GENERAL PRESCOTT IS LEFT GOVERNOR OF MARTINIQUE ... THE COMMANDERS
IN CHIEF SAIL FOR ST. LUCIA ... GENERAL DUNDAS LANDS NEAR PIGEON
ISLAND ... THE FLEET ANCHORS AT MARIGOT DE ROSSEAUX ... PRINCE
EDWARD LANDS WITH THE GRENADIERS, AND MARCHES TOWARDS MORNE FORTUNE
... COLONEL COOTE LANDS WITH THE LIGHT INFANTRY ... THE FLEET
ANCHORS IN BARRINGTON'S BAY ... COLONEL COOTE STORMS A REDOUBT ON
THE MORNE ... GENERAL RICARD SURRENDERS THE ISLAND ... COLONEL SIR
CHARLES GORDON LEFT GOVERNOR OF ST. LUCIA ... THE COMMANDERS IN
CHIEF SAIL TO MARTINIQUE.
His Excellency the Commander in Chief, having left Lieutenant General
Prescott to command at Martinique, with the fifteenth, thirty-ninth,
fifty-eighth, sixty-fourth, and seventieth regiments to garrison that
island, on the 30th of March he embarked the following troops on board
his Majesty's ships in the bay of Fort Royal, viz. the brigade of
grenadiers, commanded by his Royal Highness Prince Edward; the brigade
of light infantry, under command of Major General Dundas; and the sixth,
ninth, and forty-third regiments, commanded by Colonel Sir Charles
Gordon; with engineers under Colonel Dornford, and a detachment of Royal
artillery, with some light ordnance, under Lieutenant Colonel
Paterson.--On the 31st the Admiral made the signal for the fleet to sail
by eleven A. M. and by half past nine the next morning was off the north
part of the island of St. Lucia, where he lay to for the rest of the
fleet that had fallen to leeward. Every thing having been previously
arranged between the General and Admiral, they effected three different
landings on the island with little resistance, and no loss. By half past
one P. M. Major General Dundas's division, consisting of the third
battalion of light infantry, under Lieutenant Colonel Close, and
conducted by Captains Kelly and Lord Garlies of the navy, made good
their landing at Ance du Cap, not far from Le Gros Islet[31]; and the
second light infantry, under Lieutenant Colonel Blundell, conducted by
Commodore Thompson, at Ance du Chocque, who were ordered to join the
first column, taking the enemy's batteries in reverse, and to occupy a
position for the purpose of investing the works of Morne Fortune on the
side of the Carenage; all which, notwithstanding a sharp fire kept up by
the enemy from several small batteries, was executed by General Dundas
with his usual spirit and abilities. As the Boyne and the rest of the
fleet passed along the coast they received the fire of many small forts
and batteries, without returning it; and though considerably within the
range of their shot, which passed over and through their sails and
rigging, not a man was hurt in any of them. At four P. M. the fleet
anchored in twenty fathom water, within a cable's length of the shore,
at Marigot de Rofeaux; at which place his Royal Highness Prince Edward
with the grenadiers landed about six o'clock in the evening, under the
immediate direction of the Admiral, and began their march soon after. At
night they halted on the heights opposite to Morne Fortune, from which
they were separated by the Grand Cul de Sac, or Barrington's Bay. Soon
after sun-set, Lieutenant Colonel Coote, with the first battalion of
light infantry, landed from the Boyne at Ance de la Tocque, proceeded to
and took the four-gun battery of Ciceron, investing Morne Fortune on
that side; at the same time covering Cul de Sac, or Barrington's Bay,
for the entrance of our fleet, which anchored there the next morning,
being the 2d of April. This morning early the Prince dispatched two
companies of grenadiers, with Lieutenant Smyth of the 7th regiment, his
brigade major, to attack two batteries on the coast, which they found
evacuated, with the tri-coloured flag still flying; this they brought
off with them, and spiked the guns. Sir Charles Grey, visiting the
Prince's quarters, found his men were halted in a very swampy and
unhealthy place, and ordered them to change their ground, and move on to
a house at the bottom of Morne Fortune, which they performed that night
without any loss, though part of their road (near a mile in length) was
exposed to the fire of the fort on the Morne, as also of a little
