Lord Hood to enter the harbour with his British squadron. The latter was declined; but his Lordship directed the Blood hound sloop of war to receive on board his Royal Highness, and to carry him into the harbour. Upon his arrival, he was received with every honour due to his exalted rank, above six thousand French and Spanish troops lined the streets through which he passed to the governor's house, where he was entertained in the most magnificent style. A field-officer's guard was ordered to be mounted, four sentinels placed at the door of his apartments, and the parole for the night was given by his Royal Highness. On the 7th, his Royal Highness left the cape, and returned to the squadron. The forts and ships of war saluted with twenty-one guns each, on his quitting the

harbour.

Lord Hood immediately bore up and proceeded to Jamaica, where the squadron arrived on the 12th. Soon after his Royal Highness Prince William Henry received the following letter, from Don Galvez, the governor of Louisiania, and commanderin-chief of the Spanish troops at Cape François.

"Cape François, April 6th, 1783.

"Sir,-The Spanish troops cantoned throughout the country, have not as the French had the happiness to take up their arms to salute your Royal Highness, nor that of paying you their marks of respect and consideration which are your due.

"I have in confinement at Louisiana, the principal person concerned in the revolt at Nachez, with some of his accomplices. They have forfeited their parole and oath of fidelity. A council of war founded on equitable laws has condemned them to death; and the execution of their sentence waits only my confirmation as governor of the colony. They are all English. Will you be pleased, sir, to accept their pardon and their lives in the name of the Spanish army and of my king? It is I trust, the least present that can be offered to one prince in the name of another: mine is generous and will approve of my conduct. "In case your Royal Highness deigns to interest yourself for those unfortunate men, I have the honour to send enclosed, an order for their being delivered the moment any vessel arrives at Louisiana, communicating your pleasure. We shall consider ourselves happy if this can be agreeable to you.

To this letter his Royal Highness sent the following answer by Captain Manly Dixon, in the Tobago sloop of war:—

"Port Royal Jamaica.

"Sir, I want words to express to your Excellency my just sense of your polite letter, of the delicate manner in which you made it delivered, and your. generous conduct towards the unfortunate. Their pardon which you have been pleased to grant on my account, is the most agreeable present you could have offered me, and is thoroughly characteristic of the bravery and gallantry of the Spanish nation. This instance increases, if possible, my opinion of your Excellency's humanity, which has appeared on sɔ many occasions in the course of the late war. "Admiral Rowley is to despatch a vessel to Louisiana for the prisoners: I am convinced they will ever think of your Excellency's clemency with gratitude; and I have sent a copy of your letter to the King, my father, who will be fully sensible of your Excellency's attention to me.

"I request my compliments to Made. Galvez, and that you will be assured that actions so noble as those of your Excellency's, will ever be remembered by WILLIAM HENRY."

"(Signed)

Admiral Rowley accordingly despatched a sloop of war to Louisiana, and the prisoners were brought to Jamaica.

The following are the circumstances by which these unfortunate Englishmen fell into the power of the Spanish Government, and who would certainly have been executed, had it not been for the truly noble conduct of Don Galvez, and the very timely appearance of Prince William in that particular part of the globe.

About the middle of August 1779, Don Galvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, having collected the whole force of his province at New Orleans, set out upon an expedition against the settlements on the Mississippi; and as they had no cover, but a newly constructed fort, defended by five hundred men, they could not long resist the efforts of a well-provided army of four times that number. Don Galvez extending his views to the conquest of all West Florida, concocted a plan of operation with the Governor of the Havannah, in pursuance of which he was to be assisted by a considerable embarkation from that place early in the ensuing year.

Accordingly in the year 1781, Don Galvez made further

advances into West Florida, and being at length reinforced by a powerful fleet and army from the Havannah, completed the conquest of the whole province, by the reduction of Pensacola, on the 23th May. General Campbell, the governor, acquired no small reputation even in misfortune, by the judicious and spirited defence of the place for two months, with a motley garrison of 950 men, against a fleet of fifteen sail of the line, and a land force almost ten times the number of the besieged. According to the terms of the capitulation, the garrison were to remain as prisoners, until regularly exchanged. Some of them were sent to the Havannah; but the majority of them were sent to Nachez, in Louisiana, on their parole. The inhabitants of Nachez were, at the time, very much displeased with the prospect of coming under the Spanish yoke, and some of the prisoners taking advantage of that dissatisfaction, joined in a conspiracy with some of the prisoners from Pensacola to seize upon the place, and expel the Spanish authorities. The plot, however, was discovered, and the ringleaders of the conspiracy were arrested-tried before a court martial, and condemned to death.

