ENGLAND, 243 



Vine, five frigates, and seyeral transports carrying stores and provi- 

 sions : it arrived on the 16ch of that month off the mouth of the river 

 Surinam : when the fort New Amsterdam, and the town of Para- 

 maribo, the capital of the Dutch colony of Surinam, surrendered by 

 capitulation to the British commanders without attempting resistance, 



But the principal military operation undertaken by Great Britain, 

 in this year, was the expedition fitted out to rescue Holland from the 

 yoke of the French, in which about 30,000 British troops were em- 

 ployed, who were joined in Holland by 17,000 Russians, taken into 

 the pay of England. The first division of this armament, under sir 

 Ralph Abercrombie, sailed from Deal and Margate on the 13th of 

 August for the Helder-point, at the mouth of the Texel ; but encoun- 

 tered such unfavourable and violent gales, that the troops could not 

 effect a landing at the place of their destination till the morning of 

 the 27th. A hotly contested action then took place between the British 

 and the French and Dutch troops : but the valour of the former ulti- 

 mately triumphed ; and the enemy evacuated the batteries and works 

 of the Helder, and seven Dutch men of war and thirteen Indiamen 

 surrendered to the fleet under admiral Mitchell, who immediately 

 after stood down into the Texel, and offered battle to the Dutch fleet 

 lying there, the whole of which, consisting of twelve ships of war, 

 surrendered to the English admiral, the Dutch sailors refusing to 

 fight, and compelling their officers to give up their ships for the ser- 

 vice of the prince of Orange. 



On the 13th the duke of York arrived in Holland, with the second 

 division, and took upon him the command of the army ; and on the 

 I9th an engagement took place between the British and Russians and 

 the French, in which the former failed in their attack, in consequence 

 of the Russians suffering themselves to be thrown into disorder by 

 their impetuosity and haste, winch occasioned them to suffer severely., 

 their loss amounting to 1500 men, and their general, who was taken 

 prisoner. The army, however, soon recovered from the effects of 

 this check, and on the 2d of October, after a hard-fought battle of 

 twelve hours, compelled the enemy to retreat, and took possession of 

 the town of Alkmaar. But here the success of the expedition ter- 

 minated. The enemy had received a reinforcement of about 6000 

 men, and occupied a strongly fortified position, which it would be 

 necessary to carry before the army could advance ; besides which, the 

 state of the weather, the ruined condition of the roads, and the con- 

 sequent total want of the supplies necessary for the army, presented 

 such insurmountable difficulties, that in two days afterwards it was 

 judged expedient to withdraw the troops from their advanced posi- 

 tion : and as it now appeared that there could be no hope of success 

 in any attempt to prosecute further the object of the expedition, the 

 duke, in conjunction with vice-admiral Mitchell, concluded an armis- 

 tice with general Brune, who commanded the French and Batavian 

 armies, the principal conditions of which were, that eight thousand 

 French and Batavian prisoners, taken before that campaign, should 

 be restored to their respective countries ; that the combined Eng- 

 lish and Russian army should evacuate the territory, coasts, islands, 

 and internal navigation of the Dutch republic, by the 30th of Novem- 

 ber 1799, without committing any devastation by inundations, cutting 

 the dykes, or otherwise injuring the sources of navigation ; and 

 that the mounted batteries taken possession of at the Heldei', or at 

 ether positions, should be restored in the state in which they wer& 



