commander-in-chief, and 20,000 for the governor of Trinidad, Don Thomas Picton. With notification that these sums shall be increased according to the number and class of the subjects that may be taken and presented to the governor of Cumana; and also that these rewards will be punctually paid to the captor or captors, whether natives or foreigners; and it is declared, if they are Indians (besides the above rewards) they shall have and they are hereby offered, in the King's name, a perpetual exemption from personal tribute, for themselves and for their legitimate offspring, and 300 dollars reward; and if the captors were slaves they shall be made free, and the same freedom shall be granted to the English slaves who pass over to the Spanish dominion. That all Spaniards who may be in the English service, either by sea or land, and return to us, will be pardoned the crime of desertion." ! Sir H. Parker, when he inclosed the following letter to the admiralty, says, when speaking of the action, it is "as daring and gallant an enterprize as is to be found in our naval annals: it adds infinite honour to Captain Hamilton, as an officer, for his conception of the service he was about to undertake. This was, sir, his disposition for the attack, which was, that a number of chosen men, to the amount of fifty with himself, should board, and the remainder in the boats to cut the cable, and take the ship in tow. From this manoeuvre he had formed the idea, that while he was disputing for the possession of the ship, she was approaching the Surprize, who was lying close into the harbour, and in case of being beat out of the Hermione, he would have an opportunity of taking up the contest upon more favourable terms." "SIR, 66 Captain Hamilton's Letter. Surprize, Port Royal Harbour, Jamaica, November 1, 1799. "The honour of my country, and the glory of the British navy, were strong inducements for me to make an attempt to cut out, by the boats of his Majesty's ships under my command, his Majesty's late ship Hermione, from the harbour of Porto Cavallo, where there are about 200 pieces of cannon mounted on the batteries. Having well observed her situation on the 22d and 23d ult., and the evening of the 24th being favourable, I turned the hands up to acquaint the officers and ship's company of my intentions to lead them to the attack, which was handsomely returned with three cheers, and that they would all follow to a man: this greatly increased my hopes, and I had little doubt of succeeding. The boats, containing 100 men, including officers, at half past twelve on the morning of the 25th (after having beat the launch of the ship, which carried a twenty-four pounder and twenty men, and receiving several guns and small arms from the frigate) boarded; the forecastle was taken possession of without much resistance; the quarter deck disputed the point a quarter of an hour, where a dreadful carnage took place; the main deck held out much longer, and with equal slaughter; nor was it before both cables were cut, sail made on the ship, and boats a-head to tow, that the main deck could be called ours. They last of all retreated to the 'tween decks, and continued firing till their ammunition was expended; then, and not until then, did they cry for quarter. At two o'clock, the Hermione was completely ours, being out of gun-shot from the fort, which had for some time kept up a tolerable good fire. From the captain, Don Romond de Chalas, I am informed she was nearly ready for sea, mounting forty-four guns, with a ship's company of 321 officers and sailors, 56 soldiers, and 15 artillery-men on board. Every officer and man on this expedition behaved with an uncommon degree of valour and exertion; but I consider it my duty to mention the very gallant conduct, as well as the aid and assistance, at a particular crisis, I received from Mr. John Mullen, surgeon and volunteer, and Mr. Maxwell, gunner, even after the latter was dangerously wounded. As the frigate was the particular object of your order of the 17th of September, I have thought proper to return into port with her. Enclosed I transmit you a list of captures during the cruize; also two lists of killed and wounded. "I have the honour to be, &c. &c. "E. HAMILTON." Captain Hamilton and twelve men were wounded. A List of the Killed and Wounded on board the Spanish frigate Hermione, late his Majesty's ship Hermione, in Porto Cavallo, October 25, 1799; and General Statement of the Complement on board. Prisoners landed at Porto Cavallo the same day, out of which there were ninety-seven wounded, mostly dangerous Escaped in the launch which was rowing guard round the ship, with a twenty-four pounder On shore on leave, one lieutenant, one captain of troops, four pilots, and one midshipman 228 20 7 15 Captain Hamilton was wounded in six places, and bruised all over the body, the principal wound being on the left temple, with the butt Naval Chronicle, vol. v. p. 6. end of a musket, which broke over his head, and knocked him down senseless on the deck; he received also a severe wound by the cut of a sabre on the left thigh, one also on the right thigh by a pike, another on the right shin bone by a grape shot, one finger was much cut, and his loins much bruised. It is to be hoped that the reports circulated, of many being stabbed in their hammocks, was untrue. Captain Hamilton's boats cut out a privateer schooner of ten guns, and two sloops, from the harbour of Aruba, on the 15th of October, when Mr. J. Busey, acting lieutenant, was killed. The assembly of Jamaica voted 300 guineas for the purchase of a sword to Captain E. Hamilton of his Majesty's ship Surprize, for cutting the Hermione out of Porto Cavallo. Captain Lobb, of his Majesty's ship Crescent, with a convoy, fell in with a Spanish squadron off the Mona passage, and contrived not only to save them all, except one, but to capture a corvette from the enemy. He should tell his own story. Captain Lobb's Letter. "SIR, "I am exceedingly sorry to acquaint you, that on the dawn of the 15th instant, the S.W. end of Porto Rico bearing N. E. ten or twelve leagues, we unfortunately fell in with a squadron