two-gun battery on a point of land under the fort, which, as they passed
the ravine at the head of the Grand Cul de Sac, played upon them with
round shot and grape: however, the distance was too great for any
mischief to happen from the latter. In their march they had to pass a
swampy thicket of plantain trees, which concealed them from the view of
the enemy, who nevertheless kept up a constant fire of random shot; and
though the distance was now very trifling, and the cannonade extremely
heavy for a long time, not a man was killed, and a few only slightly
hurt by the splinters of stones and rock which flew in great plenty
round them.--Early in the morning of the 3d of April, Lieutenant Colonel
Coote, with four light companies, stormed a redoubt and two batteries
close to the enemy's principal work on the Morne, and killed two
officers and thirty men, made one prisoner (a surgeon), and liberated
one British seaman from captivity: he then spiked six pieces of cannon,
and fell back to Morne Ferre, where he established his quarters[32]. The
Commander in Chief now determined to carry the works on Morne Fortune by
assault, and accordingly a plan was formed for a general attack to be
made on it the next morning by the troops which now invested it, aided
by a party of seamen under command of Lord Garlies: but General Ricard,
perceiving the determined behaviour of our troops, prevented the plan
being put in execution, by agreeing to terms of capitulation, which had
been offered by Sir Charles Grey, who had sent in Major Maitland with a
flag of truce to summon the garrison to surrender. The gates of the fort
were put into our possession the same evening by nine o'clock. On the
4th the enemy marched out of the fort, with the honours of war, to the
glacis, where they piled their arms, and were embarked on board of
transports, which conveyed them to France, under conditions that they
should not serve against his Britannic Majesty during the war[33]. When
his Royal Highness Prince Edward marched into the fort of Morne Fortune,
and hoisted the British colours, he changed its name to Fort Charlotte,
in honour of his august parent.--Major Maitland had been dispatched to
Pigeon Island with a summons, which, by order of General Ricard, was
delivered up to his Majesty's troops on the same terms as the Morne. The
Commander in Chief left the sixth and ninth regiments, with detachments
of artillery and engineers, as a garrison for this island, under the
command of Colonel Sir Charles Gordon, who was appointed governor till
his Majesty's pleasure was known.
[31] By us called Pigeon Island. On it is a very strong battery,
which commands a great distance.
[32] The conduct and abilities of Colonel Coote in this enterprise
gained him the particular thanks of the Commander in Chief, whose
orders he had so ably executed; and he was well supported by the
whole of his department, particularly by Major Evatt, Captains
Buchanan, Crosbie, Welch, Thomas Grey (one of the General's aid de
camps), and Stovin; also by Major of Brigade Vischer, with
Lieutenant Drozier, and the detachment of royal artillery, who
spiked the guns.
[33] The garrison that marched out with General Ricard, and laid
down their arms as prisoners of war, were about three hundred men,
troops of the line (among which one hundred and twenty-five were of
the regiment d'Aunai), some artillery, and a few people of colour.
General Ricard, at his own request, was sent to America, as had
been General Rochambeau, who chose that place in preference to his
own distracted country, where the system of blood that was then the
order of the day under the tyranny of Robespierre, would have
immolated even these men, who had with so much bravery defended the
posts intrusted to them by their country.
The island of St. Lucia had its name from the day, dedicated to the
virgin martyr St. Lucia, on which it was discovered. It is about six
leagues south of Martinique, and twenty-one north-west from Barbadoes:
it is fifteen miles long, and eleven broad; is very hilly, and covered
in a great many places with thick woods, of whose timber the planters
of Martinique and the neighbouring islands build their houses and mills.
