Part 6

"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 Fe, 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 a Dios; disembarked, and encamped about a mile from the sea, on Wank's Savanna; an unhealthful situation.

"Here they were joined by a party of men from the seventy-ninth regiment, from Black River.

"On the 10th of March, the troops re-embarked, and took their departure from Cape Gratias a Dios; and anchored at several places on the Musquito shore, to take up our allies, the Indians, who were to furnish proper boats for the service of the river, and to proceed with them on the expedition: and, on the 24th of March, they arrived at the River San Juan.

"San Juan river is the northern branch, or mouth of Lake Nicaragua; and is situated in north latitude twelve degrees, west longitude eighty-three degrees forty-five minutes.

"The heat of the climate must necessarily be excessive; and this is augmented, in the course of the river, by high woods, without sufficient intervals, in many places, to admit of being refreshed by the winds.

"The river has, in it's course, many noisome marshes on it's sides; and the trees are so thick, as to intercept the rays of the sun: consequently, the earth beneath their branches is covered with rotten leaves and putrid vegetables. Hence arise copious collections of foul vapours, which clog the atmosphere. These unite with large clouds, and precipitate in rains. The rains are no sooner over, than the sun breaks forth, and shines with scorching heat. The surface of the ground, in places not covered with trees, is scarcely dry, before the atmosphere is again loaded by another collection of clouds and exhalations, and the sun is again concealed.

"In the rainy seasons of the year, months successively pass away in this sort of vicissitudes, without the least diminution of heat; excepting at nights, when the air is poisoned by noxious chilling dews. But, sometimes, during the periodical rains, which begin about the middle of April, and with uncertain intervals of dry weather end late in November, the torrents of water that fall, for weeks together, are prodigious, which give the river a tremendous aspect; and, from their suddenness and impetuosity, cannot be imagined, by a European, to portend any thing but a deluge. This bursting of the waters above, and the raging of the river below, with the blackness of the nights, accompanied with horrid tempests of lightning and thunder, constitute a magnificent scene of terror unknown but in the tropic world.

"Of the little army destined for the San Juan expedition after some delay at the mouth of the river, two hundred regulars, with ammunition and stores; proceeded up the river with the Indians, in their several crafts. It being now near the end of the dry season, the river contained very little water, and the shoals and sandy beaches rendered the passage difficult. The men were frequently obliged to quit their boats, and unite their strength in the water, to get them through some shallow channels. This labour continued for several days after they left the mouth of the river, till they arrived in deeper water; then, they made a quicker progress. However, they met with many obstacles, by currents, and occasional rapids or falls; which would have been insurmountable, but for the skill of the Indians in managing the boats on those occasions.

"On the 9th of April, this advanced party arrived at a little island up the river, called St. Bartholomew; which they took, after receiving a few shot from the enemy, by which two men were wounded.

"This island is situated about sixteen miles below San Juan castle; and was occupied by the Spaniards as a look-out, and defended by sixteen or eighteen men, in a small semicircular battery of nine or ten swivels. It was necessary for our purposes, as it commands the navigation of the river in a rapid and difficult part of it.

"On the 11th of April, the troops arrived before the Castle of San Juan; and, on the 13th, the siege commenced. The ammunition and stores were landed two or three miles below the castle; and transported through the back woods, to the place where the attack began. San Juan castle is situated sixty-nine miles up the river, from the mouth, and thirty-two from the Lake of Nicaragua; and, is a navigation of nine days: but, for loaded boats, much longer, from the harbour up to it. The return from it, down by the current, is made in a day and a half.

"On the 24th of April, the castle surrendered. During the siege, two or three more were killed, and nine or ten wounded.

"From the unfortunate delay before the castle, which surrendered when it was summoned, the season for the spring periodical rains, with their concomitant diseases, was now advanced: and the little army had lost the opportunity of pushing rapidly on, out of those horrid woods--where there are a multitude of antelopes, monkeys, parrots, vipers, and deadly venomous serpents--by which they were environed, to the dry, pleasant, and healthful plains, and agreeable towns, of Grenada and Leon, near the lake, in the province of Nicaragua; which, from it's salubrity and situation, is justly termed, by the Spaniards, Mahomet's Paradise: and where they might have maintained themselves, with the reinforcement which followed them from Jamaica on the 10th of April, till a road for carriages might have been made from Blue Fields Harbour to the lake, and the season would have permitted farther reinforcement, for the completion of a glorious enterprise; as the natives of the country were ready to revolt, and only waited for a prospect of success. But here they were shut up in the castle, as soon as they were in possession of it. The troops and Indians were attacked with fluxes, and intermittents, and in want of almost every necessary: for the river was become so swoln and rapid by the rains, that the harbour where the provisions and stores were was tedious, and almost impracticable. Here the troops, deserted by those Indians who had not already perished, languished in extreme misery, and gradually mouldered away; till there was not sufficient strength alive to attend the sick, nor even to bury the dead.

"Thus reduced, in the month of September, they were obliged to abandon their flattering conquest, and return to the harbour: leaving a few men behind, who were the most likely to live, to keep possession of the castle, if possible, till farther orders should be received from Jamaica.

"The Spaniards re-took the castle, as soon as the season permitted; and, with it, those who had not strength enough to make their escape.

"The crews of the vessels and transports that convoyed and carried the troops, suffered considerably by diseases which the season produced, while lying on the coast, and a thousand seamen lost their lives.

"Of about eighteen hundred people who were sent to different posts, at different embarkations, to connect and form the various dependencies of this expedition, few of the Europeans retained their health above sixteen days, and not more than three hundred and eighty ever returned; and those, chiefly, in a miserable condition. It was otherwise with the negroes who were employed on this occasion. Few of them were ill; and the remainder returned to Jamaica in as good health as they went from it.

"The survivors of the party, after they left San Juan Castle, embarked for Blue Fields, an English settlement about sixty miles to the north of San Juan River, where most of them died.

"The climate of San Juan was not more destructive to the human frame, than the harbour was to the ships: and, for the benefit of future naval operations, I think it is important to mention, here, that there is an absolute necessity for having every vessel employed on that coast copper-bottomed; especially, when there is a probability of detention: for, in our expedition, the bottoms of the ships, not being coppered, which went with the first equipment from Jamaica, were in a short time so entirely eaten by the worms, as to become useless; and, had not fresh ships been dispatched from Jamaica, the remains of the troops must have perished there, for want of transports to bring them away.

"Lord Nelson, Duke of Bronte, then Captain Nelson, was the person who commanded the Hinchinbroke man of war, the convoy of the expedition. On his authority I state, that the fever which destroyed the crews of the different vessels, invariably attacked them from about twenty to thirty days after their arrival in the harbour: that, in his own ship, of two hundred men, eighty-seven were seized, and confined to their beds, in one night; that one hundred and forty-five were buried there; and, that not more than ten survived the expedition!