belonging to the enemy, consisting of a line of battle ship, frigate, and corvette. As the two former were directly in our course on the larboard tack, I made the convoy's signal to haul to the wind on the starboard tack; made sail to reconnoitre them; and on joining the Calypso, which had previously chased, perfectly coincided with Captain Baker, that they were enemies, and made signals to the convoys for that purpose. The line of battle ship and frigate keeping close together, I was in great hopes of drawing them from the convoy, by keeping within random shot to windward, and bore up for that purpose, making the Calypso's signal to chase N.W., the direction the body of the convoy was then in: at nine the enemy tacked, and I was under the necessity of making the signal to disperse. The Calyspo bore up for that part of the convoy that were running to leeward. The corvette, which had been seen some time before, was standing for the ships that had kept their wind; I immediately made sail to relieve them, and had the good fortune to capture her. The enemy were previously chasing the ships to leeward, and I was happy to observe them haul their wind, I suppose, on perceiving the situation of the corvette; but this, as well as their other manoeuvres during the course of the day, appeared so very undetermined, that they did not take the necessary steps to prevent our taking possession of her; nor had they brought to any of the convoy at dark, notwith "Crescent, Port Royal, November 22, 1799. standing they had been near them for twelve hours; and their situation was such as to give me sanguine hopes not any have been captured. The squadron proved to be Spanish, from St. Domingo, bound to the Havana, consisting of the Asia, of sixty-four guns and 550 men, Commodore Don Francisco Montes; Amphitrite, of forty-four guns and 360 men, Captain Don Diego Villagomez; Galgo, of sixteen guns and 100 men, Captain Don Jose de Arias. "I have the honour to be, &c. "W. G. LOBB." Surinam capitulated to the British squadron under the command of Vice-Admiral Lord H. Seymour on the 20th of August. The governor, Frederici, conceded to Berbice the track of country between the Devil's Creek and the river Courantine, a track of coast extending nearly fifty miles. On the 31st of August, Vice-Admiral Lord H. Seymour reported the capture of the colony of Surinam, and sent Lieutenant Senhouse, in the Requin, home with the dispatch. It does not contain any particulars, but that the French corvette, L'Hussar, twenty-nine pounders, and Camphaan, a Dutch brig of 16 guns taken in the river, had been commissioned by him, and Lieutenant Cole appointed to the command of the former, and Lieutenant Thwaites to the latter.' On the 26th of August, Captain Western, in his Majesty's ship Tamer, captured the Republicane, national corvette, Captain Le Bozée, of thirty-two guns and 220 men, off Surinam, after an action of ten minutes. The French had nine killed and twelve wounded, the English two wounded. His Majesty's ship attacked four French they were at anchor. to bear them upon Solebay, thirty-two guns, Captain Poyntz, corvettes near Cape Tiburon, St. Domingo Captain Poyntz brought the Solebay guns boarded them with the boats-cut their cables, Bolinbroke's Voyage to Demerary, p. 182. Steele's Naval Chronologist. Gazette Letters, Naval Chronicle, vol. iii. p. 139.—p. 140. Captain Western's Official Letter. 'Lord H. Seymour's squadron with Lieutenant-General T. Trigg, at the capture of Surinam, on the 20th of August, 1799, consisted of and brought off the whole squadron. Captain Poyntz carried his prizes to Jamaica, and landed 500 prisoners at Kingston. His Majesty's schooner Fox, Lieutenant James Wooldridge, sailed from Jamaica the 5th of September, to land General Bowles, chief of the Creek Indians, in the Gulf of Mexico. The 28th of September she struck on a sand bank, bilged, and fell over on her larboard side. The officers and men remained all night in the rigging, the boats were all stove. Next morning they all got safe from the wreck, and saved a small quantity of pork before the vessel went to pieces. Upon this key they remained thirty-two days; and when taken off by the Providence privateer, were all much exhausted. Upon the 2d of June, Rigaud, the general commanding in the southern departments of St. Domingo, issued a proclamation addressed to the inhabitants, in which he stated, that he had been informed that emigrants, and, amongst others, those whom he had himself sent out of the colony, had found protection with Toussaint, and had calumniated him to that general; that had those calumnies been restrained to reproaches, or ill-founded accusations, he should have treated them with merited contempt; but that these reproaches had been raised into menaces against themselves and against the republic. He observed, that Toussaint had charged him with raising the standard of revolt against the republic, whilst he had shewn on every occasion the greatest respect for the constituted authorities; combating the English and their partisans wherever he found them, and which he would still do had he the command of those places where Toussaint gave them the liberty of traffic. He stated that his greatest crime was his attachment to the cause of the republic, and his hatred towards its enemies. That the general-in-chief, in contempt of the laws, and treading under foot the interests of the republic, and the safety of the colony, had ordered an attack to be made on the southern part of the colony: that had this meditated attack been a personal affair between himself and the general, he would have withdrawn himself for the sake of peace; but as the troops of the west had taken a threatening attitude, without the general's making him acquainted with the cause, he was resolved to repel force by force, and not abandon the colony to the fury of the English and emigrants, who were received and welcomed by Toussaint in the departments of the west and north, and wherever Gazette Letters, Naval Chronicle, vol. iii. pp. 152. 235. Annual Register, 1799, p. 393. 1 Names of Vessels captured by Captain Poyntz, near Tiburon. |