redoubled fury, so as to swell the waves mountains high, the season for action being elapsed, and winter setting in with the most rigorous severity, he saw the impossibility of accomplishing his design, and was obliged to desist. Returning to the same bay where he had been sheltered, he landed the troops, and began his march for Crown-Point, where he arrived on the twenty-first day of October. Having secured a superiority on the lake, he now employed all his attention in rearing the new fortress at Crown-Point, together with three small outforts for its better defence; in opening roads of communication with Ticonderoga, and the governments of Massachusetts and New Hampshire; and in making dispositions for the winter-quarters of his troops, so as to protect the country from the inroads of the enemy.