A list of these expeditions given without monotonous detail will show by what steps England applied and completed her command of the sea.
In January 1794 Sir John Jervis arrived at Jamaica with four sail of the line, escorting 7000 troops under the command of Sir C. Grey. They made an easy conquest of Martinique, which had a garrison of only 700 men in March, and in April occupied St. Lucia and Guadaloupe. In June, Victor Hugues, by birth a mean white of the last-named island, and a Jacobin of the most brutal character, but of energy and capacity, arrived from Europe with nine vessels, and troops. He landed in Guadaloupe. An attack made on his ships at Pointe à Pitre by Jervis was repulsed. He drove the British garrison from pillar to post, and reconquered the island by December. Reinforcements reached him in September. Others sailed from Brest in November, and, though attacked by English ships near Désirade, reached Guadaloupe in January 1795. Hugues rapidly took or retook Santa Lucia, St. Vincent, Grenada, and Dominica. Our naval forces were not numerous enough to watch everywhere. Nor were our troops, who were rapidly diminished by disease, able to occupy in sufficient force.
In August of 1795 Rear-Admiral Keith Elphinstone (Lord Keith) landed the troops which occupied the Cape. In July and August of the year the ships on the East India station and troops from India occupied the Dutch posts on the east side of Ceylon, in Molucca, and Cochin.
In April 1796 Rear-Admiral Christian came to take the command in the West Indies in succession to Jervis, bringing troops under the command of Sir Ralph Abercromby. Santa Lucia was retaken at once, St. Vincent and Grenada in June. In the East Indies the Dutch posts at Colombo, Amboyna, Banda, etc., were occupied. In August a half-manned Dutch squadron of three line-of-battle ships and four frigates fell into the hands of Keith at Saldanha Bay.
In February 1797 Spain having declared war, Rear-Admiral Harvey and Abercromby, with 5 sail of the line and troops, seized Trinidad. The Spanish admiral, Ruiz de Apodaca, whose ships were half-manned, burnt his squadron, and the small garrison could offer no resistance. An attack on Porto Rico in April was beaten off.
In 1799 Surinam was occupied.
In September 1800 Curaçao was surrendered by the inhabitants, who were terrorised by a mob of piratical adventurers calling themselves republicans.
In 1801, on the formation of the Northern Coalition, the Danish and Swedish islands in the West Indies, St. Martin, Saba, St. Thomas, St. John, Santa Cruz, St. Bartholomew, were occupied. The Dutch island, St. Eustatius, was occupied. In the East Indies, Ternate was taken. Portugal having been driven by the threats of France and Spain to exclude other trade, we took possession of Madeira.
By the terms of the Peace of Amiens, England made a wholesale restoration of her conquests. Trinidad, which was of value as a depôt for the smuggling trade with the Spanish colonies in South America, was retained. In the East we kept Ceylon. On the renewal of the war the work of the previous years had to be done over again.
In 1803 the Dutch islands in the West Indies were reoccupied, and the negroes of San Domingo were helped to destroy the remnants of the French troops among them.