THE WEST INDIES
Unfortunately, the war was carried on on the old principle of
almost undivided attention to what was termed British
interests--that is, looking to and preferring the protection of
trade and the capture of the enemy's colonial establishments
rather than to the objects which had involved Great Britain in
the contest with France.--COLONEL THOMAS GRAHAM'S _Diary_.
If we try to picture the course of the war as mapped out by Pitt, it
would probably have appeared somewhat as follows. Great Britain, after
lending to the Dutch a few regiments as a protection against the
threatened raid of Dumouriez, withdraws them, leaving the Dutch and the
subsidized German corps to guard the rear of the legions of Prussia and
Austria during their conquering march to Paris. England, in the
meantime, harasses the coasts of France, thereby compelling her to
detain considerable forces at the important points, and further cripples
her by sweeping her fleets and merchantmen from the sea and seizing her
colonies.
In short, Pitt's conception of the true function of Great Britain in a
continental war was based on that of his father, who accorded
comparatively little military aid to Frederick the Great even in his
direst need, but helped him indirectly by subsidies and by naval
expeditions that stalemated no small portion of the French army. If
Chatham's tactics succeeded when Prussia was striving against France,
Austria, and Russia, how much more might Pitt hope to win a speedy
triumph over anarchic France during her struggle with Austria, Prussia,
Spain, Naples, Sardinia, and Holland? He expected, and he had a right to
expect, that these States would need British money, not British troops,
while the Sea Power restricted its operations to a "minor offensive"
along the seaboards of France and her colonies. Pitt's efforts in this
direction were constantly thwarted by the drain of men to Flanders; but
his letters to Murray, Chief of Staff to the Duke of York, evince his
anxiety to strike at Toulon and the West Indies, and not merely to
lighten the military duties of Austria and Prussia on the French
borders.[363] It would be tedious to recount his various attempts to
prepare an expedition for the West Indies.[364] Of more interest are the
requests for protection which he received from the French colonists of
Hayti, the western part of the great island of San Domingo.
As appeared in Chapter XX of the former volume, the decrees of the
National Assembly of Paris fired the negroes of the French West Indies
with the resolve to claim the liberty and equality now recklessly
promised by the mother-land. The white settlers, on the contrary, having
recently acquired autonomous rights, disputed the legality of that
levelling legislation, and rejected all authority but that of Louis XVI.
Amidst the ensuing strifes, the chief colonies, especially Hayti, were
menaced by that most horrible of all commotions, a servile revolt, when,
most opportunely, help arrived from Jamaica. The contrast between the
timely succour of England and the reckless iconoclasm of Paris struck
the imagination of the French settlers, and the Assembly of Hayti
forthwith drew up a declaration, setting forth the illegality of the
French decrees, the miseries resulting from them, and the resolve of the
colonists to sever a connection absolutely fatal to their welfare.
Citing the example of the United States fifteen years before, and
recounting the misdeeds of the mother country, they proclaimed to the
world the justice of the act of severance.
A copy of this declaration, signed by de Cadusey on 27th September 1791,
was sent forthwith to Pitt, with a request for the protection of Great
Britain. He received it at Burton Pynsent on 27th October.[365] One of
the chief delegates from Hayti was de Charmilly, who on 14th November
sought an interview with Pitt, and a fortnight later wrote to him,
earnestly begging the help of the only nation which could avert ruin
from those islands. France, he declared, had passed a decree of blood
against her own colonies and was powerless to stop its effects. The
National Assembly, having by its annexation of Avignon recognized the
right of that papal district to belong to whom it would, Hayti of equal
right now voted for union with England. He further advised that its
ports should remain open to all nations, a course of action which would
herald the dawn of commercial and political freedom among the Spanish
colonies of the New World.[366] These alluring prospects failed to
entice Pitt from the strict neutrality to which he had pledged himself.
So far was he from desiring to profit by the misfortunes of France, as
the French princes first, and after them the Jacobins, maliciously
asserted.
