28-gun frigate Rose, Captain Matthew Henry Scott and a sloop of war, to attack the three small islands adjacent to Guadeloupe, called the Saintes. They were carried, on the morning of the 10th, without the slightest loss, by a party of seamen and marines disembarked from those ships.

The 43d regiment being left to garrison Fort Fleur-d'Epée (its new name, Prince-of-Wales, was, as we shall presently see, retained for so short a time, that it will be unnecessary to use it) ; the town of Pointe-à-Pitre, and other neighbouring posts, the remainder of the troops, on the 14th, quitted Grande-terre, in transports ; and, dropping down opposite to Petit-Bourg on Basse-terre, landed there, on the same afternoon, without opposition. On the 20th, after two or three batteries, including the famous post of Palmiste, had been carried, with some resistance, and no great loss, General Collot, commanding at Fort Saint-Charles, capitulated on honourable terms ; surrendering to Great Britain Guadeloupe and all its dependencies, comprehending the islands of Marie-Galante, Désirade, and the Saintes.

The loss on the part of the British amounted to two rank and file killed, four rank and file wounded, and five missing. The loss of the republicans is not stated ; but, according to a return found among General Collot's papers, the number of men capable of bearing arms in Guadeloupe, was 5877, and the number of fire-arms actually delivered out to them, 4044. The number of pieces of cannon upon the different batteries in Basse-terre amounted, including fifty-eight 24, and thirty-five 18 pounders, and 15 heavy mortars, to 182. A French 16-gun brig-corvette, the Guadeloupe, was captured in the road of Bailiff, but was not deemed fit for the service. Having placed Major-general Dundas in the command of Guadeloupe, with what was considered to be a sufficient garrison, Sir Charles Grey quitted the island, in company with the admiral and squadron.

Matters remained in the same state until the morning of the 3d of June ; when a squadron of nine ships, bearing the national colours of France, was seen off the town of Saint-François, passing along the coast towards Pointe-à-Pitre. At 4 p.m. the French squadron, consisting of two frigates (probably the Thétis and Pique), one corvette, two large ships armed en flute, and five transports, and which appear to have stolen out of Lorient or Rochefort about the middle or latter end of April, anchored off the village of Gosier, and commenced disembarking troops, at the head of which was the famous, or rather infamous, Victor Hugues, with the title of civil commissary, "commissaire civil," having, as his colleagues, Chretien (died soon after he landed) and Lelsas. On the same evening, and on the following day, the 11th, the republican troops, impatient to gratify their chief's taste, employed themselves in burning and pillaging some estates near Gosier. The delay occasioned by