17 



with great facility, in the fhort period of thirty 

 days. We learn, from thefe merchantmen, 

 that the convoys were expe&ed to put to fea, 

 again, in about ten days, from the time they 

 came away. 



Every week, nay, almoft every day, fince 

 the middle of the month of September, have 

 we heard of thefe fleets being about to fail in 

 the courfe of a few days, and now, after fix 

 months of daily and anxious expectation, and 

 of as conftant difappointment, it is again faid 

 that they were to put to fea in about tea 

 days, 



It would feem that the very elements 

 had been fet in hoftile array, exclufively, againft 

 the expedition, and that it only required the 

 failing of the convoys to provoke the wrath of 

 the winds s and of angry ocean. Amidft all 

 the vexatious delays, that continue to occur, 

 it is mortifying to difcover that not one of the 

 troop fhips has made the paflage with this for- 

 tunate fleet of merchantmen— which failed 

 from Spithead on the 27th of February, and 

 reached Barbadoes early on the 2 8th of March. 



VOL. II. Q 



