Amphitrite,* lying at Fort-Royal, the 18-gun ship-corvette Diligente at St. Pierre's, and the late British brig-sloop Carnation at Marin. The governor-general of the island was Viceadmiral Villaret-Joyeuse, the opponent of Lord Howe on the 1st of June.

Early on the morning of the 30th, one division of the troops, nearly 3000 in number, commanded by Major-general Frederick Maitland, landed, without opposition, at Sainte-Luce, under the superintendence of Captain Fahie of the Belleisle; and a detachment of 600 men, under Major Henderson of the York Rangers, landed at Cape Salomon, also without opposition. The appearance of the former in Marin bay was the signal. for the French to set fire to and destroy the Carnatiou. While these proceedings were going on upon the south-west or leeward coast of the island, a division of about 6500 men, commanded by Lieutenant-general Sir George Prevost, disembarked, under the direction of Captain Philip Beaver of the 40-gun frigate Acasta, at Baie Robert on the north-east or windward coast, still without experiencing any opposition. The fact is, that the French governor-general had committed the great mistake of sending to each of the two points at which the British had landed, Baie Robert and Pointe Sainte-Luce, two of the four battalions of militia on the island, unaccompanied by troops of the line. The consequence was, that the militia, or "gardes nationales," left the field to the enemy, and retired peaceably to their homes.

This traitorous conduct was partly the effect of a proclamation, addressed by the two British commanders in chief to the black or coloured population, of which, almost exclusively, the militia was composed. No copy of this proclamation accompanies the official letters: it is merely referred to in them. An enemy has an immense advantage, where the territory he is about to invade contains a slave population; but there is a homely proverb about persons with glass windows, &c., which might be worth attending to by those who scruple not to resort to so barbarous, so unauthorized a mode of warfare, as that of inciting the slave, if not actually to murder, to betray his master.

The first meeting between the regular troops on each side was upon the heights of Desfourneaux and Surirey, on the 1st and 2d of February; on each of which days the British forces, under the command, nominally of Lieutenant-general Sir George Prevost, but really of Brigadier-general Hoghton,† were suc

* See p. 85.

That Sir George took no personal share in the battles that ensued, his own letters, on a careful perusal of them, sufficiently prove. For instance: "I lost no time after this junction, and pushed forward (not himself, but) "the honourable Lieutenant-colonel Pakenham," &c. "This movement I supported" (not by leading his own division, but)" by the light-infantry battalion under Brigadier-general Hoghton ;" who, in fact, did all that was done. On another occasion Sir George writes: "Having yesterday evening recon

cessful, but not without a loss amounting to 84 killed, 334 wounded, and 18 missing. The French, who, though decidedly inferior in numbers, were strongly posted, acknowledged a loss, in killed and wounded together, of 700 men. On the same night, or the succeeding morning, the French troops in this vicinity abandoned their advanced posts, and retired upon Fort Desaix. After the detachment of 600 York Rangers, under Major Henderson, had possessed themselves of the battery on Pointe Salomon, an attack was made upon Islet aux Ramiers, or Pigeon island; and, on the 4th of February, after being bombarded for 12 hours by 10 mortars and howitzers, five of which had been got to the top of a commanding height by the very great exertions of a detachment of seamen under Captain Cockburn of the Pompée, that important little spot surrendered. This post was acquired with a loss of only two seamen killed and one soldier wounded. Nor did the French garrison of 136 men, the retreat of whom had been cut off by the frigates Æolus and Cleopatra, Captains Lord William Fitzroy and Samuel John Pechell, and the brig-sloop Recruit, Captain Charles Napier, detached to the upper end of the bay, lose more than five killed and 11 wounded.

Sir Alexander immediately stood in with the squadron and anchored in Fort-Royal bay; but, on the approach of the two frigates and sloop, the French had set fire to and destroyed the Amphitrite and the other vessels in the harbour. They had also abandoned all the forts in this quarter, at Case-Navire, and along the neighbouring coast, and shut themselves up in Fort Desaix. On the 5th, Major-general Maitland, who had marched from Sainte-Luce to Champin and La Croissades without the slightest opposition, pursued his march, and on the 8th arrived at Case-Navire, equally unmolested; thereby completing the investment of Fort Desaix on the western side. On the 9th, being garrisoned solely by militia, the town of St.-Pierre and its dependencies, with the ship-corvette Diligente at anchor in the port, surrendered, on the first summons, to Lieutenant-colonel Barnes; and on the 10th the town of Fort-Royal was occupied by the British troops.