Once more the deputies of France flung the torch of discord across the
Atlantic. By their decree of 4th April 1792 they declared absolute
equality of rights between whites, half-castes, and blacks, and sent out
commissioners to enforce this anarchic fiat. They forthwith took the
side of the rebels, who in Toussaint l'Ouverture found a leader of
terrible force of will. Martinique and Guadeloupe and the smaller
islands were also a prey to civil war. In sheer desperation the planters
and merchants of Guadeloupe sent over a delegate, Curt, to appeal to the
British Government for protection. Lord Hawkesbury accorded to him an
informal interview in the closing days of 1792. Curt pressed him for
official help, without which his fellow colonists must lose their lives
and property, and declared that he and many others abjured the name of
Frenchmen.[367] Malouet, once prominent in the National Assembly and
destined to become famous under Napoleon, also approached our Ministers,
but with more caution. He knew that in some of the islands the Republic
had many adherents; but after the outbreak of war in February 1793 he
too advocated the sovereignty of Great Britain under certain conditions,
and on behalf of the colonists of Hayti signed a compact with Dundas to
that effect.
Fear of a revolt of the slaves had induced Ministers to send out
reinforcements, so that, early in 1793, 19 battalions were in the
British West Indies. In the month of April a small British force easily
captured Tobago and restored that valuable little island to Great
Britain. An attack on Martinique at midsummer was, however, a failure.
These attempts, it may be noted, were made with forces already in the
West Indies.[368] Pitt and Dundas have been severely blamed for sending
further reinforcements to the West Indies.[369] But a letter which Pitt
wrote to Grenville some time in June or July 1793 shows that the news
of a French expedition having set sail to the West Indies, escorted by
six or seven sail-of-the-line from Brest, led him to urge the despatch
of a force for the protection of that important group of colonies.[370]
Besides, was a forward policy in the West Indies unwise? In these days
it is hard to realize the value of those islands. The mention of Hayti
conjures up a vision as of a ship manned by gorillas; for there and in
Liberia is seen the proneness of the negroes to aimless lounging varied
by outbursts of passion. But in the year 1789 Hayti far surpassed
Jamaica in wealth and activity. The French possessed only the western
third of the island; but the Spanish portion to the east was far less
fertile, and far worse cultivated. The French genius for colonization
was seen in the excellent system of irrigation carried on in the vast
and fertile plain, the _Cul-de-Sac_, east of the capital,
Port-au-Prince. But other portions, notably the long peninsula to the
south-west, were also highly prosperous. The chief towns equalled in
splendour and activity the provincial cities of France. Port-au-Prince
and Cap Français were the pride of the West Indies; and the rocky
fortress, Mole St. Nicholas, dominated those waters as Gibraltar
dominates the Eastern Mediterranean. The population of Hayti was
reckoned at 40,000 whites, 60,000 mulattoes or half-castes, and some
500,000 negro slaves. Its exports (chiefly sugar, coffee, and cotton)
were assessed at upwards of £7,500,000, or more by one third than that
of all the British West Indies. To some extent Jamaica flourished on its
ruin. For in May 1796 an official report stated that two
coffee-planters, refugees from Hayti, who had settled in the mountains
behind Port Royal, were introducing so many improvements as to bring the
exports of coffee up to 6,000,000 lb.; and they would soon amount to
50,000,000 lb.[371]
The colonists of Hayti, who offered this valuable prize to Great
Britain, were far from being unprincipled adventurers. Malouet, on whom
fell the chief responsibility, was an upright and able man; and both he
and his comrades were deputed by representative Assemblies which sought
to save society from sinking into a gulf of unutterable horrors. His
letters to Pitt[372] are instinct with the conviction that the men of
Hayti unanimously desired a British protectorate, and recognized that
the colonists must pay for the support accorded to them. As we were
framing an alliance with Spain, no difficulties were to be anticipated
from the Spanish part of that island. When five or six valuable islands
were to be had, to all appearance with little risk except from the
slaves, Ministers would have been craven in the extreme not to push on
an enterprise which promised to benefit British commerce and cripple
that of France.
Unfortunately, owing to the drain of the Flemish campaign, their action
was tardy. The schisms between Royalists and Republicans at the city of
Cap Français enabled the negroes to burst in at midsummer of 1793 with
fire and knife and glut their vengeance on some thousands of persons.
Even after these atrocities the Jacobin commissioners continued to make
use of the blacks in order to enforce their levelling decree; and the
year ended amid long drawn out scenes of murder, rape, and pillage. By
these infamous means did democracy win its triumph in the West Indies.
In their despair the French loyalists applied for further aid to
Major-General Williamson, the governor of Jamaica. He sent a force which
received a hearty welcome at the little fortress of Jérémie (19th
September), and a few days later at that important stronghold, Mole St.
