conquerors, then, in noble violation of custom, admitted their captives to the privileges of prisoners of war. The British loss was three killed and 25 wounded; that of the enemy, as represented, 15 in killed and wounded. The force on the batteries appears to have been 21 guns, 11 of them 18-pounders. The amount of prisoners did not exceed 200 ; but it was conjectured, that full 100 armed inhabitants, besides several mulattoes and negroes, had, on the first rush of the British, escaped from the fort.

In consequence of representations made by the royalists of Martinique to Rear-admiral Gardner, who had recently succeeded Rear-admiral Laforey, and to Major-general Bruce, the military commander-in-chief at Barbadoes, intimating, that even the display of a small British force would occasion a great number of the inhabitants to declare for the monarchy, Rear-admiral Gardner's squadron, consisting of the Queen 98, Captain John Hutt, bearing his flag, the Duke, of the same force, Captain the Honourable George Murray, the Hector and Monarch 74s, Captains George Montagu and Sir James Wallace, with one or two others, and a division of transports, having on board about 1100 British and 800 French royalist troops, proceeded off the island.

Between the 14th and 17th the troops were disembarked, under cover of the British ships, assisted by a French royalist 74-gun ship and 36-gun frigate ; the latter the Calypso, and the former, late the Phocion (both ships having belonged to the republican navy), but now newly named the Ferme.

On the 18th the united forces moved forward, in two columns, to attack the two batteries which defended the town of St.Pierre; and in which the governor of the island, General Rochambeau, was posted, with, as is alleged in the French accounts, only a few hundred troops. Unfortunately, some alarm having taken place among the royalists, the latter, in a mistake, fired on each other, and severely wounded their commander. This so disconcerted the men, that they turned upon their heels, and marched back to the post they had quitted. The British being, in point of numbers, as was conceived, considerably inferior to the republicans, marched back also, and, by the 21st, were again on board their ships. The knowledge of what treatment the royalists were likely to experience if they fell into the hands of the republicans, induced Major-general Bruce to hire vessels to bring them off; and Captain le Vicomte de la Rivière, putting himself and his 74 and frigate under the orders of the British admiral, saved a great number of his unfortunate countrymen. By this prompt measure, some hundreds of the loyal inhabitants, whites, browns, and blacks, escaped being massacred, and were afterwards distributed as settlers among the different islands. There were, however, as many as 2000 that remained. These were seized and confined as "aristocrats;"