From the 10th to the 19th the besiegers were occupied in constructing gun and mortar batteries, in landing cannon, mortars, and howitzers, with their ammunition and stores, in dragging them to the several points selected by the engineers, and in the completion of the works preparatory to a bombardment of Fort Desaix. On the 19th, at 4 h. 30 m. P. M., the British opened upon that fortress from six points, with 14 heavy pieces of cannon and 28 mortars and howitzers; and the bombardment continued without intermission until the 23d at noon, when the French noitered the enemy's advanced picket, I decided upon attempting the surprise of it in the course of the night, and-gave directions accordingly to Major Pearson," &c.

general sent a trumpeter with a letter proposing terms. These being considered inadmissible, the bombardment recommenced at 10 P. M., and continued until 9 A. M., on the 24th; when three white flags were discovered flying in the fortress. The British batteries immediately ceased; and, in the course of the day, the French colony of Martinique surrendered by capitulation to the arms of Great Britain.

As far as appears in the Gazette, no loss was sustained by the British troops during the bombardment; but the seamen serving on shore under Captain Cockburn sustained a loss of five men and one boy killed, and the Amaranthe's boatswain and gunner (Thomas Wickland and John Thompson), one master's mate (James Scott), one midshipman (Thomas Mills), and the gunner (John Edevearn), of the Pompée, and 14 men wounded; total, six killed, 10 badly, and nine slightly wounded. The whole of the Amaranthe's loss, amounting to three killed, four badly, and two slightly wounded, arose from the accidental explosion of the laboratory tent in the rear of the great mortar battery on Tartanson. We must not part with the seamen without stating, that they were of the greatest use in the operations of the siege, particularly in dragging the heavy cannon up the heights.

The French acknowledge a loss in killed and wounded, by the bombardment alone, of 200 men: a loss which, had it not been for the timely surrender of the garrison, might have been much greater; for it appears that the shells of the besiegers had cracked and damaged in several places the roof of the magazine, and that the French troops were in momentary dread of an explosion. This, indeed, was the alleged, and it must be admitted to have been a very natural, cause of the proposal to capitulate. The court of inquiry which sat at Paris on the 6th of December, 1809, to investigate the causes of the surrender of the colony, strongly animadverted upon the neglect of not having previously removed the powder to the galleries of the fortress; and, for that and other causes, the governor-general, Vice-admiral Villaret-Joyeuse, together with some of the subordinate officers, was stripped of his rank and honours.

On the 8th of December, 1808, a small expedition, consisting of the British 20-gun ship Confiance, Captain James Lucas Yeo, the two Portuguese brigs Voader and Infante, and some smaller vessels, having on board about 550 Portuguese land forces, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Manoel Marques, and which had been fitted out at the Brazils, with the concurrence of Rearadmiral Sir William Sidney Smith, the British commander-inchief on that station, took peaceable possession of the district of Oyapok in French Guyane, and on the 15th reduced that of Approuak. This success determined Captain Yeo and the Portuguese lieutenant-colonel to make a descent on the east side of the island of Cayenne; on which stands the town of the same name, the capital of the colony. The island is divided into two

parts by an artificial river, or fossé, about 30 feet wide, named Crique fouillée: and is bounded on the north by the sea, on the south by the river "de tour de l'île," on the east by the river Mahuy, and on the west by that of Cayenne.

