after an ineffectual resistance, they fled on all sides, and left Colonel Dessources in possession of their battery, the work of several months, and of the gun which they had in the preceding night withdrawn from it, for the defence of their breastwork. "This critical enterprize, I am happy to say, was effected with but little loss, and by its success I was freed from any apprehensions from the junction of the enemy's army. I am persuaded this additional proof of Colonel Dessources' military ability and spirit will meet with his Majesty's approbation. That officer speaks in the highest terms of the behaviour of the troops under his command, of the officers who commanded the columns, and in a particular manner of the Captains Rodanes, Conegrat, and Monchet, of the colonial forces, who formed his advanced guard, and to their intrepidity and conduct he attributes much of the success of his operations. "As the troops were assembling to proceed to other objects which I thought of importance for the King's service, I was informed by Brigadier-General Churchill of an attack that had been made at Irois, where, though the enemy had been fortunately repulsed in the assault upon that post, they still continued to invest it, and to threaten its siege. No time was lost in detaching the honourable Colonel Maitland with a sufficient force to the assistance of that officer. On his arrival, Brigadier-General Churchill informed him of the repulse of the enemy." The English lost between forty and fifty in killed and wounded. Upon the 30th of May, Brigadier-General Churchill proceeded to attack the post of Mirebalais. After two very hot days' march he arrived at Port Michell, occupied by about fifty of the enemy, who retired as the English approached. In the evening, Colonel Dessources, unable to proceed to the place he was ordered, joined General Churchill, and enabled him to drive the enemy from an advantageous position they had taken, without any loss to the British, driving some of them into the Artibonite, and taking two of their guns. The retreat of the enemy gave the fort of Mirebalais to the English. Troops were now sent to protect St. Marc's from an attack prepared against it at Gonaives; and at the same time Colonel the Count de Rouvray, with 300 men, was detached to attack a camp of the brigands on the side of Leogane. He effectually drove the enemy from their several posts, killed between forty and fifty, burnt the camp, and returned to Grenier, with the loss of two killed and seven wounded. The enemy attacked St. Marc, and carried the out-posts, but were afterwards driven from before it with considerable loss. On the night of the 20th of April, General Rigaud, with 1200 picked men, attacked the British posts at Irois in St. Domingo. At midnight, they attemped to storm the fort, in which there was only at the time twenty five men of the 17th regiment, with their officers commanded by Lieutenant Talbot of the 82d regiment, and about twenty colonial artillery men. The assailants returned to the charge three several times: many of them were killed in the fort. Colonel Degress, with 350 men of Prince Edward's black chasseurs, cut their way through to the relief of the fort, and saved the place, which was repeatedly attacked until morning, when the assailants retired, leaving the fort surrounded with their dead, and took post on an eminence, in spite of a sortie that was made with some advantage. On the 22d, Rigaud's troops made an incursion, and burnt the Bourg d'Anse Marie, and made an attack upon Fort L'Islet, from whence they were driven with great loss. In the mean time they were making preparations for a regular siege of Irois, when Captain Ricketts, in his Majesty's ship Magicienne, in company with the Regulus and Fortune, attacked their small fleet in the Bay des Carcasses. Lieutenant-General Simcoe, in his dispatch, dated Port-au-Prince, June 20th, 1797, says, "I do myself the honour of enclosing General Churchill's report of the attack made by the enemy on the Grand Anse, and the repulse they met with in that quarter. The brigadier-general acknowledges in the strongest manner the services which Captain Ricketts, of the Magicienne, with the squadron under his command, effected in the destruction of the vessels of the enemy in Carcass Bay." Brigadier-General Churchill, in his letter, dated Jeremie, April 30, says, "In the mean time the enemy were making every disposition for a regular siege of Irois, when fortunately the Magicienne frigate, commanded by Captain Ricketts, attacked their small fleet in the Bay of Carcasses, and sunk the vessels loaded with cannon and military stores for the siege." Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, in his dispatch to Evan Nepean, Esq., dated June 11, 1797, says, "I have the pleasure to acquaint you, for their lordships' information, that the Grand Anse is acknowledged to be saved by the spirited and well-timed attack made by Captain Ricketts, of his Majesty's ship Magicienne, upon the enemy's transports of provisions and ammunition in Carcass Bay, for the particulars of which I beg to refer you to a copy of Captain Ricketts' letter." "SIR, "La Magicienne, April 24, 1797. "I beg leave to inform you, that on Sunday the 23d instant, when doubling Cape Tiburon, in company with his Majesty's ships Regulus and Fortune schooner, we discovered a six-gun privateer sloop, and four schooners, at anchor in this bay, which convinced me that the port of Irois was attacked. Soon after, the alarm gun Naval Chronicle, vol. xx. pp. 5. 6. was fired from the fort. As no time was to be lost in endeavouring to counteract the views of the enemy, we stood in and anchored, when we commenced a heavy cannonnade, and had the good for tune, in a short time, to drive them into the mountains. Their field-pieces, ammunition, provisions, and vessels, laden with necessaries for carrying on the siege, fell into our hands. "The good conduct of every officer and sailor belonging to our little squadron manifested itself upon this occasion, as well as upon many others since I have had the honour to command it. "I have to regret the loss of four men killed; and Mr. Morgan, master's mate, and ten men, wounded (though not mortally), who were in the Magicienne's boats when endeavouring to tow out the privateers. "I have the honour to be, &c. "To Vice-Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, &c." "W. H. RICKETTS." Address from the Inhabitants of Jeremie. "To the Honourable George (William) Henry Ricketts, Commander of his Majesty's ships La Magicienne; Le Regulus, Captain Carthew; and the