GENERAL BARRINGTON TAKES GOSIER, &c.

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.