WEST INDIES.
Arrival in West Indies—Cruise among the French islands—Bombardment
and capture of St. Pierre, Dominique—Attack on Bourbon—Capture of
forts—Surrender of General Rochambeau and the French garrison.
After a pleasant passage of thirty-four days we anchored in Carlisle Bay,
Barbadoes. Two days after our arrival I had permission to go on shore with
the gunner, who had been here before. I found the town not very extensive.
The houses are built much in the same style as those at Kingston, in
Jamaica, except that they have more garden ground. The streets are very
sandy, but they are ornamented with a profusion of cocoa, plantain and
banana trees, which afford a partial shade. It appeared to me that most of
the people who inhabited Bridge Town maintained themselves by washing
clothes. The women are well made and very indolent. The men are
sufficiently conceited but active. I procured here a quantity of very
pretty small sea-shells. They assort them very tastefully in cases, and
for about two dollars you may purchase a tolerable collection. The natives
of this island pride themselves on not being creoles, that is not being of
the Caribbean race, although it assuredly is one of the Caribbean Islands.
If you are unfortunate enough to speak in favour of any of the other West
Indian Islands in their presence, they immediately exclaim, “Me tankey my
God dat I needer Crab nor Creole, but true Barbadeen born.” They drawl out
their words most horribly. I happened one day to hear two of the dignity
ladies of Bridge Town, as black as ink, returning the salutations of the
morning. The first began by drawling out, “How you do dis maurning. I hope
you berry well, m-a-a-m, but I tink you look a little p-a-a-le.” The other
answered, “I tank you body, I hab berry b-a-a-d niete (night), but I
better dis mording, I tank you, m-a-a-m.” This island is famed for its
noyeau, guava jelly, candied fruits—particularly the pine-apple, which is
put on table in glass cases—and its potted flying-fish, which I thought
equal in flavour to potted pilchards. Were I to make this assertion at
Mevagissey I fear I should stand but little chance of being invited to
dine off star gazy pie(2); but for fear my reader should be from that
neighbourhood, I beg him to understand that I do not think them better,
but, in my individual opinion, as good. After remaining among these true
Barbadian-born drawlers about ten days, we left them, and made sail for
St. Pierre Dominique, where we anchored two days after. The manners and
customs of the people at this island were totally different to those in
vogue in Barbadoes; all, with the exception of a few, spoke creole French.
This island is mountainous, but not very picturesque. It produces sugar
which undergoes the process of being clayed—that is, after a great part of
the molasses has been drained from it, it is put into forms made of clay,
which extract the remaining moisture; it then becomes a beautiful straw
colour; it is exported in cases. Coffee also grows here, but not of the
finest quality. We also saw abundance of different fruits. The purser
purchased several tons of yams for the use of the ship’s crew, some of
which weighed upwards of twenty pounds each. We bought for our mess some
sweet potatoes, plantains, bananas, shaddocks, forbidden fruit, and limes.
There were groves of oranges, but we had not time to visit them. We saw in
the market melons, guavas, sour-sops, alligator-pears, love-apples and
mangoes. I remarked that oxen were the only animals used for burthen. I
did not see a single horse. The streets of the town of St. Pierre are not
laid out with much regularity, nor are the houses well built. I thought it
an ugly town; it is, however, ornamented with a number of cocoanut-trees,
some of which are forty and fifty feet high.
The general officer we brought from England and his suite left us at this
place. The object of his visit was to raise a mongrel regiment for the
purpose of acting against the French islands, as a fleet with troops from
England was daily expected to effect their capture. We remained here a few
days, and afterwards amused ourselves by cruising off the islands of
Martinique, Guadaloupe, St. Lucie and Marie Galante, but were not
fortunate enough to effect any captures. We repaired a second time to St.
Pierre roads and received on board two companies of mongrels to transport
to Barbadoes. We wished them, and sometimes ourselves, in heaven. All the
mids thought it a great pity that we had not fallen in with a first-class
French frigate. We might have walked on board of her, said they, in such
fine style. There were several women with the troops, some of whom had
children at the breast. I pitied them, and endeavoured to assist them all
in my power. For them to stay below was impossible, as we had almost as
many soldiers on board as our ship’s company, and to keep their children
quiet was equally difficult. To effect this they frequently gave them
strong rum and water, which threw them into a state of stupor—poor,
miserable little beings! After having these suffering people on board for
five days we at length, to their relief and our great joy, arrived amongst
our drawling—no, creole friends, and the following morning all the
redcoats were disembarked. On the second day after our anchoring the
expected fleet made its appearance. It consisted of the _Boyne_,
Vice-Admiral Sir J. Jervis, one 70 and two 64-gun ships, several frigates,
sloops of war, bomb-ships, and transports with troops. We saluted the
admiral, which he returned. All now was life and bustle, and in a short
time the gun-boats were ready; each man-of-war received two flat boats to
tow astern. In the latter end of February, 1794, we finally bid an
affecting adieu to our yellow and black legged female friends at Bridge
Town, who remained on the shore waving handkerchiefs much whiter than
themselves until the fleet cleared the harbour. On making sail, Needham’s
Fort, which commands the harbour, saluted the admiral, which he returned.
