"This expedition," says Dr. Moseley, "was directed by General
Dalling, at that time Governor of Jamaica. The plan, wherever it
originated, was judiciously designed; and highly approved by Lord
George Germaine, then Secretary of State for the American
Department.
"The intent was, to cut off the communication of the Spaniards, between their Northern and Southern American dominions, by El Rio San Juan—or, the River St. John, as it is called by us—and the Lake Nicaragua; from the interior boundary of which, to the South Sea, is only four or five leagues, through a level country. Thus, a connection from the northern to the southern sea, was to have been kept up by us; a chain of posts established; and a communication opened, and protected, with an extensive coast, and all the richest, provinces of South America.
"Every person acquainted with the geography of the Spanish territories, of the defenceless state of this approach to them, and of the insurrections that had then actually taken place in Santa Fé, Popayan, and many parts of Peru, formed the most sanguine expectations. Happy was every man who had hopes of bearing any part in the enterprise. Enthusiasm was never carried to greater height, than by those who had promised to themselves the glory of shaking Spain to her foundation. The colours of England were, in their imagination, already even on the walls of Lima.
"And so, indeed, they might have been, had General Dalling met with no obstacles in arranging the business in Jamaica: and, had there been no delay in sending out the force from England; which did not arrive till August, when it ought to have been on the Spanish Main in January.
"The obstacles experienced by General Dalling, were many; and, from various causes.
"A long continued martial law, and military preparations against a threatened invasion by the French, had almost exhausted the island of military stores and provisions. There was but little of either, excepting in the king's ordnance and victualling magazines. Over these the admiral claimed an exclusive command and controul, and exercised his authority.
"This embarrassment, not to be viewed without regret, was however in a great measure surmounted, by the powerful resources, and spirited exertions, of a worthy and disinterested individual, Hercules Ross, Esq. a merchant of Kingston, who enabled the general to carry his government's orders into execution.
"Misunderstandings, opposition, and delays, the ruin of many military operations, were the origin of the failure of this. But even these perplexities and disappointments, great as they were, would not have defeated the expedition; or, at least, the Spaniards might have been saddled with the expence of it; if we could only have made a lodgment on the lake, to have kept open the river: which might have been done, had the first detachment that General Dalling sent taken San Juan Castle in two hours, instead of sitting down formally before it for eleven days.
"The first detachment, consisting of about two hundred men, from the sixtieth and seventy-ninth regiments; one hundred of the Loyal Irish Corps; and two hundred Jamaica Volunteers; left Jamaica, under the convoy of the Hinchinbroke, on the 3d of February 1780; and directed their course to the Musquito shore, to take with them some of the Musquito Indians, who were waiting for their arrival.
"On the 11th of February, they arrived at Cape Gratias à Dios; disembarked, and encamped about a mile from the sea, on Wank's Savanna; an unhealthful situation.