The departure of Don Galvez for the Havannah, delayed the sentence being put into execution; and on his arrival at Cape François, he wrote his celebrated letter, to Prince William, and perhaps a finer trait of the Spanish character is not on record.

It may appear incredible, but it is a matter of history, that some individuals were to be found, calling themselves politicians, who imputed a degree of blame to Prince William in accepting the lives of his countrymen, from a noble and generous enemy; and that he ought to have left them to their fate, on the principle, that they were guilty of a most dishonourable and traitorous act, for which they richly deserved to pay the forfeit of their lives. We know not on what principle of humanity or international law, such a revolting cold-blooded action could have been recomended. Under ordinary circumstances, the breach of parole is an inexcusable crime: but in the situation in which the English prisoners were placed at Nachez, death

was almost to be preferred to the agonizing life, which they were constrained to lead. The inhumanity of the Spaniards towards their prisoners of war had become proverbial, and situated as the belligerents were at that time, a considerable period might elapse, before the English could take a sufficient number of Spanish soldiers to send to Nachez, in exchange for the English there confined. They were daily falling victims to the tropical heat of the climate, and under the influence of desperation, they might have been tempted to commit an act of rebellion, which under any other circumstances, perhaps, they would never have thought of. It must also be taken into consideration, that although the garrison of Pensaloca, when it surrendered to Don Galvaz, was nominally an English one, yet that in reality, it was as motley a troop as ever stood upon a rampart. It was a mixture of natives and foreigners, Indians and Europeans, some of whom had no allegiance to any particular country, and who would fight under any flag, and for, or against any cause, in the proportion to the amount of the pay which was awarded to them. It must also be borne in mind, that the English soldier had not then acquired that respectability of character, which now belongs to him. He knew something of discipline; but he was at the same time impressed with the strange notion, that his superiors were little better than himself. Regularity was at that time by no means a part of the character of an English soldier. The manner in which they were dispersed in quarters before the barrack system was in vogue, naturally produced a laxity of discipline. They were very little in sight of their officers, and when they were not engaged in the slight duty of the guard, were suffered to live every man his own way. He was more a citizen of the world than a soldier. The equality of English privileges, the impartiality of our laws, the freedom of our tenures, dispose us very little to the reverence of superiors, and perhaps there is no civilized being on the earth, (for we throw the satrap of the Indian despot, and the slave of the African chief wholly out of the scale) who thinks, or acknowledges his superiors less than an Englishman. He is born without a master, and looks not on

any man, however dignified by land or title, as deriving from nature any claims to his respect, or inheriting any qualities superior to his own. This principle was particularly exemplified in the case of Prince William. It was not his rank which gained him the respect and esteem of his messmates, for they paid very little attention to it, and had it not been for his general affability, and the absence of all presumption on account of his exalted station, he would have been like a hunted dog in the middy's cabin; even a casual allusion to his rank, was sure to bring down upon him the ridicule and sneers of his messmates, and although there might have been a few, who, for private purposes and under the influence of a mean and slavish spirit, might have truckled to the scion of royalty, yet he saw that haughtiness was not a coin which passed current amongst the majority of his messmates, and, therefore, he very wisely and politically never carried it about with him.

In regard, however, to the charge against Prince William, that he should not have given his sanction to rebellion and treachery, by accepting the lives of his countrymen from the hands of an individual, who had been a brave and successful enemy, but who now that the sword was sheathed, showed himself to be actuated by the noblest virtues, it carries on the face of it something so desperately wicked, that it scarcely needs the pains of refuting it: Prince William enjoyed the proud consciousness of having acted consistently with humanity and justice, and from some circumstances that afterwards transpired, he had reason to congratulate himself in having spared the life of one man, who at a future period rendered him a most essential service.

On the sailing of Lord Hood with the squadron for England, Prince William left the Barfleur, and went on board the Fortunee frigate, accompanied by the Albemarle, Captain Nelson; she immediately parted company, and proceeded to the Havannah.

On the 10th of May the squadron arrived off the Mero Castle, and on the 12th, as it passed in the order of battle in sight of the Spanish fleet, Admiral Don Solano saluted with