On the 21st of April the long-delayed expedition under Rear-admiral Sir Hugh Cloberry Christian, consisting of two sail of the line and five smaller vessels of war, having in charge a numerous fleet of transports, arrived in Carlisle bay, Barbadoes. After the squadron and convoy had sailed on the 9th of December, the greater part of the ships were again, in the course of January, driven back by tempestuous weather, and did not finally quit Spithead until the 20th of March. The recapture of Sainte-Lucie was the first object to be attended to. Accordingly, on the following day, the 22d, Sir John Laforey proceeded, with the squadron (now greatly augmented) and transports, to Marin bay, Martinique ; where, on the 23d, the whole expedition came to an anchor. On the 24th the admiral resigned the command to Rear-admiral Christian, and sailed for England in the 74-gun ship Majestic.

On the 26th, in the evening, Rear-admiral Christian, with the squadron and transports, on board of which was a large body of troops, under the command of Lieutenant-general Sir Ralph Abercromby, quitted the bay and stood across to Sainte-Lucie ; off which, by the morning of the 27th, the whole had arrived. The three intended points of debarkation were, Anse du Cap and Anse-Béquêne in Longueville bay, Choc bay and Anse-la-Raye, some distance south of the Cul de Sac. The first point in Longueville bay, Anse du Cap, was protected by a 5-gun battery on Pigeon island. To keep this battery in check the 38-gun frigate Hebe, Captain Matthew Henry Scott, led into the anse, or creek. The 74-gun ship Ganges, Captain Robert M'Doual, supported her ; and the 18-gun brig-sloop Pelican, Captain John Clarke Searle, anchoring in Anse-Béquêne, covered the troops in their approach. Other able dispositions were made ; and the fire of the ships, dismounting one and silencing the remainder of the guns at the Pigeon island battery, enabled the first division of troops to make good its landing.

The 74-gun ship Alfred, Captain John Totty, was to have led the second division into Choc bay, and the 54-gun ship Madras, Captain John Dilkes, supported by the 40-gun frigate Beaulieu, Captain Lancelot Skynner, the third, into the anchorage at Anse-la-Raye. A strong lee current, which had set the transports considerably to leeward, rendered it necessary to defer both attempts. However, on the next morning, the 28th, the landing at Choc bay was effected without the slightest opposition ; as, on the following day, the 29th, was that at Anse-la-Raye. Eight hundred seamen, under the command of Captain Richard Lane of the 32-gun frigate Astræa and George Frederick Ryves, of the bomb-vessel Bull-dog, were then landed, to cooperate with the troops in the intended attack upon Morne-Fortunée.

Morne-Chabot, the first post attacked, was, on the night of the 28th, carried by one division only of the force that had marched against it, with the loss of 13 officers and privates