[CHAP. XXV.]
On the 4th day of January, 1762, War was declared against Spain, which was reciprocal on the part of that Power on the 18th, and realized the acute forebodings of Mr. Pitt.
A treaty framed for consolidating the interests and ambitious views of the House of Bourbon, and evidently levelled against the existence of our Empire, accelerated this event. So accustomed had the Nation been to victory, however, that it beheld this mighty Family Compact without dismay.
The public energies kept pace with the imperious occasion, and 70,000 Seamen, including 19,061 Marines, comprized in 135 companies, formed the naval establishment of the year.
A plan for the reduction of Martinico, digested by the late Minister, was now carried into effect by the forces from North America, who had finished a successful career upon that Continent, by four battalions drawn from Belleisle, with strong detachments of Seamen and Marines from the Fleet.
Sixteen sail of the line, and many ships of an inferior rate, composed the escort which set sail from Barbadoes on the 5th of January, and anchored in St. Anne's Bay on the 8th. The batteries here were soon silenced by the ships, when Rear-Admiral Rodney detached a squadron, with two brigades, to the Bay of Petite Ance, having orders to debark and take post there, under the direction of Generals Haviland and Grant; they were afterwards reinforced by Lieutenant-Colonel Scott, with a Corps of Light Infantry.
Captain Harvey, in the Dragon, proceeded against the Grande Ance, landed a few Seamen and all his Marines, who, by a combined attack, carried the battery, and occupied it, till relieved by a body of 800 men, under Lieutenant-Colonel Melville.
After destroying the works in St. Anne's Bay, the Admiral and General Monckton, seeing the difficulties of extending their operations from that quarter, followed to leeward, and reconnoitring the coast, resolved upon landing the whole forces between Point Negro and the Cas de Pilote. A squadron having cannonaded the line of batteries, secured this object, when the Army was disembarked upon the evening and morning of the 16th and 17th of January.
Nine hundred Marines, formed into two battalions, were united with the troops attached to the Brigade of General Rufane, and had an active share in the subsequent duties allotted to all.
The whole encamped on the heights above the Case de Navires, from which the General employed detachments to throw up such works as were necessary for covering the passage of the troops over some intervening gullies, between them and the enemy on Morne Tartenson.