These were Thomas C——d A——t, W——m R——d, and a M——r C——r. The latter had formerly dealt largely with some English merchants of the island, whom he had defrauded of their dues by running away; but returning on this expedition, as chief guide to the troops, he was promoted by the Marquis de Bouillé to the office of chief baker to the forces in the place, as a reward of his treachery. R——d had quitted that country in the same clandestine manner; but returning with the Marquis, as a volunteer in the cause, was by him appointed his most Christian Majesty’s Receiver-general of Dominica. C——d A——t had been a number of years a trustee for the French church-lands in Roseau, to which office he was appointed by the English government, at the time of the cession of the country to Great Britain. He had, moreover, been treated with a degree of indulgence in his office, more than his behaviour entitled him to, and which he repaid, by taking every step in his power to do injury to the English inhabitants of the island after its surrender to the French.
The fate of these three men is worth remarking, as the recital may serve to deter others from being guilty of the like treacherous and mischievous doings. The Baker, whose infamous character soon came to the knowledge of the French government, was discharged from that office for fraud in his weights, and again obliged to fly the country. The Receiver-general, after having exercised his new office with every species of imposition and insolence in a degree peculiar to himself, very prudently took a silent departure from the island, a few days before its evacuation by the French, as being conscious of his meriting a just punishment had he remained. And C——d A——t, as soon as the island was restored, retired on his plantation in the country; where, universally detested by both French and English, he died of despair but a short time after.
As soon as the new form of government was settled by the Marquis de Bouillé, he departed for Martinique, leaving the Marquis Duchilleau Commander in Chief of his conquest. This Governor had an universal antipathy to the English, the very name of an Englishman being hateful to his ears; nor could he bear them in his sight with any degree of temper; and contrary to the character of men in general of his nation, he extended his brutal behaviour even to the female sex, if they came in his way, to petition or address him in behalf of their property.
Withal, he was so very pusillanimous, that the most vague report of the approach of the English from Saint Lucia terrified him; when, galloping up and down like a madman, he would threaten every Englishman he met, to put them to death, and to set fire to the town, should their countrymen dare to attempt an invasion. And moreover, not confiding in the great number of troops that were under his command, but thinking them not sufficient to quell an insurrection of the English inhabitants, whom he weakly supposed might make an attempt to retake the island, he thought proper to break through the eighteenth Article of the Capitulation, by disarming them, and distributing their arms among the runaway negros, with whom he actually entered into a treaty for assistance.
This was the Governor whom the Marquis de Bouillé, from motives of policy, thought fit to appoint over his first conquest; and there could not have been a more proper person for carrying the intentions of the Marquis into execution, by lessening the value of Dominica, in order to have it ceded to the French at the conclusion of the war. In this, however, happily for the English nation, he was disappointed; and although the greatest part of the English inhabitants, from the harsh and cruel treatment they underwent, not only from the Marquis Duchilleau, but also from every French person in office under his government, was driven to the necessity of quitting the island; yet the few that remained, patiently enduring all their sufferings from the French, waited only the commencement of peace, to determine whether the country would be restored to the English, or be continued under the dominion of France. The former happening to be the case, was a matter of great concern to the French, who, well knowing its importance, quitted their possessions with the greatest reluctancy, from a conviction that it was an island capable of being rendered both formidable and dangerous to their own settlements at a future period.
To return to the Marquis Duchilleau; he, like another tyrannic governor, issued a proclamation, forbidding the assembling together of the English inhabitants more than two in a place. That no lights were to be seen in their houses after nine o’clock at night; that no English person was to be out after that hour, in the streets, without a candle and lanthorn, or a lighted pipe in his mouth; and that no servant of theirs was to be seen at night, without a ticket from his master; under no less a penalty to white people, than being shot by the centinel at the post they passed by, of being imprisoned, or sent out of the island; and the servants were to be whipped in the public market, besides a fine on their masters.
Many of the English inhabitants were imprisoned by him on the slightest pretence; and one of them, Robert Thou, was actually shot by a centinel, for attempting to go on board his own vessel after nine o’clock at night. This unfortunate young man died a few days after, in the utmost torture from his wound, the ball going through his body at the breast; and the perpetrator of this horrid murder was raised by the Marquis Duchilleau to a higher station in his regiment, for having thus wantonly killed him.
So very apprehensive was this Governor, that the English inhabitants were forming designs to retake the island, or that they held a correspondence with the enemy at Saint Lucia, that every letter of theirs was opened for his inspection before it was delivered. And deeming this insufficient to come at the knowledge of their private transactions, he adopted the practice of going himself in disguise, or employing others, who better knew the English language, to listen at their doors and windows in the night-time; but luckily he never found out any secrets.