f the country, many houses were burned, and more
than 200 pettiaugres and canoes destroyed. Several hundred slaves were
also sent out, under the protection of military detachments, to dig up
and destroy the provisions of the enemy. On the 4th of July, a
detachment of the 46th and Malcolm's Rangers took, after a sharp action,
the enemy's post at Chateaubellair, near Walliabon, with a loss of 14
killed and 39 wounded of the 46th, and 2 killed and several wounded of
Malcolm's.

The evacuation of St. Lucia by Brigadier-General Stewart was, however,
as far as St. Vincent was concerned, attended by fatal consequences.
The proximity of the former island enabled the French unceasingly to
pour in new reinforcements to their Carib allies in St. Vincent; and,
towards the end of August, a small British post which had been
established at Owia was surprised by a detachment from St. Lucia, and
the whole of the guns and large quantities of supplies captured.

Encouraged by this success, Victor Hugues resolved to endeavour to wrest
St. Vincent from the British, as he had already wrested Guadaloupe and
St. Lucia; and, in the middle of September, he landed in St. Lucia with
a force of some 800 men. These, embarked in four vessels, which escaped
the _Thorn_ and _Experiment_, the British ships of war on the station,
landed at Owia Bay, St. Vincent, on the morning of the 18th of
September; and the force of the enemy was now so vastly superior to that
of the British, that it became impossible for the latter to retain their
advanced positions.

Orders were at once sent to Lieutenant-Colonel Leighton to abandon Mount
Young without delay, and retire to the vicinity of Kingston. They were
carried into execution on the night of the 19th. Having destroyed their
supplies and left their lights burning in their huts as usual, to
deceive the enemy, the troops were silently put in motion. They reached
Biabou the next evening, and, bringing in the detachment which was there
quartered, reached Zion Hill on the 21st; being then distributed among
the posts in the neighbourhood.

The retreating British were speedily followed by the Caribs and French,
who drove off the cattle from several estates, and finally took up a
position on Fairbairn's Ridge, by which the communication was cut off
between Kingston and the Vigie. The detachment of the 60th at the latter
post being short of supplies, Lieutenant-Colonel Ritche, of the 60th,
with 200 of that corps and