Nicholas, then blockaded on land by the blacks. An attempt by the
Republicans at the capital, Port-au-Prince, to send an expedition for
the recapture of Mole St. Nicholas was thwarted; and late in the year
1793 five other towns accepted British protection. The rapid recovery of
prosperity in the district forming the lower jaw of the griffin-like
head of Hayti is seen in the official exports from the port of Grand
Anse at its tip. During the quarter 20th September to 31st December 1793
it sent the following quantities to British ports, chiefly Kingston in
Jamaica: Coffee, 644,751 lb.; Sugar, 91,593 lb.; Cotton, 56,339 lb.;
Cocoa, 66,944 lb. Even larger quantities of coffee were exported to
foreign ports.[373] In 1796 the produce of Hayti was valued at
£1,500,000; the colony employed more than 400 ships.[374] Was not this a
land for which some risks might be encountered?
Meanwhile the Spaniards from their part of the island had overrun
certain districts, especially those to the north of Port-au-Prince. In
particular, they for a time occupied the port of Gonaives, about midway
between the capital and Mole St. Nicholas, a step almost as threatening
to the British forces as to the French Republicans. It is hard to fathom
the designs of the Spaniards at this time. Their pride, their hereditary
claims to the whole of the Indies, and their nearness to this splendid
prize, all urged them on to an effort from which lack of men, ships and
money, and the hatred of the French and the blacks to their sway should
have warned them off. Seeing also that the French colonists had
officially handed over their possession to Great Britain, Spain should
have come to some understanding with her Ally before invading what was
now in effect British territory. She did not do so; and subsequent
events proved that her King and statesmen harboured deep resentment
against the transfer, and sought to thwart it by underhand means. For
the present, however, their inroad into the north-central districts
dealt one more blow to the power of the French Jacobins and their black
friends. These last were formidable only when the quest was plunder.
Even the iron will of their ablest leader, Toussaint l'Ouverture, could
infuse no steadiness into the swarthy levies, which, roving almost at
will in the mountainous interior, were wellnigh as dangerous to the
Republicans as to the British.[375]
It is not surprising, then, that Pitt and Dundas, despite the drain of
ships and men to Ostend and Toulon, did all in their power to secure
this colony, which had always been deemed essential to the prosperity of
French commerce. On 11th October 1793 Pitt reluctantly admitted the need
of further postponing the West India expedition owing to the uncertainty
of the fate of Ostend and the chance of a French raid on our shores. But
when these dangers passed away the original plan held the first place;
and it should be noted that, by the middle of November, when the
expedition was finally decided on, the position of the Royalists at
Toulon was thought to be satisfactory. Much, of course, can be urged
against sending troops so far away, when the loyal Bretons needed
succour; but Pitt, Grenville, and, still more, Dundas were bent on this
colonial enterprise; and, viewing the situation as it then was, not as
we with our knowledge of later events see it, their decision seems
defensible.[376]
On 26th November, then, Sir John Jervis (afterwards Earl of St. Vincent)
set sail with some 7,000 troops commanded by Sir Charles Grey. After
touching at Barbados he made for Martinique and succeeded in reducing
that island by 22nd March 1794. St. Lucia, Guadeloupe, Marie Galante,
and the Saintes surrendered in April, but after struggles which showed
that the Republicans, backed by mulattoes and blacks, were formidable
foes. This anarchic combination was already threatening the small and
scattered British garrisons in San Domingo. But, when further
reinforcements from England reached Mole St. Nicholas, a force detached
thence under Major-General Whyte made a dash upon Port-au-Prince.
Vigorously handled, and under cover of a violent thunderstorm, the
landing parties carried an important outwork in handsome style, and thus
assured the surrender of the whole place. The spoils were 101 cannon and
32 ships, with cargoes worth about half a million sterling (4th June
1794). This brilliant success cost the assailants very few lives; but
the heats of the summer and probably also the intemperance of the troops
soon thinned their ranks. The French, too, having received succours
which slipped out from Rochefort, recovered Guadeloupe in the month of
September.[377] And from this point of vantage they sought, often with
success, to stir up the slaves in the British islands.
