354 ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



Memoirs of the late Marquis de 

 Bouille, an original Communica- 

 tion by a near Relation of that able 

 Statesman and officer. 



THE marquis wasborninl740, 

 at Cluzel, the paternal seat of 

 his ancestors, situate in theprovince 

 of Auvergne. His mother died at 

 the moment of his entrance into 

 existence, and her husband having 

 survived her only a few years, the 

 marquis came under the guardian- 

 ship of his paternal uncle, then dean 

 of Lyons, first almoner to the king, 

 and afterwards bishop of Autun, 

 who placed him in the college of 

 Lewis the XlVth, then under the 

 superintendence of the Jesuits. — 

 When he had attained his 17th 

 year, Ms uncle purchased for him a 

 company of dragoons in the regi- 

 ment of la Ferronail ; in 1758 he 

 joined with this regiment the army 

 of the count de Clermont, which 

 had just suffered a defeat at Crevelt. 

 M. de Bouille distinguished himself 

 during this war on every occasion, 

 that the active service of the light 

 troops jiresented, and particularly 

 in the affair of Grumburg, in 17(>l 

 where he, at the head of the ad- 

 vanced guard of the dragoons, whom 

 he commanded, defeated the enemy 's 

 column, consisting of several thou- 

 sand men, under the orders of the 

 hereditary prince (now duke) of 

 Brunswick, took several standards 

 and pieces of artillery, and was the 

 principal cause of the decisive ad- 

 vantage which the French army 

 gained in that action over the allies. 

 His gallantry on this occasion Avas 

 universally applauded, and gained 

 him the honour of being appointed 

 to carry the colours to the king, from 

 whom he received the rank of colo- 

 nel, and the promise of the first re- 



giment that should be at his dis- 

 posal. At the conclusion of the 

 same campaign he obtained a regi- 

 ment of infantry, the colonel of 

 which, M. de Vatran, had been killed 

 at the siege of Brunswick. This 

 regiment was known by the name j 

 of Bouille till the peace, when it \ 

 took that of Vexin. 



In 17(18, when only twenty-eight 

 years of age, he was governor of 

 Guadeloupe, and by his able admi- 

 nistration of that colony so entirely 

 gained the confidence and esteem 

 of M. d'Emery, governor-general 

 of the French West-India eslands, 

 that he was immediately pointed 

 out by the latter to the French mi- 

 nistry as the most proper person to 

 succeed to the government of St. 1 

 Domingo, in case M. Emery should \ 

 die there, which event taking place 

 in 1777j M. de Bouille was nomi- 

 nated his successor ; but this dispo- 

 sition was prevented taking effect 

 by some intrigues at court, and ho- 

 stilities then preparing between | 

 France and Great Britain, he was 

 appointed governor of Martinique 

 and St. Lucia, with a power vested 

 in him for taking the command of 

 all the other windward islands as 

 soon as hostilitiesshould commence. 

 The war accordingly broke out in 

 1778, in the month of September, 

 of which year he took Dominica, 

 and in 1781, the islands of Tobago 

 and St. Eustatia.' The success of 

 this latter expedition was not more 

 remarkable than the disinterested- 

 ness displayed by M . de Bouille in re- 

 storing to the Dutch proprietors 

 several millions which they had lost, 

 in consequence of the capture of 

 that island by admiral Rodnej'^, in 

 the preceding year. In 1782, he 

 took the island of St. Christopher 

 and the adjacent ones of Nevis and 



