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95* The Commadore, not hearing frontthe Forces, since they moved from Capefen “to ^ Francis, called a Council of War, andf r ain tie proposed to land fourHundred Seamen,to fee if they could join them, for he^hnbuji 0 had Reason to doubt they were in Dan-W ger. Accordingly, such a Number ofMen were landed, about si ye MilesEastward of Fort de Paix , tho’ theyreceived some Opposition; Yet theyburnt and destroyed the Enemy’s Plan-

1695“

tations, to the Fort itself, to which theFrench retired; But not hearing anyThing of the Land-Forces, they cameon Board the Ships at Night.

Soon after this, Captain JHilmot had Soi f CannonNotice, that several of the Soldiers had °f dt enstraggled near Fort de Paix, (m) where-upon he landed the like Number of Sea-men again^ in Order to join them, (n)and the next Day put on Shoar the Can-non and Mortars, but there was not so

much

like to save ruined our whole Expedition : TheSpaniards were so disgusted at being thus trick’ddf their Share of the Plunder, that they were forreturning, and my Men were all in a Mutiny onthe fame Account; And it was not without greatDifficulty I appeased both for the present.

The twenty-second of May , I desired a Coun-cil of War might be called, concerning a Distribu-tion of the Plunder; But the Commadore, to pre-vent any Demand on him, came blustering onShoar, and swearing he would be revenged on theSpaniards , and threatned their Admiral, becausethey had carried off all the Plunder ; Whereas itappeared, by the Confession of our own Seamen,that the Spaniards were not suffered to lay theirHands on any Thing, 'till the Commadore's Peo-ple had got all that was worth carrying away.These Disputes held four or five Days, and great-ly exasperated the Soldiers. In this Extremity, Isent to the Commadore, to come alhoar, to ano-ther Council of War ; But he refused it ; And Iwas forced to promise my Men to see them satis-fied, when all was over ; Upon which I joinedthe Spanip Army with nine Hundred Men. I .“■enow directed our March for Pert de Paix, whi-ther the Commadore was desired to follow, withhis Fleet, which he did ; But refused to leavethree or sour Transport-lhips to take in the SickMen, which, if the Spanip Admiral had notshewn more Humanity than he, must all haveperished, or fallen into the Enemy’s Hands : Andthis is the Loss, Mr. Burchett fays, was occasion-ed by the Men's straggling up and and down theCountry for Plunder. I had now joined the Spa-nip Army ; And was in full March for Port dePaix. And it was a very severe March, of sixteenDays, in which we suffered great Want- Thiswas the Time of which Mr. Burchett observes;the Commadore could not hear what was becomeof the Army. The Truth is, he could not wellhear of us, and we would have been very glad tohave heard of him ; But he was employed in plumderm* all along upon the Coast, without any Re-gard to the Design in Hand. But Mr. Burchett,to brine in his Commadore doing something, tellsus; He called a Council of War, and landed furHundred Seamen, pretending he was follicitousfor our Safety. For my Part, I fee nothing mall this, but a premeditated Sham to coyer a mostfoolish and ridiculous Action. There was a pret-ty large Plantation, about four Leagues fromPort de Paix, which the Commadore had a greatMind to plunder ; But, understanding the Ownerof it had put himself in a Posture of Defence, he,for Form's fake, called a Council of War, and itwas resolved to land a Detachment of about fourHundred Men,to attack this Place ; But when theOwner offered them Battle, the Commadore, andhis Army, thought fit to retire, without attempt-ing any Thing ; And this is khe true History oftheirLandin* fourHundred Men,to assist m . Nor.is there one Word of Truth, in their being oppos-ed by an Awhtjcade, (this is lest out in Mr. Burn

,p. <5

chest* s larger Naval History) and their destroyingthe Engl'isto Plantations to the very Fort itselfFour or five Days after this, the Army beingcome within two Leagues of Pert de Paix , theGentleman who had defended his Plantation a-gainst the Seamen abandoned it, leaving fourPieces of Cannon in it; And as he, and his Peo-ple, pafs'd by the little Town of Port de Paix ,they set Fire to it, and retired into the Fort;

Upon which landed his Men, and, having

very manfully plundered the House, set Fire toit.

(m) In his Memoirs his Words are : The Com-madore had Notice, that the Army had straggled ^up near Port de Paix, &c- To which the Colonelanswers: I cannot but suppose, this is a Phrase ofMr. Burchett’ s own; For 1 am fully persuaded hecannot produce one Voucher for this Intelligence.

The Commadore had the first Notice from our-selves, and we should hardly have given such anAccount of ourselves ; And, besides, the EnemyWas not so inconsiderable, that we durst foster ourMen to straggle at all, but made a very regularMarch, tho' a very hard one, both for Officersand Soldiers. Here the Colonel, in his fartherJustification, gives thePublick a Cop)t, of his Gene^sal Orders; And adds, he found no Occasion topunish a Man for the Breach of them.

(») The Colonel is pretty prolix in his Answer p. Cj. & seqito this short Paragraph, and introduces it with aparticular Account of some other Transactions,omitted by Mr. Burchett : I shall endeavour togive the Sense of what he fays, in a few Words:

We came before the Fort, the thirteenth ofJune , and sending a Detachment to get news ofthe Fleet, they found it yet at Anchor, near thePlantation they had been plundering. The Com-madore promised to come before the Place, withhis Ships, the next Morning ; But we heard no-thing of him in two Days S At the Expiration ofwhich he came, indeed, with four Hundred Men, .but left his Ships in their former Station. ( Herethe Colonel gives a large description of the Fort ,and then proceeds.) This is the Fort we were tobesiege: We were in all but two Thousand, fiveHundred Men, fatigued, in Want of Provisionsyand Without our Train of Artillery, or any Instru-ments proper for a Siege. I Was glad to fee theCommadore, and especially with so many Men,well armed; But, it seems, they were his Guard(being sensible the Land-Forces ow’d him aGrudge) for he refused leaving them to assist us,as he did likewise, to hold a Council of War, (be-cause he could not preside on Shoar) tho' he knewthe haughty Answer Monsieur E>u Cafe, the Go-vernour of the Fort, had sent, when he was sum-moned to surrender ; Tho’ he promised, indeed,that four Hundred Seamen should join the Army,and the Cannon, Mortars, and Ammunition, belanded the next Day: And now the Commadoreshew’d himself in his own Colours again,- and at-tempted, .a second Time, not only to seduce meto join with him, inElicits Practices, for our pri-

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