The fleet and transports soon cleared the bay, when each ship took her
station. It was a majestic sight to see so many vessels with all their
canvas spread and swelling to a strong sea-breeze.
The second day we reached Fort Royale Bay, Martinique, in admirable order,
and took French leave to let go our anchors out of range of the enemy’s
shells. The nearest vessels of the fleet had been warmly saluted by Pigeon
Island, as they were going in, which, however, we treated with contempt.
On the third day after our arrival a frigate with a bomb-ship and three
gun-boats engaged it, and three hours afterwards it capitulated. One of
the sixty-four-gun ships, some frigates, and a bomb with transports, had
gone round to subdue the northern part of the island. We were now all
actively employed getting ready the gun and flat-bottomed boats for
landing the troops, who were commanded by Lieut.-Gen. Sir C. Gray. The
Duke of Kent shortly after arrived with some troops from Halifax. As it
was thought advisable to reduce some of the smaller towns before the
attack on Fort Royale, we were ordered with one of the sixty-fours, two
frigates, the bomb-ship and some gun-boats to assault the town of St.
Pierre. We gave three cheers in the cockpit on hearing this news. At
daylight we weighed, and in the evening entered the bay of St. Pierre; we
were ordered to take off the hard knocks from the bomb by anchoring
between her and the enemy. About 9 P.M. we all opened our fire as nearly
as possible at the same time. It was a most brilliant sight; the bay was
literally illuminated. The enemy’s batteries began to play with some
trifling effect; this added to the splendour of the scene. The night,
fortunately for us, was very dark, which made it difficult for them to
strike us, as they could but imperfectly discern the object they fired at;
this was evident, as they fired immediately after we did. Our shot and
shell could not fail every time we fired them, as we had taken the
bearings of the principal places when we anchored. The cannonading ceased
about 3 A.M., when all the enemy’s batteries, except one, struck their
colours. This was in a great measure owing to our troops investing the
back of the town. At four o’clock the remaining fort, finding the town had
surrendered, hauled down the tricoloured flag. The losses on our part were
twelve killed and twenty wounded. Those of the enemy must have been
considerable.
All the flat-bottomed boats and those belonging to the squadron were
ordered to land a number of marines. I was in the first division. We
landed about 7 A.M., and were astonished at the mischief our shot and
shell had done. The roof of the municipality, or town house, was nearly
knocked in. At the time some of the shells fell through it, all the wise
men of the town were assembled under its, as they imagined, bomb-proof
roof. Two of them were killed and several wounded. The principal church
had also suffered, as two sacrilegious shells had penetrated it and fallen
near the altar. On entering it we found the models of three frigates. As
they had not struck their colours, we did them that favour, and made
prizes of them. There were also some pictures of grim-looking saints,
which one of the sailors was endeavouring to unhook until another called
out, “Let them alone, Jack, they’ll only bring you bad luck,” on which he
desisted. This church was very dirty, and the ceilings of it filled with
cobwebs; the priests had taken everything from the altar, as well as from
the recesses or small chapels. A party of marines, with some artillerymen,
took possession of the forts, and sentinels were stationed over the public
buildings, and picquets round the town. Terms of capitulation had been
drawn out by the authorities, which, as the town was taken by assault,
were not agreed to. All found in arms were considered prisoners of war;
everything belonging to the Republic was given up. The citizens were not
molested, and allowed to keep their private effects. I was much amused at
the genuine _sang-froid_, or more properly speaking, the French
philosophy, of the people who kept the coffee-houses. They moved about as
gay as if nothing had happened, everything was regularly paid for, and the
most perfect discipline observed.