Thus by the autumn of 1794 the position was somewhat as follows. The
British had secured all the French colonies in the West Indies,
excepting Guadeloupe. In Hayti they held nearly all the coast towns, and
maintained an intermittent blockade over the others; but their position
was precarious owing to the thinness of their garrisons, the
untrustworthiness of their mulatto auxiliaries, and the ravages of
disease. It seems probable that, with ordinary precautions and some
reinforcements, the garrisons might have held out in the towns then
occupied, provided that the fleet intercepted French expeditions
destined for the West Indies; and this ought to have been possible after
Howe's victory of 1st June 1794. The fact that the Republic strenuously
prepared to regain those islands at the very time when the Coalition in
Europe and the revolt in Brittany threatened its existence, suffices to
justify Pitt and his colleagues in attacking France in that quarter. A
colony which is worth regaining must be worth gaining. To the capture of
Louisburg, a weaker stronghold than Mole St. Nicholas, England devoted
several expeditions a generation earlier. Had Pitt and Dundas declined
to have as a gift this key to the Indies, what would not their critics
have said of their incapacity and cowardice? For the West Indies were
then far more highly prized than Canada.
Endless difficulties beset every expedition to the tropics, even when
forethought and care minimize the risks from disease. The story of
England's ventures in those seas is, in general, one of hasty action and
long repentance. No one had made a special study of the needs of white
men in that climate. In fact, the military martinets of those days made
little allowance for the altered conditions of service under a broiling
sun; and, until the advent of Abercromby, only slight changes took place
either in the uniform or the time of drills. Dr. Pinckard, in his
account of this enterprise, mentions cases of gross stupidity,
slovenliness, and even of dishonesty on the part of army officials in
those colonies;[378] and it is clear that to this cause the long
death-roll was largely due. The following figures at the close of 1794
are instructive:[379]
BRITISH. | COLONIAL.
|
Effective. Sick. | Effective. Sick.
|
Port-au-Prince 366 462 | 496 48
Mole St. Nicholas 209 166 | 209 38
Jérémie 95 59 | --- ---
St. Marc 48 33 | 813 321
Tiburon 34 18 | --- ---
------------- | -------------
Total 1490 | 1925
It will be observed that the French and coloured troops were far more
immune from sickness. Indeed, the loyal French colonists felt much
annoyance at the comparative uselessness of the British force at this
time. Charmilly, after a long visit to Hayti, returned to London in
September 1794, and laid stress on this in several letters to Pitt. On
11th October he urges him to sanction a plan (already approved) for
raising a force of French _émigrés_ in service in Hayti. A month later
he complains that nothing is being done, though the loyalists of Hayti
are willing to pay their share of the expenses. As it is, they are
growing disheartened; for the British troops remain in the strongholds,
thus leaving the colonial troops in the country too weak to cope with
the roving bands of brigands. As for himself, he is weary of soliciting
help which is never vouchsafed; and he warns Pitt that opinion is
gaining ground in Hayti as to the uselessness of maintaining a struggle
in which the British people take no interest. The note of egotism rarely
absent from Charmilly's letters appears in his assurance that, if
something is not done soon, England will lose the splendid possession
which he has placed in her hand.[380]
There were good reasons why Pitt and his colleagues should not commit
themselves deeply to the Haytian embroglio. In that anxious time, the
autumn of 1794, the most urgent needs were to save Holland from the
Jacobins, to distract them by helping the Royalists of Brittany, and
from our new base in Corsica to clog their attempts at an invasion of
Italy. Owing to the slackness of our Allies, these enterprises proved
unexpectedly difficult. In truth any two of them would have strained the
scanty resources of the British army; and Pitt is open to censure for
not ruling out all but the most essential of them. But here a word of
caution is needful. For us, with our knowledge of the sequel, it is a
comparatively easy task to assess the gains and losses of the war, and
to blame perseverance in one course as wasteful folly or backwardness in
another as stupid slothfulness. If later critics would seek to realize
the amount of information possessed by fallible mortals at the time of
their decisions, the world would be spared floods of censure. How was
Pitt to know that the Dutch were about to hamper, rather than assist,
the defence of their land by the Allies; that Prussia would play him
false; that the schisms among the French Royalists would make Quiberon a
word of horror; that Paoli would stir up strife in Corsica; or that
Spain was preparing to ruin British rule in Hayti? With loyal
cooperation on the part of the Allies, all these enterprises might have
proceeded successfully side by side.
There were no solid reasons for distrusting Spain. The Court of Madrid
had eagerly taken up arms against the regicides of Paris; and Pitt, as
we shall see, early sought to avoid friction in the West Indies.
