The Company poffefs fix of thofe buildings, which are called forts, in Hudson's Bay; being in reality factories, erected at the mouths of the principal rivers; the buildings being neceffarily ftrong, as well to guard against the climate as against other dangers, and furnished with artillery to command refpect with the various nations of favages, who come from the remoteft parts to difpofe of their furs and peltry; but they had not a fingle foldier in all these forts; and the whole number of storekeepers, clerks, and fervants of every denomination, which they maintain at fo many stations, does not exceed 120, at the utmost.

The French, incapable of imagining the defenceless ftate of thefe forts, took a wonderful deal of unneceffary trouble, in landing their troops and artillery at guarded diftances, and proceeding with the utmost caution in their approaches, under a full perfuafion of meeting with that formidable refiftance, which was fo well to be expected in an attack upon Englifh fortreffes and garrifons. When they had proceeded in this manner within cannon fhot of Fort Prince of Wales, aftonifhed at the filence and folitude which prevailed, not a fingle man appearing in any direction, they made a halt, and fent an officer to fummon the fortrefs to furrender; in answer to which the gates were immediately thrown open, and, M. de la Peroufe gravely informs us, that the governor and garrifon furrendered at difcretion. The fort, he obferves, was built of free-ftone, the artillery in excellent condition, and the magazines were covered with lead. They found here a great

quantity of different kinds of merchandize; but the feafon admitting of no delay, they were under a neceffity of burning and deftroying every thing, excepting fome of the most valuable furs, which, with the garrison, they carried on board.

Having spent about two days at this place, they failed on the 11th for York Fort, which lies farther down the bay, and on the fame weftern fhore with the former, be ing fituated at the point of a long ifland, which dividing a vast river into two great branches, that in the front of the fort is called Hayes's, and that on the back of the island Nelfon River. In this part of the enterprize they encountered natural difficulties, which feemed pretty well to fupply the place of human refiftance. The coaft was full of rocky fhoals; the depth of water not above fix or seven fathoms, at beft; and the bottom every where foul and bad. In this dangerous navigation they were, as before, without any chart for their guidance, and the prifoners obftinately refused to give them the fmalleft information or direc. tion whatever. Through thefe circumftances, befides great and continual danger to the fhips, they fpent nine days in a navigation of not many leagues; nor could they probably have at all fucceeded, if it had not been for the useful affiftance of fome large, decked boats, which they had found at Fort Prince of Wales, and which, leading the way, under the direction of fome of their most able officers and fea, men, with great caution and difficulty traced out a paffage through the numberless rocks and fhoals with which they were environed.

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Nor were the difficulties lefs when they arrived within fight of their object; for the rivers were full of fand-banks; the currents very violent; and the tides exceedingly rapid. As the enemy expected a great refiftance here, and the more fo, as they had received intelligence that a fhip of 26 guns belonging to the Company was at an hor in Hayes' River, they anchored out of fight of land, while the boats spent two days in examining and furveying the fhores and rivers. The refult was, that the attack on the river Hayes' fide being judged too dangerous, the defcent fhould be made on the back of the island from the river Nelfon. The fleet of boats, with the land forces, conducted by M. de la Peroufe himself, gained the mouth of that river on the 21st of Auguft in the evening; when they found the debarkation fo difficult that it could not be attempted during the night. The boats anchored in two fathoms and a half water; but to their aftonishment found themfelves left dry by the tide in the morning; and the troops, leaving their mortars and cannon behind, were obliged to wade, with their mufkets on their fhoulders, through a foft mud, for a quarter of a league, to reach the fhore.

Nor were the impediments to their progress yet fubdued; for though the diftance to the other fide did not exceed four leagues, that day was fruitlessly fpent in endeavouring to find fome road that might lead them through the very difficult woods and moraffes which croffed their way; and they were at length obliged to truft to the guidance of the compafs only for that purpose. In the mean

time the weather grew fo tempeftuous, that M. de la Perouse being greatly alarmed for his fhips, run no fmall rifque in his return to them; while the troops were left to their own fortune, and the fagacity of their proper commanders. After croffing a deep morafs of two leagues, their labours were at length ended, and all thofe mighty dangers which they apprehended, at once vanifhed upon their arrival at York Fort, which opened its gates at the firft fummons, with no lefs facility than they had experienced at Fort Prince of Wales.

