e head of his
little army; but they did not think proper to sustain the assault. On
the contrary, they no sooner perceived his intention, than they forsook
the post, and fled without order. Colonel Clavering, having passed the
river, pursued them to Petit bourg, which they had also fortified;
and here he found captain Uvedale, of the Grenada bomb-ketch, throwing
shells into the redoubt. He forthwith sent detachments to occupy the
neighbouring heights; a circumstance which the enemy no sooner observed,
than they deserted the place, and retired with great expedition. On the
fifteenth day of April, captain Steel destroyed a battery at Gonoyave, a
strong post, which, though it might have been defended against an
army, the French abandoned at his approach, after having made a hasty
discharge of their artillery. At the same time colonel Crump was
detached with seven hundred men to the bay of Mahaut, where he burned
the town and batteries which he found abandoned, together with a vast
quantity of provisions which had been brought from the island of St.
Eustatia. Colonel Clavering, having left a small garrison at Petitbourg,
began his march on the twentieth day of the month towards St. Mary's,
where he understood the enemy had collected their whole force, thrown
up intrenchments, and raised barricadoes; but they had left their rear
unguarded. The English commander immediately detached colonel Barlow
with a body of troops to attack them from that quarter, while he himself
advanced against the front of their intrenchment. They stood but one
cannon-shot, and then fled to their lines and batteries at St. Mary's,
the flanks of which were covered with woods and precipices. When
they perceived the English troops endeavouring to surmount these
difficulties, and turn their lines, they quitted them in order to oppose
the design, and were immediately attacked with such vivacity, in the
face of a severe fire of musketry and cannon, that they abandoned their
ground, and fled in the utmost confusion, leaving the field and all
their artillery to the victors, who took up their quarters for that
night at St. Mary's. Next day they entered the charming country of
Capesterre, where eight hundred and seventy negroes belonging to one
planter surrendered at discretion. Here colonel Clavering was met
by messieurs de Clainvilliers and Duqueruy, deputed by the principal
inhabitants of the island to know what capitulation would be granted.
These he conduc