their valour. They engaged the enemy with so much resolution, that the rebellion was entirely suppressed. The French who had revolted were punished with great severity, and numbers of them expelled the island on account of suspicion. The Indians inhabiting St. Vincent had also, at the instigation of Victor Hughes, taken up arms against the English; but they were not without some pretence: they had been wrongfully deprived of some of their lands, and though years had elapsed since that deprivation, they were prompted, by that revengeful dispo. sition common to the Caribbs, to seek for occasions to gratify it. They encountered the British troops with great courage, and discomfited them in some very bloody engage. ments; and though they were fi. nally repressed, and confined within, their own limits, they still continued to maintain their ground there, and remained unsubdued.

But the most melancholy event that happened this year, in the Bri. tish West Indies, was the fatal dis. pute that took place in Jamaica, be tween the colonists and the ancient inhabitants of that lofty ridge of mountains which intersects the island. When it was conquered from the Spaniards, in the last cen. tury, during the government of Oliver Cromwell, these people refused to submit to the conquerors; and, withdrawing to their mountainous recesses, insisted that the lands they inhabited should be their own, and themselves remain free, and retain their former customs and privileges. This being agreed to, and solemnly ratified, they had lived ever since independent of the British govern ment in Jamaica. In this situation they had now continued one hun

dred and forty years; during which, though altercations had happened between them and the colonists, they had still preserved their privileges. Among these was a remarkabiestipulation, by which they were not to be punished by the courts of judicature in that island, for any of fence or crime, but were to be delivered up to their own people, to be tried, and suffer punishment according to their own laws. Such, it has been represented, was the right and claim of the Maroons, the appellation by which they were dis. tinguished from the other inhabi. tants of the island. It happened, unfortunately, that one of them, being detected in a theft, instead of being put into the hands of his countrymen, to receive due chas. tisement, was, by the authority of a magistrate, sentenced to be whipped. This being executed upon him, he applied to his countrymen for their interference, in order to procure him redress for a punishment which, of all others, was to them the most odious and disgraceful, and had at the same time been inflicted upon him contrarily to established usages. The Maroons complained to the government, that their privileges had been violated, and required satisfaction; but as none was obtained, they determined to procure it by force, and had re. course to arms. Whether it proceeded from contempt, or a resolution to punish their temerity, no endeavours were used to bring about any conciliation, and they were proceeded against with untelenting severity. They made a desperate defence, but were accused of having exercised horrible barbarities upon the prisoners they took. They were at length subdued, and [K4] almost almost exterminated. The recesses, to which they fled for shelter, were so intricately situated, and so diffi. cult of access and discovery, that blood-hounds were procured from the Spanish island of Cuba, in order to pursue and trace them by their scent. The exact number of the fugitives that escaped, was never clearly ascertained in England, and, it is probable, that from the invete. rate rancour of the colonists, against a tribe of men who had so frequently withstood their efforts, they were little disposed to shew them any mercy. But the circumstance, which gave most offence to the public, was the employing of the same means for their destruction, as had formerly been used by the Spaniards, when they first discovered and in. vaded this new world. The cruelties exercised upon the Indians, by those blood-thirsty and inhumancon. querors, rendered them universally odious to all the Europeans: but that horrid practice of hunting and destroying human beings with dogs, trained up for that purpose, had particularly contributed to make them detested.

The checks received by the British forces, in the West Indies, were chiefly due to the immense superi. ority of numbers with which they were attacked, Notwithstanding the many difficulties the convention was incessantly struggling with at home, they were too conscious of the value of the French transmarine possessions, not to exert themselves to the utmost for their retention. No opportunities, therefore, were omitted of sending reinforcements to protect them from the attacks of the English, or to retake those that had fallen into their hands.

The conquest of Martinico, St.

Lucia, and Guadaloupe, by the forces under the command of gene. ral sir Charles Grey, and admiral sir John Jervis, had been attended with circumstances peculiarly bril. liant. The difficulty of access to the places and positions occupied by the enemy, was such, that the French entertained a sanguine hope, that the English would be repulsed every where, especially as every post had been fortified with the ut. most skill, and was in the strongest posture of defence, both with respect to number of men, and quantity of ammunition and artillery. The va. lour, conduct, and knowledge in tactics, displayed by the Britishcommanders and officers on these various expeditions had been remarkable, and the courage of the soldiers had been no less striking. They en. countered every obstacle with an intrepidity and perseverance which the French had not expected; and what was particularly deserving of notice, they obtained most of their advantages by means of the bayonet, a weapon with which the French had, in their European battles, gained signal successes; and in the use of which they considered them. selves as decidedly superior to their enemies.

The skill and bravery of the offi, cers and seamen of the squadron, employed in this service, had been eminently conspicuous. Soestablish. ed was their reputation at this juncture, that no intention of even meet. ing them in combat was entertain. ed by the French, whose principal aim was to elude their vigilance, and to throw what succours they were able into their islands by stealth, not daring to try the chance ofight with British cruizers, when these were on a parity of strength. They

they described the famous victory gained by lord Howe, on the 1st of June, as an action that terminated to their advantage, notwithstanding the capture of seven of their capital ships, and a loss of men that amounted by the clearest calculation, to upwards of ten thousand, in killed, wounded, and taken; while of the British fleet, not one ship was lost, and not one thousand men killed or wounded.