The elements were now become fo terrible, and both fhips and boats expofed to fuch continual damage and danger, that the utmoft expedition was used in blowing up York Fort, and in burning and destroying every thing on shore as before. But as we have ever a particular pleasure in relating all acts of humanity in war, whether on the fide of friend or of enemy, we fhall do M. de la Perouse the juftice to acknowledge, that he preferved one of the magazines, in which he depofited provisions, gunpowder, fhot, fmall arms, and an affortment of European goods proper for exchanges with the favages, all which he left behind, for the ufe and fubfiftence, through the coming long winter, of thofe Englifh who had retired to the woods; and who could not, during that time, have received any relief from home.

These fervices being hastily performed by the laft of Auguft, the French commanders, who were exceedingly apprehenfive of the dangers of their fituation, immediate ly fet out on their return to Europe; bringing with them the no

minal governors and garrifons of the forts they had taken; whofe names and number M. de la Peroufe, however, abftains from fpecifying. It was almoft fingular, that two of the Company's fhips, and a floop, which were then in the bay, had the fortune of efcaping the enemy, and of returning fafe to Europe; this was more especially fortunate with respect to the fhip King George, which being hemmed in at Hayes's River, by the enemy's fhips on the one fide, and by their land forces on the other, yet by cutting her cable, and putting out to fea at night, paffed the former without difcovery, and got clear off. The French estimate the damage done to the Hudson's Bay company in this expedition at about half a million fterling.

Some fucceffes within the tropies, on the Mufquito fhore, were all that England had to counterbalance this lofs in the northern extremity of America. We have heretofore feen, that the Spaniards had, ever fince the commencement of the war, made repeated at tempts, with various fuccefs, upon the English logwood cutters and fettlers in the Bay of Honduras, and along the Mufquito fhore, as well as upon their old and faithful allies, the warlike Indians of the latter country; whofe hereditary antipathy to the former, and friendfhip and affection for the latter, ftill continue, through a long feries of years, in full force. But fince the recovery of Omoa from the English, and fince the fatal event of the unfortunate expedition from Jamaica to the River St. Juan on the Spanish main, in which fome thousands of the royal,

as well as the native forces of that ifland, became victims to the poifonous air and water of a most de- ' ftructive and mortal climate, the Spaniards, taking advantage of the enfuing weakness, and of the perilous ftate of things which fo long prevailed by fea and land in the Weft-Indies, preffed much, and with great fuccefs, as well upon the British fettlers, as upon the Indians them felves, in the bay, and on the Mufquito fhore. They had particularly, befides the Island of Rattan, gained poffeffion of the old fettlements upon Black River, (which had been fo long, in feafons of trouble and danger, a fecure refuge to the Bay-men from all quarters) where they fixed themfelves in confiderable ftrength; and they had befides gained Fort Dalling on Cape River, and poffeffed themfelves of other pofts and fastneffes in different parts of the country.

The Bay-men have at all times been a moft hardy and intrepid race; they are easily disturbed and driven from their fettlements, but their entire expulfion, or abfolute reduction, have ever been found impracticable. The excellent treatment which their negroes experience from them, and the terms of kindness, and almost of equality, upon which they live together, has interefted them fo highly in the fortunes of their mafters, that feeming to feel themselves, in fome degree, in the character of citizens, they likewife confider themfelves as acting in a common cause, and are accordingly upon all occafions ready, and with no less courage than themselves, to encounter the greatest dangers in their behalf. Nor is it more extraordi

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nary than praiseworthy in the hiftory of this fingular people, that living nearly without laws and without government through fome generations, yet that they obferved fo exact a probity, and preferved fo inviolable a faith in their transactions with the Indians during that period, as never once, upon any occafion, to have hazarded their friendship.

Preparatory to the execution of a fcheme that had been formed for the entire expulfion of the Spaniards, a Captain Campbell, one of the fettlers, had, at the head of 150 bold and able negroes, exceedingly harraffed and molefted the enemy in their pofts, through the courfe of the fummer 1782. Continued fuccefs, in a number of fkirmishes, ftill encouraging the leader and his black party to bolder attempts, he, with great dexterity and addrefs, evading the enemy's furrounding pofts, reached Fort Dalling in the night, which they gallantly carried, by a moft furious and well-conducted affault, with the lofs, on their fide, of two men only. Such was the roughnefs and fury of this attack, that 65 Spaniards were laid dead upon the fpot; a few wounded were taken prifoners; and the remainder of the garrifon, amounting to about forty, had the good fortune to make their escape in the dark. Eight pieces of cannon, one cohorn, with the colours, fome fmall arms, and a confiderable quantity of ammunition, fell into the hands of the affailants; who, notwithstanding the danger of their fituation, environed, as they were, on all fides by the enemy, waited to deftroy the works, and retired with fafety to their own quarters.

