HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



28S 



be violently agitated by excessive 

 exertions during the day, and tlie 

 body suddenly chilled by the heavy 

 dews of the night. This disease, 

 even in peaceable times, and In 

 the ordinary course of things, is 

 found to consume two thirds of an 

 European regiment in three years. 

 Unfortunately for the British army, 

 the calamity was not confined to 

 the ordinary limits of devastation. 

 Its malignity vvas aggravated by a 

 pestilential infection, importtd in a 

 Guineaman from Africa, and com- 

 municattd not only to the West 

 India islands, but also to America; 

 where even the keenntss of a fro- 

 zen atmosphere did not stop its 

 desolating career till the second 

 winter. 



It v.as during the prevjilence of 

 this epidemic distemper, that a 

 small armament of about two thou- 

 sand men, from Brest, escaping the 

 vigilance of the Engh'sh cruizers, 

 and landing in Gnadaloupe, imme- 

 ' diatcly stormed and overpowered 

 the weak and sickly English garri- 

 son in the fort of Grand Terre. 

 The British General, by collecting 

 reinforcements from the other 

 islands, endeavoured to retrieve this 

 loss; but the ranks of every regi- 

 ment wcie so thinned by sickness, 

 the wants of so many islands, and 

 the waste of so active a campaign, 

 thai this was no easy task. A- re- 

 spectable force being at length col- 

 lected and landed, drove the enemy, 

 commanded by the French commis- 

 •ioner Victor Hugiies, after a stout 

 resistance, from some commanding 

 heights that lay between him and 

 the fort : but the pursuers, on the 

 same day, were attacked mere than 

 once, by a reinforced multittide of 

 ill colours, wliites, blacks, and mu- 

 latcocs clad in unifoimi, and obli- 



ged to have recourse to the bayonet 

 before they could be compelled to 

 remain sheltered behind their for- 

 tifications. 



As the commencement of the 

 rains had now terminated the sea- 

 son for military operations, the 

 General, about the end of June, 

 made a concluding effort to expel 

 the French by a nocturnal attack. 

 From different accidents and mis- 

 takes,, the attempts of our men, 

 though made with their usual gal- 

 lantry, were completely frustrated. 

 In various rencounters five hundred 

 brave British officers and privates 

 were killed, wounded, and missing. 



The British General retired to 

 Martinico, leaving a force for 

 maintaining the other posts that 

 yet 'remained in the hands of the 

 English. This force, soon reduced 

 by mortality to one hundred and 

 fifty privates fit for duty, was 

 taken (though not without a long 

 and vigorous defence) by the ene- 

 my : and the whole island fell 

 again into the hands of the repub- 

 licans. 



From St. Vincent, the seat of 

 the Caraibbs, or what remained of 

 the ancient inhabitants of the 

 islands, the passion for liberty and 

 equality was communicated to the 

 minds of the mulattoesand negroes 

 in Martinico, St. Lucia, and the 

 Grenades; and a spiiit of disor- 

 ganization and anarchy introduced 

 into every part of the West Indies. 

 Of all the French West India 

 islands, Martinico alone escaped 

 (and that through the vigour of 

 the regulars and colonists) tiie cruel 

 devastation of invasion and insur- 

 rection. The contagion spread to 

 Dominica; but wasrepelled, though 

 not without a long struggle, and 

 much loss of property. In Jamaica 



the 



