EXPEDITION AGAINST THAT ISLAND.

Such was the state of Martinique, when the inhabitants every day expected a visit from the British armament, whose progress we shall now relate. On the twelfth day of November in the preceding year, captain Hughes sailed from St. Helen’s with eight sail of the line, one frigate, four bomb-ketches, and a fleet of transports, having on board six regiments of infantry, and a detachment of artillery, besides eight hundred marines distributed among the ships of war; this whole force being under the command of major-general Hopson, an old experienced officer, assisted by major-general Barrington, the colonels Armigerand Haldane, the lieutenant-colonels Trapaud and Clavering, acting in the capacity of brigadiers. After a voyage of seven weeks and three days, the fleet arrived at Barbadoes, and anchored in Carlisle-bay; where they joined commodore Moore, appointed by his majesty to command the united squadron, amounting to ten ships of the line, besides frigates and bomb-ketches. Ten days were employed in supplying the fleet with wood and water, in waiting for the hospital ship, in reviews, re-embarkations, councils of war, assemblies of the council belonging to the island, in issuing proclamations, and beating up for volunteers. At length, every great ship being reinforced with forty negroes, to be employed in drawing the artillery; and the troops, which did not exceed five thousand eight hundred men, being joined by two hundred Highlanders, belonging to the second battalion of the regiment commanded by lord John Murray in North America, who were brought as recruits from Scotland under convoy of the ship Ludlow-castle; the whole armament sailed from Carlisle-bay on the thirteenth day of January; but by this time the troops, unaccustomed to a hot climate, were considerably weakened and reduced by fevers, diarrhoeas, the scurvy, and the small-pox; which last disease had unhappily broke out amongst the transports. Next morning the squadron discovered the island of Martinique, which was the place of its destination. The chief fortification of Martinique was the citadel of Port-Royal, a regular fort, garrisoned by four companies, that did not exceed the number of one hundred and fifty men, thirty-six bombardiers, eighty Swiss, and fourteen officers. One hundred barrels of beef constituted their whole store of provisions; and they were destitute of all other necessaries. They were almost wholly unprovided with water in the cisterns, with spare carriages for their cannon, match, wadding, and langrage; they had but a small stock of other ammunition; and the walls were in many parts decayed. The only preparations they had made for receiving the English were some paltry intrenchments thrown up at St, Pierre, and a place called Casdenavires, where they imagined the descent would probably be attempted. On the fifteenth day of the month, the British squadron entered the great bay of Port-Royal, some of the ships being exposed to the shot of a battery erected on the isle de Ranieres, a little island about half way up the bay. At their first appearance, the Florissant, of seventy-four guns, which had been so roughly handled by captain Tyrrel in the Buckingham, then lying under the guns of Fort-Negro, along with two frigates, turned up under the citadel, and came to an anchor in the Carenage, behind the fortification. One frigate, called the Vestal, under favour of the night, made her escape through the transports, and directed her course for Europe; where she was taken by captain Hood, as we have already related. Next day three ships of the line were ordered to attack Fort-Negro, a battery at the distance of three miles from the citadel, which, being mounted with seven guns only, was soon silenced, and immediately possessed by a detachment of marines and sailors; who, being sanded in flat-bottomed boats, clambered up the rock, and entered through the embrasures with their bayonets fixed. Here, however, they met with no resistance: the enemy had abandoned the fort with precipitation. The British colours were immediately hoisted, and sentinels of marines posted upon the parapet. The next care was to spike and disable the cannon, break the carriages, and destroy the powder which they found in the magazine: nevertheless, the detachment was ordered to keep possession of the battery. This service being successfully performed, three ships were sent to reduce the other battery at Casdenavires, which consisted only of four guns, and these were soon rendered unserviceable. The French troops, reinforced with militia which had been detached from the citadel to oppose the disembarkation, perceiving the whole British squadron, and all the transports, already within the bay, and Fort-Negro occupied by the marines, retired to Port-Royal, leaving the beach open; so that the English troops were landed without opposition; and, being formed, advanced into the country towards Fort-Negro, in the neighbourhood of which they lay all night upon their arms; while the fleet, which had been galled by bomb-shells from the citadel, shifted their station, and stood farther up the bay. By ten next day, the English officers had brought up some field-pieces to an eminence, and scoured the woods, from whence the troops had been greatly annoyed by the small shot of the enemy during the best part of the night, and all that morning. At noon the British forces advanced in order towards the hill that overlooked the town and citadel of Port-Royal, and sustained a troublesome fire from enemies they could not see; for the French militia were entirely covered by the woods and bushes. This eminence, called the Morne Tortueson, though the most important post of the whole island, was neglected by the general of Martinique, who had resolved to blow up the fortifications of the citadel: but, luckily for the islanders, he had not prepared the materials for this operation, which must have been attended with the immediate destruction of the capital, and indeed of the whole country. Some of the inferior officers, knowing the importance of the Morne Tortueson, resolved to defend that post with a body of the militia, which was reinforced by the garrisons of Fort-Negro and Casdenavires, as well as by some soldiers detached from the Florissant: but, notwithstanding all their endeavours, as they were entirely unprovided with cannon, extremely defective in point of discipline, dispirited by the pusillanimity of their governor, and in a great measure disconcerted by the general consternation that prevailed among the inhabitants, in all probability they could not have withstood a spirited and well-conducted attack by regular forces. About two o’clock general Hopson thought proper to desist from his attempt. He gave the commodore to understand that he could not maintain his ground, unless the squadron would supply him with heavy cannon, landed near the town of Port-Royal, at a savannah, where the boats must have been greatly exposed to the fire of the enemy; or assist him in attacking the citadel by sea, while he should make his approaches by land. Both these expedients* being deemed impracticable by a council of war, the troops were recalled from their advanced posts, and re-embarked in the evening, without any considerable molestation from the enemy.

* The commodore offered to land the cannon on the other side
of Point-Negro, at a place equally near the road from the
English army to Port-Royal, and even cause them to be drawn
up by the seamen, without giving the troops the least
trouble. But this offer was not accepted. General Hopson
afterwards declared, that he did not understand Mr. Moore’s
message in the sense which it was meant to imply.

Their attempt on the Morne Tortueson had cost them several men, including two officers, killed or wounded in the attack; and, in revenge for this loss, they burned the sugar-canes, and desolated the country, in their retreat. The inhabitants of Martinique could hardly credit the testimony of their own senses, when they saw themselves thus delivered from all their fears, at a time when they were overwhelmed with terror and confusion; when the principal individuals among them had resigned all thought of further resistance, and were actually assembled at the public hall in Port-Royal, to send deputies to the English general, with proposals of capitulation and surrender.