All the Portuguese troops, with 80 seamen and marines from the Confiance, and a party of marines from the Voader and Infante, having been embarked on board the small vessels, the latter, on the 6th of January, early in the morning, dropped into the mouth of the river Mahuy. In the evening Captain Yeo, with 10 canoes, and about 250 men, proceeded to attack some forts that commanded the entrance of the river; having left the vessels that had on board the remainder of the troops in charge of Captain Salgado of the Voader, with directions to follow after dark, and, on being apprized by signal that the two forts were carried, to enter the river and disembark the men with all possible despatch. On the 7th, at 3 A. M., Captain Yeo reached Pointe Mahuy, with five canoes; the others, being heavy, could not keep up. The party then landed in a bay about half way between Fort Diamant and the battery named Dégras de Cannes; but the surge was so high that all the boats soon went to pieces. Having ordered Major Joaquim Manoel Pinto, with a detachment of Portuguese troops, to proceed to the left and take Dégras des Cannes, Captain Yeo, accompanied by Lieutenants William Howe Mulcaster and Samuel Blyth, and Lieutenant John Read of the marines, also Mr. Thomas Savory, the purser, William Taylor, the carpenter, George Forder and David Irwin, midshipmen, and a party of the Confiance's seamen and marines, marched to Fort Diamant. Both forts were promptly carried: the Diamant, mounting two long 24-pounders and one brass eight, with the loss of Lieutenant Read and one seaman and five marines badly wounded on captain Yeo's side, and the commandant and three soldiers killed and four wounded, out of 50 men, on the part of the French; and the Dégras des Cannes, mounting two brass 8-pounders, without any loss to major Pinto, but with two men killed on the part of the enemy, whose number at the commencement of the attack was 40.

In

The entrance of the river being thus in possession of the allied forces, the signal agreed upon was made, and by noon the whole of the remaining troops were safely disembarked. formation now arrived that General Victor Hugues had quitted Cayenne-town at the head of 1000 troops, to endeavour to retake the captured forts. The force of the allies being too small to be divided, and the distance between the forts being great, and they 12 miles only from Cayenne, Captain Yeo resolved to dismantle Fort Diamant, and collect his whole force at Dégras des Cannes. Leaving Lieutenant Mulcaster, with a party of the Confiance's men to do the needful at the Diamant, Captain Yeo, with the remaining troops and seamen, proceeded to Dégras des Cannes. On arriving here, Captain Yeo perceived

two other batteries about a mile up the river on opposite sides: the one on the right bank, named Trio, situated upon an eminence commanding the Creek (Crique fouillée) leading to Cayenne; the other on the opposite side situated at the entrance of canal de Torcy, on the creek leading to the house and plantation of Victor Hugues, and evidently erected for no other purpose than its defence.

The Portuguese cutters, Lion and Vinganza, each armed with a few 4-pounders, were anchored abreast of the two forts, when a smart action commenced, and continued for an hour. Finding the superiority of the enemy's metal and position, and that many on board the vessels were falling from the incessant showers of grape-shot, Captain Yeo resolved to storm both the forts. Accordingly, while Mr. Savory, with a party of Portuguese troops, landed at the battery that defended the house of Victor Hugues, Captain Yeo, accompanied by Lieutenant Blyth and his gig's crew, also by a party of Portuguese troops, proceeded to attack Trio. Although both parties had to land at the very muzzles of the guns, the cool bravery of the assailants, in defiance of a continual fire of grape and musketry, soon carried both posts, each mounting two 8-pounders, and put to flight the 100 men divided between them.

Scarcely had this service been accomplished, when the French troops from the town of Cayenne attacked Colonel Marques at Degras des Cannes. The allied forces being much dispersed, Captain Yeo, without waiting an instant, pushed off with the boats; and, arriving at the post, compelled the French, after a smart action of three hours, to retreat to Cayenne. At about the same time 250 men appeared before Fort Diamant; but, perceiving Lieutenant Mulcaster prepared to receive them, imagining his force to be much greater than it was, and learning what had been the fate of their general, they quickly followed his example. The strongest post yet remained to be taken, the general's private house; before which he had planted a fieldpiece and a swivel, with 100 of his best troops. On the 8th, in the morning, the allied forces proceeded to attack this post. As a preliminary measure, Captain Yeo tried the effect of a summons. The general's advanced guard allowed the gig with the flag of truce to approach within a boat's length, then fired two volleys at Lieutenant Mulcaster and his party, and quickly retreated. Upon this, Captain Yeo landed his men; but, considering that the outrage might have been committed without the knowledge of the French general, he again sent Lieutenant Mulcaster : at whom, this time, the field-piece was discharged. One of the general's slaves was next sent, and he returned with an answer that the communication must be in writing. At the same moment the general fired his field-piece as a signal to the troops, who lay in ambush in the wood to the right of the allied forces, and who now opened upon the latter a steady and well