• This great and decisive victory proved a prelude to their subsequent defeats, in some general actions, in the course of 1795. On the 14th of March, a British squadron, of fourteen ships of the line, engaged a French squadron, of fifteen, that was carrying a large body of troops to Corsica, in order to retake it from the English, who had wrested it from the French in the preceding year. So averse were the French to risk an engagement, that no other motive would have compelled them, but the necessity of rescuing two of their ships, which, by falling to leeward, had afforded an opportunity to the British squadron of attacking them with advantage. By the skilful management of admiral Hotham, who commanded it, they were accord. ingly cut off and taken, with up. wards of two thousand of the troops destined against Corsica: the remainder of the French squadron was obliged to take refuge at Toulon. Though the success obtained on this occasion was not signal, yet it defeated the expedition, as intended for the recovery of Corsica; the importance of which, in the opinion of the French, may be estimated from the force embarked on this squadron, which consisted of eightteen thousand regulars.

In June following, another action took place between a British squa. dron of five ships of the line, and two frigates, and a French squadron of thirteen ships of the line, besides frigates. They surrounded the British squadron, which, unable to cope with so superior a force, engaged it however in a running fight, which lasted a whole day. Through dint of extraordinary skill and bravery, the English fought their way through the French, who were not able to take a single ship of the squadron. This action, which happened on the seventeenth of June, did great honour to the naval talents of admiral Cornwallis.

Six days after, admiral lord Bridport fell in with twelve French ships of the line, and nine frigates: they were the same from which admiral Cornwallis had effected so bold and masterly a retreat. The British ships of the line were fourteen, and the frigates eight; the French endea. voured to avoid an engagement, and stood close in with the shore, in order to receive the assistance of some batteries that greatly annoyed the Britith ships; but this did not prevent them from taking three French ships of the line, and severely damaging the others, which escaped, with difficulty, into the harbour of l'Orient.

But the event which principally signalized the British arms at sea, in the course of this year, was the re. duction of the famous Dutch colo. ny, at the Cape of Good Hope, found. ed in the preceding century, with so much labour, expence, and industry, and which was now become one of the most valuable and important settlements of that commercial people. It was taken by admiral Elphinston, and

and general Clarke, to whom, after an ineffectual defence, it surrendered on the 16th of September.

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These defeats and losses not only diminished the strength of the French at sea, but, what was more detrimental to them, greatly dis. couraged their seamen; and duced their hopes merely to such advantages as might be gained by depredations on the British commerce. Herein they met with considerable success, before the close of the present year; especially on that branch of trade carried on with Turkey, which, from the necessity of traversing the whole of the Mediterranean, lay more exposed to their annoyance than any other. In or. der to intercept this, together with that from the ports of Italy, a squa. dron, of nine ships of the line, was put under the command of admiral Richery, an experienced and resolute seaman. The trade of the Mediterranean, amounting to sixty sail, with valuable cargoes, was escorted by three ships of the line, and four frigates; it had proceeded, on its way homeward, as far as the latitude of Cape St. Vincent, where it was attacked by the squadron commanded by Richery, and one half of it was taken, together with a ship of the line.

Conformably to the predatory system tem of warring at sea, nov adopted by the French, besides Richery's squadron, which was fitted out at Toulon, they prepared two others at Rochefort, in order to intercept the homeward-bound fleet from Jamaica; but they took only twelve, the value of which hardly reimbursed the expence of fitting out those squadrons.

But the defeats, losses, and disappointments, of the French, at sea,

were amply counterbalanced by their successes at land; their compulsory retreat across the Rhine excepted, they had succeeded in every other project, and completely frustrated the attempts of the coalesced powers. Two of the principal members of that formidable confederacy had been detached from it, besides others of secondary note. They had revolutionized the governments of all the countries they had subdued, together with the minds of a large majority of the inhabitants. The Austrian Netherlands, to which their ancient denomination of Belgium was now solemnly affixed, were, in general, well affected to the French republic, from the remembrance of the tyranny and haughtiness they had experienced under the house of Austria, The German provinces, on the left side of the Rhine, seemed mostly willing to unite with France, rather than to return to the do. minion of their former masters; and the dispositions of the people of Switzerland, of the Protes. tant cantons especially, were be. coming much more favourable to the French than they had hitherto appeared.

Unwearied pains had been taken, by the French government, ever since the commencement of the revolution, to conciliate the people of Switzerland. Though principles of democracy, nearly similar to those professed by the French, prevailed in some of the inferior cantons, the greater were governed aristocratically, and warmly opposed the in. troduction of French politics. The time was not yet arrived for the French to proceed to violent mea. sures against the Helvetic body: they contented themselves with the private encouragement of those nu