Having taken on board some of the principal French officers and a party of
our troops, we arrived at our former anchorage, Fort Royale Bay, the next
morning. Fort Royale, which was of considerable strength, had been
bombarded for several days, when it was decided to carry it by storm. On
the third day after our anchoring, at 3 A.M., the attack took place. The
gun and flat-bottomed boats were covered by the bomb-ships and frigates. A
landing was soon effected; the bamboo ladders for two men to mount abreast
were placed against the outer bastion of the fort. The soldiers and
sailors vied with each other who should mount first. Unfortunately, some
of the ladders gave way, and the men were precipitated to the ground; and,
what was still more unfortunate, some few fell on the bayonets of those
below and were shockingly wounded. In about ten minutes the outer works
were carried, and a marine’s jacket, for want of other colours, was
hoisted on the flagstaff. The enemy retreated to the inner work, but it
availed them little. In less than a quarter of an hour they were compelled
to give way. Several of them were cut down by the sailors, who had thrown
away their pistols after discharging them. Most of them had abandoned
their half-pikes before mounting, as they declared they were only in their
way, and that they preferred the honest cutlass to any other weapon. The
sailors and soldiers behaved well on this occasion; those who did not form
the escalade covered those who did by firing incessant volleys of
musketry, which brought down those of the enemy who were unwise enough to
show their unlucky heads above the parapet. In about twenty minutes the
British flags were floating on the flagstaffs, the French officers
surrendered their swords, and were sent on board the _Boyne_. I forgot to
mention that an explosion had taken place in one of the magazines of the
fort before we entered it, which killed and wounded more than fifty of the
enemy. About ninety of the enemy were killed and more than twenty wounded.
We had forty-six killed and wounded; among the number were eleven
officers. We found in the harbour a frigate of thirty-six guns and a
corvette fitted up as a receiving ship for the wounded. Several merchant
ships, loading with sugar when we first entered the bay, had relanded
their cargoes. The warehouses were more than half filled with sugar, rum
and coffee. A party of seamen were immediately employed to load the
shipping.
The town had suffered considerably from the shells and shot. Some of the
houses were in ruins and the public buildings much damaged, particularly
those in the dockyard.
We now encamped before and laid siege to the principal Republican fort,
commanded by the French General Rochambeau. It had before been called
“Fort Bourbon,” and had a garrison of 3,000 men.(3)
We had already taken one of its principal redoubts within gunshot of it
and Fort Royale. A party of sailors who had the management of it under a
lieutenant and three midshipmen, christened it by a name that would shock
ladies’ ears. When the enemy’s shot fired at them were not too deeply
entrenched in the ground, they dug them up and returned them, the middies
first writing on them in chalk the names of those quack doctors who sold
pills as a remedy for all complaints.
For the first fourteen days we all appeared to enjoy the novelty of our
situation, although it was by no means an enviable one, as the shot and
shell were flying about us in every direction, and it was no joke to
scamper away from a bursting shell just as we had sat down to dinner. Some
were almost every day sent to “Kingdom come” sooner than they expected.
Our camp on the plain before the enemy’s fort was picturesque enough; the
officers only had tents or marquees, the sailors and soldiers made the
most of their blankets. However, except when the dew fell heavily at
night, these were quite sufficient. A few only suffered who were not of
the strongest, and they were attacked by a low fever.
We had been before this fortress nearly three weeks, and were impatient to
storm it, as what with casualties and the enemy’s shot we were losing the
number of our mess faster than we liked, and, although our fire had been
incessant, we had not been able to effect a breach of any considerable
consequence. To give more facility to the operations the _Boyne_ landed
some of her guns, and a party of sailors were ordered to draw them up, or
rather they volunteered to do so. The guns were placed in an advanced
fascine-intrenched battery, made by the pioneers and artillerymen during
the night, within half a gun shot of the enemy. In getting them up they
were either placed upon field carriages or sledges made out of the trunks
of trees. The sailors, who were harnessed by twenties, soon had them in
their places, and when they were mounted they gave three hearty cheers,
which must have astonished the enemy. The guns soon after opened a most
destructive fire on the nearest work, as we could see quantities of the
wall fly like showers of hail. During the night we expected a sortie from
the fort, and were provided for such an event. A constant fire from all
the batteries was kept up all night; the shells were well directed, and an
explosion took place in the enemy’s fort. At daylight we perceived that
the advanced sailors’ battery had effected a considerable breach in the
fort, and a consultation was held among the superior officers. When over,
they acquainted the sailors and soldiers that they were determined to
storm it the following night. The three cheers which followed this speech
must have been heard for miles. At 10 A.M. we discerned a flag of truce
advancing towards our lines, and shortly after a French superior officer
with his aide-de-camp requested to speak to the commanding officer. As the
enemy had ceased firing, we did the same. The purport of the flag of truce
was that General Rochambeau, finding it useless holding out any longer,
wished to treat on terms, and requested a cessation of hostilities for
twenty-four hours. The following morning the capitulation was arranged. At
10 A.M. the enemy marched out of the fort under arms, with drums beating
and their colours flying, when we marched in and soon hoisted the colours
of Old England on the flag-staffs. The island was now entirely in our
possession. The French garrison marched to Fort Royale, where they
grounded their arms in the market-place. Their superior officers were met
by the Admiral, Sir C. Gray, and the Duke of Kent, as well as other
officers of the Navy and Army. In a few days afterwards they were embarked
on board some of the transports and sent to France, the officers on
parole, and the men not to serve until regularly exchanged.