A Sailor of King George

t and capture of St. Pierre, Dominique-Attack on Bourbon-Capture

a tolerable collection. The natives of this island pride themselves on not being creoles, that is not being of the Caribbean race, although it [pg 19]assuredly is one of the Caribbean Islands. If you are unfortunate enough to speak in favour of any of the other West Indian Islands in their presence, they immediately exclaim, "Me tankey my God dat I needer Crab nor Creole, but true Barbadeen born." They drawl out their words most horribly. I happened one day to hear two of the dignity ladies of Bridge Town, as black as ink, returning the salutations of the morning. The first began by drawling out, "How you do dis maurning. I hope you berry well, m-a-a-m, but I tink you look a little p-a-a-le." The other answered, "I tank you body, I hab berry b-a-a-d niete (night), but I better dis mording, I tank you, m-a-a-m." T

. We also saw abundance of different fruits. The purser purchased several tons of yams for the use of the ship's crew, some of which weighed upwards of twenty pounds each. We bought for our mess some sweet potatoes, plantains, bananas, shaddocks, forbidden fruit, and limes. There were groves of oranges, but we had not time to visit them. We saw in the market melons, guavas, so

style. There were several women with the troops, some of whom had children at the breast. I pitied them, and endeavoured to assist them all in my power. For them to stay below was impossible, as we had almost as many soldiers on board as our ship's company, and to keep their children quiet was equally difficult. To effect this they frequently gave them strong rum and water, which threw them into a state of stupor-poor, miserable little beings! After having these suffering people on board for five days we at length, to their relief and our great joy, arrived amongst our drawling-no, creole friends, and the following morning all the redcoats were disembarked. On the second day after our anchoring the expected fleet made its appearance. It consisted of the Boyne, Vice-Admiral Sir J. Jervis, one 70 an

r arrived with some troops from Halifax. As it was thought advisable to reduce some of the smaller towns before the attack [pg 23]on Fort Royale, we were ordered with one of the sixty-fours, two frigates, the bomb-ship and some gun-boats to assault the town of St. Pierre. We gave three cheers in the cockpit on hearing this news. At daylight we weighed, and in the evening entered the bay of St. Pierre; we were ordered to take off the hard knocks from the bomb by anchoring between her and the enemy. About 9 p.m. we all opened our fire as nearly as possible at the same time. It was a most brilliant sight; the bay was literally illuminated. The enemy's batteries began to play with some trifling effect; this added to the splendour of the sce

nd the models of three frigates. As they had not struck their colours, we did them that favour, and made prizes of them. There were also some pictures of grim-looking saints, which one of the sailors was endeavouring to unhook until another called out, "Let them alone, Jack, they'll only bring you bad luck," on which he desisted. This church was very dirty, and the ceilings of it filled with cobwebs; the priests had taken everything from the altar, as well as from the recesses or small chapels. A party of marines, with some artillerymen, took possession of the forts, and sentinels were stationed over the pub

ngly wounded. In about ten minutes the outer works were carried, and a marine's jacket, for want of other colours, was hoisted on the flagstaff. The enemy retreated to the inner work, but it availed them little. In less than a quarter of an hour they were compelled to give way. Several of them were cut down by the sailors, who had thrown away their pistols after discharging them. Most of them had abandoned their half-pikes before mounting, as they declared they were only in their [pg 26]way, and that they preferred the honest cutlass to any other weapon. The sailors and soldiers behaved well on this occasion; those who did not form the escalade covered those who did by firing incessant volleys of musketry, which brought down those of the enemy who were unwise enough to show their unlucky heads above the parape

hot. Some of the houses were in ruins and the public bui

fort, commanded by the French [pg 27]General Rochambeau. It had be

nd three midshipmen, christened it by a name that would shock ladies' ears. When the enemy's shot fired at them were not too deeply entrenched in the ground,

bursting shell just as we had sat down to dinner. Some were almost every day sent to "Kingdom come" sooner than they expected. Our camp on the plain before the enemy's fort was picturesque enough; the officers only had tents or marqu

e guns soon after opened a most destructive fire on the nearest work, as we could see quantities of the wall fly like showers of hail. During the night we expected a sortie from the fort, and were provided for such an event. A constant fire from all the batteries was kept up all night; the shells were well directed, and an explosion took place in the enemy's fort. At daylight we perceived that the advanced sailors' battery had effected a considerable breach in the fort, and a consultation was held among the superior officers. When over, they acquainted the sailors and soldiers that they were determined to storm it the following night. The three cheers which followed this speech must have been heard for miles. At 10 a.m. we discerned a flag of truce advancing towards our [pg 29]lines, and shortly after a French superior officer with his aide-de-camp requested to speak to the commanding officer. As the ene

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