Chap. XI front the Revolution to the Death of K. William* 6ft

169^. tations thereabouts, some of whichwere considerable, and then the Troopswere put on Board again. Two Daysafter, Sir Francis made another De-scent, with fifteen Hundred Men, and,after he had burnt and destroyed severalHouses and Plantations, the Troopscame again to their Ships. The nextDay, Lieutenant-Colonel Lillingfion wassent aihoar, with a considerable Party,to ruin the Country on this Side Dia-mond-Bay, which he did and returned.The ninth and tenth, Colonel Codring-ton, with the Forces of the Leeward- 1 -flands, and Colonel Floyd's Regiment,joined the Fleet, and then they weigh’dAnchor, and came before Fort Royal ;And St. Peter' sFort. Soon after, theTroops were landed, ravaged the Coun-try, and some Skirmishes happened be-tween them and the Enemy, with vari-ous Success, in the Neighbourhood ofSt. Peter's.

pother The twentieth of April, another

$ nci l of Council of War was called, and a De-

Ur, .

bate arising, whether a close Siege 1693*should be laid, and Attacks made onthe Town and Fort of St. Peter's, orwhether the Forces should be taken onBoard, and that then it should be con-sidered what was fit to be done, it wasmoved by the President, (Sir FrancisPPheeler) that every Man should givehis Opinion in Writing, (h)

All Things considered, it was re- „ n , tsolved , at a Council of War, held fail to Dwthe two and twentieth of April, that minica.the Army should re-embark, and theSquadron sail to Dominica, that therethey might take in Water, and refreshthe Men, who were, at this Time, inbut very indifferent Circumstances ofHealth. (<?)

A x Dominica, anotherCouncil of War attackwas call’d, the five and twentieth of A- Gudalupe,pril, and the Question being put, whe-ther they should attack Gudalupe, itwas carried by a large Majority on theNegative. Upon this, it was resolved,to Tend home all the Forces belonging

8 H “to

( d ) Pursuant to this Motion, each Officer,both by Sea and Land, took the Matter into Con-sideration, and having drawn up their Reasons,and signed them, they were delivered in: Butfew there were among them, if any, except SirThomas Wheeler himself, and Lieutenant ColonelColt, who were for making an Attempt; But ra-ther to retire, and land the Men in some otherPlace, in Order to despoil the Enemy.

Most of the Officers alledged, that the Frenchwere fuperiour to our Forces, and that since, atleast, one third of the Men were Irip Papists,there could be but very little Confidence put inthem; And another Objection was made,- Thatthe greater Number of Men they had to trust tohad not born Arms, before this very Expedition.

Other Scruples were raised, such as these :That the Roads were almost impassable, and theHills inaccessible ; That the Attempt, would notonly too much expose the Men to the Enemy,but the Sickness also, by Reason of the Fatigue,eight Hundred of the three Thousand (includingthe Irip) being either found killed, wounded, orsick, within three Days after Landing.

Others, and particularly General Codrington ,were of Opinion, that should our Army be bea-ten, it would be almost impossible to retreat, onBoard the Ships, so that not only Barbadoes, butthe Leeward 1/lands also, would be in a verygreat Measure' exposed to the Enemy, most ofthe Forces having been drawn from those Places,]? for this Service.

Hani e i . (e) Father Daniel pretends, that the En-

glish, attempting to make themselves Masters ofMartinica, with sixty Sail of Ships, seventeenwhereof were Men of War, six Frigats, andthree Fire-ships, and four Thousand two Hun-dred Men on Board, made a Descent in twoPlaces, and landed two Thousand Men in each:That they actually made an Attempt with theseForces, and that Monsieur Gabaret, who com-manded in the We, Monsieur Augier, the King’sLieutenant, and Monsieur deBlenac, Lieutenant -General of America, killed, upon these twoOcca-

sions three Hundred of the Englipmen, woundedfour Hundred more, and obliged them to re-im-bark, with the greatestPrecipitation, without hav-ing done any Damage to the Isle, farther than theBurning of a few Sugar-works. De Larrcy fays, De Larrey 1 ,the Englip appeared off of Martinica, with fix Hist. de Fr.and forty Ships, the second of April, and, hay- pus Louising anchored in a Place proper for a Descent, XIV.landed sixteen Hundred Men, who began to burnthe adjacent Country. Two Days after, theywere re-inforced by fourteen Barks with Militia,notwithstanding which the French obliged them toretire. The twelfth, they appeared before FortRoyal, from whence being likewise repulsed, theseventeenth, they landed four or five ThousandMen, about a League from Fort St. Peter, thechief of the Island, and advanced, with the Designof attacking it. The Governour, Monsieur Ga-baret, went to meet them, with a Thousand Menonly, but was obliged to give Way to the fuperi-our Force of the Englip ; But having received aRe-inforcement, under the Command of theCountde Blenac, Governour of all the French Islands,

(in fix Brigantines, one Saick, one Galliot, andseventy Sloops) he obliged the Englip to retire,in theirTurns, leaving two Hundred dead on theSpot, besides wounded and Prisoners. The eigh-teenth, they were again driven from a RisingGround, where they had lodged six HundredMen, and they were afterwards worsted in di-vers Encounters : So that, after having remainedfive Days before Fort St. Peter , and one andtwenty on the Island, they re-embarked, and setSail, with the Loss of five Hundred Men killed,twoPIundred wounded, and a Hundred Prisoners.

The French pretend, that, on their Side, therewere only fix killed, and two wounded, in thelast Action, and, in all, but ten killed, eight andthirty wounded, and two taken Prisoners. They,likewise, say, the Englip left behind them aHundred Barrels of Powder and Bullets, withgood Store of Arms, and Appurtenances to Ar-tillery.