last, and when every post was reduced to extremity by sickness) would with ease have been repelled, or perhaps their whole party taken.--In the succeeding part of this work it will be my business to detail the events that gradually led to the evacuation of this island, and gave the enemy such advantage as enabled them since to extend their conquests to some other inferior places. [43] Consisting of four thousand six hundred and forty-two men. CHAPTER XII. GENERAL DUNDAS DIES OF THE YELLOW FEVER ... HIS CHARACTER ... A FRENCH SQUADRON ARRIVES IN THE WEST INDIES, AND TAKES POSSESSION OF GRAND TERRE ... THE COMMANDERS IN CHIEF, ON RECEIVING AN ACCOUNT THEREOF, RETURN TO GUADALOUPE ... SIR CHARLES GREY LANDS ON GRAND TERRE, AND TAKES THE HEIGHTS OF MASCOT ... SEVERAL ACTIONS TAKE PLACE ... A TRUCE TO BURY THE DEAD ... AN UNSUCCESSFUL ATTACK ON POINT A PITRE. On the evening of the 3d of June, Major General Thomas Dundas, the governor of Guadaloupe, became the victim of that dreadful fever, which once more began to desolate these islands. He was ill only three days. By his death the army in the West Indies suffered an irreparable loss, and the service in general one of its brightest ornaments. Amiable both in public and private life, brave and generous, possessed of that true courage which never exceeds the bounds of humanity, he justly gained the love of the army, and fell lamented by all that knew him[44]. At this inauspicious moment an armament arrived from France, under the direction of two commissioners from the national assembly. It consisted of two frigates, one corvette, two forty-fours armed en flute, and two other ships, with about one thousand five hundred land forces on board of them[45]. They instantly made good their landing on Grand Terre; and, after two unsuccessful efforts, at last succeeded in their attack on Fort Fleur d'Epée, which they carried by storm[46].--As soon as this news reached Colonel Blundell, he instantly dispatched a schooner to St. Christopher's, with an account of it to the Commanders in Chief, which fortunately found them there, the Boyne being off Old Road taking in water for her voyage to England. Sir Charles Grey was busy in inspecting the works on Brimstone Hill. The Commanders in Chief instantly determined to return to Guadaloupe, and accordingly pushed, under a press of sail, for Basse Terre, where they arrived in the afternoon of the 7th of June, and were joined by the Resource, Captain Ross, and the Winchelsea, Captain Lord Garlies; on board of which ships General Grey and his suite embarked to be landed at Basse Terre, in order to visit the ports in that quarter, and to give the necessary instructions for future operations. The Admiral ordered the Nautilus, Captain Bayntun, to proceed to Martinique, with orders from Sir Charles Grey for a reinforcement from thence, and himself proceeded in the Boyne to the Bay of Point à Pitre.