Fortune sloop, Lieutenant Trelawny; stationed off the southern part of St. Domingo. “SIR, "The important service which you rendered to the Grand Anse, on the 24th of last month, has excited the most grateful sensations in the hearts of its inhabitants. Condescend, Sir, to accept of their most respectful acknowledgments. "The Grand Anse will never forget, that the enemy, after a fruitless assault against the Fort of Irois, threatening it with a siege, for which it had assembled a most powerful force in Carcass Bay, saw you, at a single signal, rush down upon them, with the Magicienne, Regulus, and Fortune; that your fire was so terrible and so well supported, that in a short time the shore was covered with dead, and the numerous troops collected for the expedition put to flight. You took or sunk the six ships which formed their marine ; and carried off their guns, their ammunition, their provisions, and even the tent of their commander-in-chief. "It was this decisive advantage which compelled them precipitately to re-enter their own territory; when two columns advanced to complete their destruction by land, which had been so well commenced upon the sea. This exploit, so glorious for the British flag, insures to you, Sir, the most flattering rewards from the King of whom we have now the honour to become the subjects; it obtains a security for the Grand Anse, which, unquestionably, the implacable hatred of an obstinate enemy will not, for a long time, again disturb; this happy event having induced the government to adopt such measures as will preserve it for the future. "In the inability of the inhabitants properly to acknowledge so signal a service, they beg of you, Sir, to receive, as a testimony of their gratitude, a complete plan of the country of the Grand Anse, in which will be found, correctly drawn, the Fort of Irois and the Bay of Carcasses. ser "This plan, in reminding you of the memorable action of the 24th of April, will call to your recollection how much your presence, and that of the ships of war under your command, were viceable to the Grand Anse; will solicit a continuation of your vigilance towards a quarter which first called for the assistance of His Britannic Majesty's forces, and which has uniformly given to its government innumerable proofs of its inviolable fidelity. "We are, with the most respectful esteem, and the most lively gratitude, "Sir, "Your most humble and obedient servants, "THE INHABITANTS OF THE GRAND ANSE." In August, General Simcoe left General Maitland commanderin-chief in St. Domingo. General Simcoe proceeded to England to present to the British ministry a memorial of the real state of that colony, in consequence of which it was determined that the island should be abandoned. In Grenada an act was passed on the 13th of May this year, enacting," that all and every slave or slaves who now are or hereafter may be sentenced to be banished from this island, or to be confined to hard labour in chains, for life, or for any shorter period, and who shall escape, break loose, or run away from the place of his, her, or their confinement, or who shall be absent for the space of forty-eight hours from the custody of the person having charge of him, her, or them, shall, on conviction thereof, be declared guilty of felony, and shall suffer death or such other punishment as the magistrates present on the trial of such slave or slaves shall direct." Mr. Dallas shall relate to the reader what sort of punishment this slave-chain is, the attempt to escape from which these merciful legislators punish with death. "The chain, being fixed about the leader, is carried round the bodies of the followers, leaving a sufficient distance to walk without treading on each others heels, and to each it is secured by padlock. Coke's West Indies, vol. iii. p. 484. "As soon as they are thus yoked within the walls of the workhouse, the gate is thrown open, and the poor animals are driven out by a Negro driver, attended by a white driver, both with cattlewhips in their hands. Sometimes the white driver rides on a mule. "You may imagine that in the great number of persons thus fastened to each other, without the least attention to the difference of age or of strength, it is not very probable that an equal pace among them can be kept up through the day, as they move about. They are set upon a brisk walk almost approaching to a trot, and woe be to those whom fatigue first forces to flag; the never-ceasing sound of the cattle-whip long keeps a regularity in the slight sinking curve of the intervening links of the chain; but naturam expellas furca, tamen usque recurret: nature will return; the feebler will begin to pull upon the stronger, the intervening links will lose their regular curve; here they become stretched to their utmost, there they sink nearly to the ground; the weak add the weight of their exhausted limbs to the strong, and the strong tread upon the heels of the weak. This the drivers remedy, as much as possible, by their cattle-whips, till nature quite worn out is at last driven back to the workhouse." To these slave chains masters and mistresses send their Negroes for punishment at their discretion, and there is no distinction between the treatment of the slaves so sent, and those convicts who are condemned by the magistrates for public crimes. In Antigua, until the 28th of December of this year, the murder of a slave was punishable only by a fine of from £100 to £300; and castration, or other dismemberment, by a fine of from £20 to 100, current money. In Grenada those who had asserted, in 1788, that slaves, when "ill-treated" by the master, had the full protection of the English law, felt it to be a melioration of their state in this year (1797) to guard them by trifling pecuniary penalties from dismemberment or mutilation. In the Bahamas the slaves could be corrected at the will of their masters, until this year, when the crime of mutilation was subjected to a penalty limited to £100 currency, or six months' imprisoment, even in the most atrocious cases. In Dominica also a slave could be "cruelly" tortured for the same fine, and no imprisonment at all. Mr. B. Edwards, in the House of Commons, moved for the repeal of a clause in the act 5 Geo. II. c. 7, which declared, that both slaves and land should be liable to debts of the same degree. The repealing act, however, neither enacts that the slaves and lands shall be sold together, nor that neither shall be sold, but repeals so much only as relates to Negroes. The consequence, therefore, would be, supposing British statute law to regulate the subject at |