The fustic and cocoa tree is found here also in great abundance. This
island has frequently changed its masters, being alternately possessed
by the French and English: it has many good bays and harbours, and is
well watered by several fine clear rivers. Two of the mountains are said
to have been volcanos. Morne Fortune is a high hill which overhangs
Basse Terre, the principal town of the island. On the summit of the
Morne is a fortification, as yet unfinished; by nature it is very
strong, but art has done little for it; for, when the outworks fall, the
fort is incapable of withstanding a siege. We found but little
ammunition or military stores, and one small uncovered tank was the only
reservoir for water. Here is also a Pigeon Island, which is called by
the French Gros Islet, and is so strongly fortified both by nature and
art, that if it was well supplied with provisions and stores, would be
capable of braving a very formidable attack. The bay of the Grand Cul de
Sac is a fine harbour for ships of any size to ride in, during the
hurricane months.
Lieutenant D'Arcy Preston, being promoted from a lieutenancy in the
Boyne to the command of the Rattlesnake sloop of war, sailed for England
this day, carrying Captain Mason, one of the aid de camps of the
Commander in Chief, and Captain Parker of the Blanche, with an account
of the further success of his Majesty's arms in the reduction of the
island of St. Lucia[34], happily effected without the loss of a single
man, though there had been a good deal of cannonading from the enemy's
batteries and works. The flank battalions being reimbarked on board of
their respective ships, and Sir Charles Grey with his suite being as
usual with the Admiral on board the Boyne, the whole fleet weighed and
made sail from this island by eight in the morning of the 5th of April,
and by nine at night they anchored in Fort Royal harbour, Martinique.
Thus, in the short period of something more than two months, by the
efforts of this army and navy, inconsiderable indeed in numbers, but
united in an ardent desire to prove themselves faithful to their
country, and strenuous to defend and promote her welfare, and increase
her consequence, was the British standard a second time hoisted on the
walls of a republican fortress, and another island added to the British
dominions.
[34] The General transmitted also a plan of the projected works on
Morne Fortune, earnestly recommending them to be finished, as it
was a very strong post, not commanded, but commanding every other
post around it.
To provide for the future order and good government of their conquests
was now the task of Sir Charles Grey and his friend and colleague, Sir
John Jervis; and as, in the attainment of them, their hearts and
counsels were in unison, so in this most arduous business were their
united exertions employed to establish a system of government for the
conquered islands, which might be equally serviceable to their country,
as conciliatory to the minds of the newly acquired subjects of it; but
at a moment like this, when they were pushing on from one field of
conflict and glory to another, it was impossible to render any system of
government perfect; they therefore thought that the best mode would be
to leave them a government which appeared to have been most desired by
the majority of the people, and which agreed better with our own forms
than the wild confusion of democratic and revolutionary power.
Accordingly, they for the present left them in the exercise of their
accustomed laws, such as they had been at the happiest period of their
own government, and which appeared best calculated to forward a system
of confidence among their own order, and to prepare them for that form
of government (we from experience know the blessings of, and) which
unquestionably, on the same experience, would become earnestly desired
by all ranks of people. To further also the desirable object of
conciliating the minds of the conquered by an act of moderation and
indulgence, the conduct of all civil affairs[35] was principally
entrusted to those whose influence in the colony pointed them out as
proper to be confided in; and whilst every tendency to licentiousness
would be checked by the vigorous direction of General Prescott under his
military government, the former courts, for the administration of
justice agreeable to the laws and customs before the revolution, were
allowed to go on, that the affections and gratitude of his majesty's new
subjects might in the surest manner be attached and secured. However an
arrangement of officers, guided by the constitution of the other British
colonies, was not neglected, and accordingly several nominations were
made and transmitted home for approval. St. Lucia was left in the same
state, as to its government, as Martinique.
[35] The revenue department was however an exception to this
arrangement of the civil departments, as the purpose of trade could
not of course be answered through the forms of a French
custom-house, or the revenue laws adhered to but by the
establishment of our own people to carry on that necessary branch.
Those places therefore in the district of the island of Martinique,
which were immediately necessary to be filled, were attended to,
and a list of them sent home, that when his majesty's pleasure
should be made known with regard to the future civil government,
they might be put in motion without any delay.