c
HAP,XVIII. from the Revolution, to the Death os As,William. 707
*695. The Colonel of the Land-Forces wassoon after desired, to send his sick Mento Jamaica, and to keep those who werein Health, to asfist in the intended Ser-vice, at Leogane and Petit Guavas ; Butneither he, nor the Spanijh General,thought it adviseable, considering theWeakness of the Troops; So that thel e ,J ort de- Fort was demolished, and the Storese d- carried off. This done, the Commadore
sailed to Jamaica, whence, having re-fitted the Ships and put all Things intothe best Order he could, he took his
Departure for England, the third of 1695.September, leaving behind him the Re-jerve , Hampshire, Ruby and Swan ; The S( t ua 'last to bring home some Merchant Ships, jamahs ^when loaden, and the three first (beingFourth-Rates) to guard Jamaica, 5 tillfarther Order; But such Difficulties theymet with in their Passage, not only bybad Weather, but the violent and un-common Distemper which seiz’d theMen, that it was almost next to a Mi-racle the Ships got home. (r) Captain And thenceWilmot, the Commadore, with a great t0 England.
8 R Number
and keeping his Men to their Arms, sufferednone of them to plunder any Thing. The Com-madore had by this Time recovered himself, andfinding my Brother in Possession of his Expectati-ons, with but few Men, followed him, with up-wards of five Hundred Seamen, who, accordingto their Custom, and the Commadore’s Inftructi-. cins, sacrificed all to Plunder, and he himself,
1 coming up to my Brother, clap’d him on theShoulder, and cried, Now, Major, lam strongerthan you ; And, hereupon, removing the Senti-nels my Brother had set, every Thing was car-ried away to the Ships, with a Dexterity very na-tural to Seamen.
My Brother, seinghow Things went, informedme of it, and desired me to come to the Fort. Iwas far from being in a Condition to go; How-ever, seing how we were like to be used, I caus-ed myself to be carried in a Hammock, to theFort : But tVilmot had done his Business, and, assoon as he perceived I was coming, made off to hisBoats, and got on Board his Ships, with all thePlunder his Men had got together. Thus theCommadore again cheated both our Men and theSpaniards; And tho’ all the Men were exasperat-ed to the highest Degree ; Yet, I being exceedinglow, my Major, likewise, taken sick, with al-most all our Officers, and Abundance of Soldiers,we saw we were not in a Condition to do ourselvesJustice, I therefore ordered all our Cannon andAmmunition to be put on Board the Boats, in Or-der to re-imbark; While the Spaniards were em-ploy'd in Demolishing the Fort, which they dideffectually, with all it's Works. We took at thisFort, and Cape Francis, a Hundred and threeand thirty Cannon, some Brass, and some of theIron the best I ever saw. The Guns, Ammuni-tion, and what was not portable by the Seamen,Were shared between us and the Spaniards; Andthe very Stores of Sails, Cordage, Powder andBall, which remained for our Parts, were notworth less than fifteen Hundred Pounds ; And theCaptain lold Negroes, at Jamaica, to the Valueof five Thousand Pounds.
Mr. Burchett would have done Justice to theNation, if he had told us in his History, howmany of these great Guns, and how much of theseStores, were delivered by the Commadore, or hisSurvivors, for His Majesty s Ule, either at Home,or at Jamaica. I, for my Part, take upon me toassure the World, that I never yet heard of oneShilling, or the Value of it, received by any Sol-dier or Officer, belonging to the Land Service.My Sickness hindered me from knowing the Par-Oculars of what was done, and how i hings weredisposed of: But I think I am withm Compass, ifI fay, the Plunder carried off by the Commadoreamounted to above five and twenty ThousandPounds Sterling : For the Truth whereof I referto an Affidavit, whereby it appears he had Effects
in his Ship, of his own, when he died, to theValue of sixteen or seventeen Thousand Pounds,for which his Wife is now suing Captain Butler.
The Spaniards were no better pleased withthe Commadore's Proceedings than I was ; Andtho' they behaved with an unusual Civility ; Yetthey were very sensible of the Abuse, and there-fore complained of our Breaking our Articles withthem ; And this the Spanijh General wrote me,in a long Letter. A Transtation of this Letterthe Colonel has inserted in his Reflections.
The tenth of July, (continues the Colonel) theCommadore sent away the Experiment to Ja-maica, and with her five Sloops laden with Plun-der, and three Hundred and thirty Negroes. Bythe Spanijh Governour's Letter, there were tenThousand Pieces of Eight, in Mony, besides A-bundance of wrought Plate. On the seventeenth,all the Troops and Artillery, Plunder and Priso-ners, being put on Board, the Commadore weigh-ed, and set Sail sot Jamaica. The Damage wehave done the Enemy, and the Booty recoveredfrom them, were not so inconsiderable, as to be someanly represented; For, in sixty Days, we ru-ined the Plantations for a Hundred Miles, we de-molished two Forts, took Prisoners near a Thou-sand Negroes, which every one knows are valuedat twenty Pound a Head. We took, in the twoForts, above a Hundred and forty Cannon, with agreat Quantity of Ammunition and Naval Stores,and the Seamen got Plunder to the Value of fortyThousand Pounds, at least. If the Booty wasnever delivered where it should have been, andthe King was cheated, as well as we, I cannot an-swer for that. The Damage we did the Enemywill never be repaired with two Hundred Thou-sand Pounds Sterling, besides Time; And we dis-planted a whole Colony, leaving the Enemy scat-tered about, in Holes and Woods, and the Spa-niards Masters of the whole.
(r) WE arrived at Jamaica ('continues the Colo-nel) the twenty-third of July, where the Com- ?• tyj,madore had his full Swing of doing what he pleas-ed, and raised great Sums of Mony from the Saleof his Plunder, which he vested in Merchandizesfor England , and took in the Goods privately, onthe Back of the Island. He had taken a FrenchPrize too ; But of that we expected nothing, con-sidering how we were used in the Rest. As soonas I had a little recovered my Health, I began toenquire after Things, and having particularly ac-quainted the Governour of Jamaica, with theCommadore’s Proceedings, by his Advice, I tookAuthentick Proofs of his Conduct, while Peoplewere living, who were Witnesses of it, in Orderto call him to an Account when he came to Eng-land; In which the Governour himselfwas pleasedto be assistant, meerly from an honourable Designof detecting Vilany. (These Proofs are inserted atlarge in the Colonels Reflections-)