1798 - Colonial Expeditions, West Indies, Evacuation of Port-au-Prince


 
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Naval History of Great Britain - Vol II
1798 Evacuation of Port au Prince, &c. 249

company were praised for their meritorious exertions, and the remainder animadverted upon for conduct of a quite opposite character. The court, however, not possessing the means of discrimination, and fearful of involving the innocent with the guilty, acquitted the whole ship's company. Captain Jenkins was still suffering under the effects of the dreadful wound he had received, and looked extremely ill. This probably operated in mitigating the sentence. Otherwise the captain no doubt would have been, if not more seriously dealt with, severely reprimanded, for the undisciplined state of his ship, and for the unseamanlike manner in which the action, from first to last, had been conducted.

Colonial Expeditions - West Indies.

It being found expedient for the British troops to evacuate Port-au-Prince, St.-Marc, and Arcahaye, in the Island of St.-Domingo, Brigadier-general the Honourable Thomas Maitland, the British commanding officer on shore, sent a flag of truce on the 22d of April, to the Republican General Toussaint-Louverture, with a proposal for the suspension of arms, not to exceed five weeks, and for a guarantee in favour of the lives and properties of all those inhabitants who might choose to remain. These terms being agreed to, and properly ratified, the troops, stores, and such of the inhabitants as were desirous to quit, were embarked on board the Thunderer 74, Abergavenny, 54, and other British ships of war ; and on the 9th of May, the republican French were put in possession of the ceded places. The ships then proceeded to Cape Nicolas-Mole, where the troops and French Refugees were safely disembarked. Shortly after this the three French 36-gun frigates Bravoure, Cocarde, and Sirène, arrived at Cape François from Europe with supplies, and on the 4th of December got safe back to Lorient.

In the month of August the Spaniards evinced a disposition to attack the British settlement at the bay of Honduras. The regular force on shore at the post was composed of small detachments of the 63d and 6th West-India regiments and of the royal artillery, under the command of Lieutenant-colonel Thomas Barrow ; and the naval force consisted of only one British vessel of war, the 16-gun ship-sloop Merlin, Captain John Ralph Moss, lying at anchor in the port of Belize. Besides the Merlin, however, the following colonial gun-boats had just been fitted up, the Towzer, Tickler, and Mermaid, sloop-rigged, the latter with one long 9, and each of the others with one long 18 pounder, and 25 men ; the schooners Swinger and Teazer, the one with four 6 and two 4-pounders, and, the other with six 6-pounders, and 25 men each ; and eight gun-flats, with one 9-pounder in the prow and 16 men each : making, with one supernumerary, 254 men, including officers. The Towzer and Tickler were

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