Otherwise, he would be highly blameable; for England's easy acquisition
of Hayti could not but ruffle the feelings of the Dons. No chord in the
highly strung nature of the Spaniard vibrates so readily and so
powerfully as that of pride in the retention or recovery of the
conquests of his ancestors. The determination of the Court of Madrid to
win back Louisiana and the Floridas, not to speak of Minorca, had
potently influenced its policy in the recent past, and the prospect of
seeing the Union Jack wave over Hayti and Corsica now envenomed the ever
open wound of Gibraltar. True, the French colonists of Hayti, acting
through their local Assemblies, had the right to will away their land to
England. Spain, at least, could not say them nay; but none the less she
longed to see her flag float once more over the western districts which
had slipped from her grasp.
Pitt and Grenville had early foreseen trouble ahead with Spain on the
subject of the West Indies. When affairs at Toulon were causing
friction, Grenville instructed Lord St. Helens, British ambassador at
Madrid, to urge that Court to secure the hoped-for indemnities in the
French districts north of the Pyrenees. As for England, she had in view
Hayti and certain of the French Leeward Islands. This plan, continued
Grenville, could not offend Spain, seeing that the Haytian or western
part of San Domingo fronted Jamaica and fell naturally to the Power
holding that island. But, as the Court of Madrid was known to cherish
desires for a part of Hayti, St. Helens must endeavour to ascertain
their extent so as to come to a friendly compromise.[381] The Spanish
Government, at that time incensed by the quarrels at Toulon, vouchsafed
no reply to these courteous overtures. They were renewed during the year
1794, but with no better result.
Meanwhile, Don Garcia, the Spanish Governor of San Domingo sought to
pour oil on the flames of civil strife. He allowed the bands of negroes
to retire into the Spanish districts, and replenish their stores. In
fact, his conduct was so openly hostile to England, that on 11th
November 1794 Grenville instructed Jackson, British _chargé d'affaires_
at Madrid, to demand the recall of that arrogant official.[382]
Charmilly also averred that the brigands often sallied forth from
Spanish territory to ravage the western districts.[383] Other facts
point in the same direction. Whence could the Republicans and their
black allies have gained supplies of arms and ammunition but from the
Spaniards? The survey of the British over the western coasts was close
enough to bar those supplies, at least in the quantities that the
negroes demanded. In truth, the enigmas of the Hayti affair can be
solved only by delving in the Spanish archives. The whole question is
closely connected with the extraordinary change that came over
Anglo-Spanish relations in the years 1795-6, a topic which will be
treated in the following chapter.
FOOTNOTES:
[363] See "Eng. Hist. Rev.," October 1909.
[364] "Dropmore P.," ii, 395, 438, 443, 444, 464.
[365] Pitt MSS., 349.
[366] Pitt MSS., 121.
[367] "F. O.," France, 40.
[368] Malouet, "Méms.," ii, 209-11; Morse Stephens, "French Rev.," ii,
481-4; "Dropmore P.," ii, 388.
[369] Fortescue, iv, pt. i, 77, 78.
[370] "Dropmore P.," ii, 402, 403.
[371] Pitt MSS., 349.
[372] Pitt MSS., 155, 349. In the latter packet is Malouet's letter of
10th March 1793 from Kingston, Jamaica, to M. Franklyn at London,
dwelling on the woes of San Domingo and Martinique--all due to the folly
and wickedness of one man, probably Brissot. He despairs of the French
West Indies. See, too, "Dropmore P.," ii, 388.
[373] Pitt MSS., 349.
[374] "Parl. Hist.," xxxiii, 586.
[375] The facts stated above suffice to refute the strange statement of
Mr. Morse Stephens ("Fr. Rev.," ii, 476) that the English invasion of
San Domingo was "absurd." It was not an invasion, but an occupation of
the coast towns after scarcely any resistance.
[376] "Dropmore P.," ii, 443, 454, 464.
[377] Fortescue, iv, pt. i, chs. xiii, xiv; James, i, 250-2.
[378] Pinckard, "Notes on the Expedition to the West Indies," ii,
especially Letter 15.
[379] Bryan Edwards, "Hist. Survey of S. Domingo" (1801), 204. Fortescue
(iv, 385) assesses the British losses in the West Indies in 1794 at
12,000 men, apart from deaths in battle.
[380] Pitt MSS., 121.
[381] "F. O.," Spain, 28. Grenville to St. Helens, 30th November 1793.
On 1st October Pitt pressed Grenville to open this question to the
Spanish Court ("Dropmore P.," ii, 433, 438).
[382] "H. O." (Secretaries of State), 5.
[383] Pitt MSS., 349. He added that in 1788, 584 European and 699
American ships set sail from Hayti: 37,447 negroes were imported.