There were calls, also, from the West Indies on the sore-pressed Board. A train of brass Ordnance was sent there, to which were attached the following, among other officials:—A Firemaster, at 10s. a day; a Master-Gunner, at 5s.; Engineers, at various rates, but generally 10s., who were ordered to send home frequent reports and sketches; Bombardiers, at 2s. 6d.; and a proportion of Gunners and Matrosses, at 2s. and 1s. 6d. per diem respectively, whose employment was guaranteed to them for six months at least.
As if the Admiralty, the horsedealers, the West Indies, Scotland, Ireland, and unseasonable zeal were not enough, there must come upon the scene of the Board's deliberations that irrepressible being, the "old soldier." The first Board of William and Mary was generous in its dealings with its officials almost to a fault. This is a failing which soon reaches ears, however distant. Several miners absent in Scotland, hoping that in the confusion the vouchers had been mislaid, complained that they were in arrears of their pay, "whereby," said the scoundrels, "they were discouraged from performing their duties on this expedition." Enquiries were made by the Board, and in the emphatic language of their minute, it was found "that they lied, having been fully paid up."
When the time came for the Duke to shake off the immediate worries of the office, as he proceeded to Chester and to Ireland, his relief must have been great. With him he took the chief waggon-master to assist in the organization of the train in Ireland, leaving his deputy at the Tower to perform his duties. The suite of the Master-General on his ride to Chester included six sumpter mules with six sumpter men, clad in large grey coats, the sleeves faced with orange, and "the coats to be paid for out of their pay."
Only two more remarks remain to be made. The proportion of drivers to the horses of William's train of Artillery in Ireland may be gathered from an order still preserved directing a fresh lot of horses and men to be raised in the following proportions: one hundred and eighty horses; thirty-six carters, and thirty-six boys.
Next, the dress of the train can be learned from the following warrant, ordering:—
"That the gunners, matrosses, and tradesmen have coates of blew, with Brass Buttons, and lyned with orange bass, and hats with orange silk Galoome. The carters, grey coates lyned with the same. That order be given for the making of these cloaths forthwith, and the money to be deducted by equal proportions out of their paye by the Treasurer of the Trayne."
(Signed) "Schomberg."
From a marginal note, we learn that the number of gunners and matrosses with the train was 147, and of carters, 200; these being the numbers of suits of clothes respectively ordered.
It was with this train to Ireland that we find the first notice of the kettledrums and drummers ever taking the field.[[7]]