to Rico
or Trinidad; and he even dallied with a fantastic scheme for shipping
the Haytian colonists to Porto Rico. Abercromby, however, who again set
sail from Portsmouth in November 1796, decided to make for Trinidad, and
by a brilliant stroke captured its capital, Port of Spain. The attack on
San Juan, in Porto Rico, met with unexpected difficulties, and ended in
failure (February and April 1797). Matters now became desperate in
Hayti. The rebels captured several posts near Port-au-Prince, largely
owing to dissensions among the defenders. Simcoe, despite a serious
illness on his way out, worked miracles with his skeleton regiments, but
both he and his subordinates failed to cut down expenses as the Cabinet
demanded. Accordingly, on 9th June 1797, Portland and Dundas reminded
him that no further reinforcements could be sent out, and added this
ominous sentence: "It is but too obvious that ... the immense sacrifices
this country has made for the protection of the French part of San
Domingo have too frequently been diverted from purposes of public
utility to answer the worst ends of private peculation and inordinate
cupidity."

In a recent debate in the House of Commons St. John assessed the
expenses of Hayti for January 1797 at L700,000; and stated that, for the
discharge of judicial duties, a Frenchman was receiving L2,500 a year,
which he was now squandering in London. Pitt remained silent. Dundas did
not deny these allegations, but begged members to recollect the great
difficulties of our officials in Hayti.[395] This was undeniable. It is
the curse of a policy of retirement that waverers haste to leave betimes
with all the spoils obtainable. The signs of abandonment of Hayti caused
a stampede, demoralizing to all concerned. On 1st January 1798,
Portland and Dundas penned the order for the evacuation of Hayti, owing
to the impossibility of making good the loss of troops or of recruiting
in the island. After dwelling on the impossibility of reducing the
expenditure to the requisite amount, Ministers explained that they had
deferred the evacuation of Hayti "as long as the negotiation which His
Majesty had opened with the enemy at Lille, and the disposition of a
majority in the two Councils of Legislature in France, left a hope that
some immediate arrangement might be made with that country, which in its
consequences might operate to relieve England from the intolerable
burdens by which the British part of St. Domingo i