PREFACE. 



xxxi 



treasure on board the Centurion, the evening be- 

 fore; so that on the third morning, being the 15th 

 of November, the boats were employed in carrying 

 off the most valuable part of the effects that remained 

 in the town: and the Commodore, intending to 

 sail in the afternoon, he, about ten o'clock, pur- 

 suant to his promise, sent all his prisoners, amount- 

 ing to eighty- eight, on shore ; giving orders to 

 lieutenant Brett to secure them in one of the 

 churches, under a strict guard, till the men were 

 ready to be embarked. Mr. Brett was at the same 

 time, ordered to burn the whole town, except the two 

 churches, ( which, by good fortune, stood at some dis- 

 ianc from the houses,) and then he was to abandon 

 the place, and to return on board. These orders 

 were punctually complied with ; for Mr. Brett imme- 

 diately set his men to work to distribute pitch, tar, 

 and other combustibles, (of which great quantities ivere 

 found here,) into houses situated in different streets 

 of the town ; so that the place, being fired in so many 

 different quarters at the same time, the destruction 

 might be the more violent and sudden, and the enemy, 

 after our departure, might not be able to extinguish it^ 

 " The flames had taken possession of every part 

 of the town, and had got such hold, both by means 

 of combustibles that had been distributed for that 

 purpose, and by the slightness of the materials of 

 w^hich the houses were composed, and their apti- 

 tude to lake fire, that it was sufficiently apparent 

 no efforts of the enemy (though they flocked down 

 in great numbers,) could possibly put a stop to it, 

 or prevent the entire destruction of the place, and 

 all the merchandise left therein. A whole town on 

 fire at once, especially where the buildings burnt with 

 such facility and violence, being a very singular spec- 

 tacle, Mr, Brett had the curiosity to delineate its ap- 