Thefe brifk actions fo much weakened the enemy's force in the country, as greatly to facilitate the fuccefs of the main enterprize against the Spaniards on Black River. A little army was formed at Cape Gracias a Dios, compofed of 80 American rangers, under a Major Campbell, of 500 fhoremen, whites and negroes, and 600 Mufquito Indians, led by their refpective chiefs. It happening, that Lieutenant Colonel Defpard arrived at this juncture, upon fome private bufinefs from Jamaica, the different parties, of all colours and degrees, unanimously elected him to be their leader, and he immediately marched at their head to attack the enemy at Black River.

The Spanish forces in the works and pofts at that place, confifting of 27 officers, and 715 rank and file, were principally compofed of the regiment of Guatimala, and commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Don Thomas Julia. We have no knowledge of the ftrength or nature of their works; but their late experience was by no means encouraging to a bold defence; and ftill much lefs the apprehenfions of falling into the hands of a rough enemy, exafperated by recent loss and injury, or of Indians, who ever regarded them with the most implacable animofity. The governor accordingly foon agreed to a capitulation, by which the garrison and he furrendered themfelves prifoners of war, under the condition of being tranfmitted to Omoa, upon parole, until their exchange was effected, and even then, not to serve against any part of the Mufquito fhore during the war; the forts, and every thing in them, were delivered up to the Conquerors.

conquerors. In thefe were found, befides the property of the inhabitants, now recovered, and the colours, 25 pieces of artillery, 1000 firelocks, and a competent quantity of ammunition.

In no equal period of our naval history had our fleets fuftained greater loffes, or fuffered more grievous calamities, whether thro' mere mischance and difafter, or the irresistible violence and fury of the elements, than during the courfe of the prefent war. But its clofe was peculiarly marked with misfortune; and it is not a little to be lamented, that the gallant victors of the 12th of April, whofe fervices to their country feemed to afford a fair claim to the greatest favours of fortune, fhould have been doomed, in the hoped-for return to their native fhore, to have nearly experienced all the vengeance that Nature in her angrieft mood could inflict.

It needs scarcely to be obferved, that the Weft-Indian feas and climate are exceedingly deftructive to fhipping, and inimical to the health of feamen. The urgent neceffities of the war having obliged the contending fleets to continue longer on that ftation than was confiftent with a due regard to thefe circumstances, at the fame time that the fhips were worn down by continual hard fervice, and battered and torn by their mutual hoftility, it could not be fuppofed that the hafty repairs which they received under the immediate preffure of the occafion, added to a great paucity of means, as well as lack of time, could be in any degree equal to the remedy of the damage which they fuftained. They could only be patched up for pre

fent fervice; but their priftine foundness and firmness could in no degree be restored. Though thefe circumstances were common to both parties, and that the fhips in general were in bad condition, it feems that the French prizes taken on the 12th of April were in a much worfe ftate than thofe which had been originally English; and they were accordingly deftined to bear more than a common fhare in the enfuing calamity. It must, however, be acknowledged, that no defect in the condition of the fhips would be neceffary to account for their fuftaining much lofs, under the almoft unparalleled dreadfulness of the weather which they were doomed to encounter.

The unfortunate fleet and convoy, which took its departure for Europe from Blue-Fields in Jamaica, on the 26th of July, 1782, confifted at firft of nine fhips of the line, the Pallas frigate of 36 guns, and about a hundred fail of merchantmen, being all under the conduct of Admiral Graves, in the Ramillies, of 74 guns. The ships of the line were, however, reduced in number before they got clear of the island to feven; the Ardent of 64 guns, having (fortunately for thofe on board) fprung a leak at Blue-Fields, was protefted against by her officers, and left behind; and the Jafon, of the fame force, being detained through fome other caufe, proceeded on her voyage alone.

As a part of the convoy were bound to New York, the admiral was obliged, in order to fee them out of danger, to fhape his course to a more northern direction than he otherwife would have done. Even before the bad weather com

menced,