THE LANDING.
We had a noble run, for the wind continued fresh and fair, we never
lifted tack or sheet the whole way, and one morning I was roused
early by the announcement that Martinique was in sight. This was on
the morning of the 5th of March.
I hastened on deck and could distinctly see the Cardinal's Cap, the
most lofty hill in the isle of St. Martin (and a good landmark for
mariners) ascending slowly from a sea empurpled by the yet unrisen
sun. Since we had left Carlisle Bay, no sail, save the fleet, had
been visible. I thought of Rouvigny, whose fleet schooner _Les
Droits de l'Homme_ could not be many hours ahead of us--if indeed, he
had shaped his course to Martinique--and I hailed the rising land
with a glow of stern hope.
As the fleet drew nearer to the shore, two other mountains became
visible--the highest being Mont Pelee, a dormant volcano, as lofty as
Ben Nevis. It is covered with dark copsewood the density of which
attracts the clouds, and from its steep sides innumerable streams
descend to water the broad savannahs, where the yellow canes of Java
and Tahiti were waving in the breeze, and those fertile fields where
coffee, cassia, cotton, and maize are cultivated. Savannah is an old
Spanish word, signifying a plain as smooth and level as a _sheet_.
The race of Caribs in Martinique had long since been totally
exterminated; but stories of them, preserved in the voyages of the
Buccaneers and the wars of the Spaniards, invested with a species of
romance the conical hills of the island, as they rose, higher,
greener, and more defined from sea. In the "Excellent Treatise of
Antonio Galvano," which contains a history of navigation from the
floating of the Ark to his own time in 1555, we are told that the
"Caribees are good warriors, who shoot well with the bow; but they
poison their arrows with an herb, whereof he that is hurt dieth,
biting himself to death as a mad dog doth;" and Peter Martyr, another
veracious chronicler, states that Martinique was once inhabited by
women _alone_.
Nearer we drew, and ere long the windmills and houses, the cocoas and
palms tossing their broad and fanlike branches, became visible. Then
a fort or two, with the tricolour of France waving; and as the wind
fell or began to change, and the spicy fragrance of the land reached
us, the admiral fired a gun, and signalled to haul up the courses and
shorten sail.
The beach of scorched sand seemed white as snow; above it was the
wooded country, where forests of strange large leaves were tossing in
the wind; and further off still, mellowed faint and blue in cloud and
distance, were the summits of the Cardinal's Cap and Mont Pelee, the
volcano whose terrors slumbered till 1851.
The fleet, according to an able plan arranged by our general, Sir
Charles Grey, and our admiral, the valiant old Sir John Jervis,
divided into three squadrons, for the purpose of assailing the island
(which is thirty-five miles in length by fifteen in breadth*) on
three points, and thus distracting the defence of the troops under
General Rochambeau and Rouvigny.
* According to Captain Gardiner, thirty-nine miles in length by
twenty-one in breadth.
One portion of the expedition, led by Sir Charles Grey in person, by
Lieutenant-General Prescot, and Brigadier-General Whyte, having with
them the 2nd battalion of Light Infantry, the 15th Foot under Colonel
Symes, two hundred seamen armed with pikes and pistols, several
detached companies, and two amusettes, landed at Le Cul de Sac Marin,
on the south coast of the island. There they drove the French back
on every point, and established batteries on Mont Mathurine; there
two howitzers, served by the seamen, under Captain de Rousigne, of
the Royal Artillery, demolished the works of the enemy on the Pigeon
Isle, where two French companies, after a heavy fire of shot and
shell, surrendered. By this success, the great bay of Fort Royal,
with the town and citadel, were opened to our fleet. Immediately
after this, the 15th regiment, led by Major Lyon, stormed the heights
of Le Grand Bouclain, killing the enemy in great numbers, and taking
their colours, ammunition, and cattle.
At the same time, a second squadron, under Major General Thomas
Dundas, of Fingask, colonel of the 68th, but formerly of the _old_
80th, or Edinburgh Regiment, the veteran comrade of Cornwallis, with
the 9th and 70th regiments, the 1st Light Infantry, and 2nd Grenadier
Battalion, bore away to the northward, and effected a landing at La
Trinité, and stormed Morne le Brun, under a heavy fire of musketry;
carrying all the works, cannon, and stores, and driving Bellegarde,
the captain of the free blacks from the mountain fortress that bore
his name. Colonel Campbell, with five companies of Light Infantry,
seized Colon during the same night; and, there, the grenadiers of the
33rd would have been cut to pieces, but for those of the 38th, under
Captain MacEwan, who rescued them from an attack of the ferocious
Bellegarde and his savages.
The _third division_, with whose operations I was more immediately
connected, as the Scots Fusiliers formed a part of it, with a
battalion of Grenadiers, the 43rd Light Infantry, the marines, and
other troops, under Sir Charles Gordon, and Captains Rogers and
Cranky, of the navy, stood close in shore to the south-east, creeping
almost at the foot of the two giant Pitons, with orders to force a
landing at Caise des Navires,--the same place where, on a former
occasion, our regiment had landed under General Bruce, but were
overwhelmed by the number of the enemy.
While the _Adder_, and other ships forming our portion of the
armament, kept off shore during the 5th, 6th, and 7th, hovering near
the Diamond Rock, which is usually covered by wild pigeons, and
threatening a small redoubt in the bay of St. Anne, we heard,
repeatedly, the boom of the cannon on Mont Mathurine, and the patter
of musketry in the distance; and though we knew not how the fortune
of war went with our comrades, we longed to rejoin and unite our
strength with them; nor did the grim preparations made by Dr. Splints
and the medical staff, the packing of lint, rolling of long-tailed
bandages, the formation of stretchers for the wounded, by tying
blankets to sergeants' pikes, which were to be borne by the bandsmen,
in any way daunt our ardour; and a general joy spread from ship to
ship, as the squadron, which had been standing to the northward, put
about, when the night of the 8th of March came on, moonless and
almost starless, for hazy clouds overhung the giant hills of
Martinique, as we ran close in shore.
Then in silence, the boats were lowered, filled with thousands of
soldiers, marines, and seamen, all with their arms carefully primed
and loaded, and were pulled away towards Caise des Navires, where a
stream which flows down from one of those stupendous sugarloaf-shaped
mountains, Les Pitons du Carbet, falls into the sea, about four miles
westward of the citadel of Fort Royal.