About the middle of this year (1689) Colonel Hewetson, with a party of men, embarked on board a man of war, and sailed to attack Guadaloupe. They landed with but little opposition, and having obtained some plunder, and given the French a kind of _tit-for-tat_, returned in safety to Antigua. This was a very busy year for the Antiguans; for no sooner had Colonel Hewetson reached Antigua with his troops, from the late attack, than they raised 300 men, and sailed to the island of Marie Galante. Here they met with like success in the way of retaliation; beating the inhabitants, burning their town, and obtaining more plunder. From Marie Galante they proceeded to St. Martin’s, where Fortune, that usually fickle goddess, did not forsake them; for they not only plundered the place and increased their spoils, but drove the French completely off the island. Upon their return, General Codrington (for the governor had arrived to this rank) sent three sloops, with eighty men, under the command of Captain Edward Thorn, to the island of Anguila, to bring from thence all the English who resided there; they having been very cruelly used by some Irishmen, whom the French had landed there, for that purpose, a year before. 1690 was again ushered in by that demon—War. Louis, that ambitious, but admired monarch, encouraged his subjects to invade the English colonies, in the West Indies and America, while he assisted James, the abdicated sovereign, in his attempts upon England and Ireland. General Codrington was warmly attached to the reigning monarchs, William and Mary, and consequently endeavoured on all occasions to further their interest in the West Indies. No sooner had accounts arrived at Antigua of the battle of the Boyne, and William’s victory over the French troops upon that eventful day, than the governor determined to strike a blow for the honour of England. Admiral Wright arriving with a strong squadron of men of war, General Codrington prevailed upon all the other Leeward Islands to raise forces to endeavour to retake St. Kitt’s, which had fallen to the French king some time before, by the fortunes of war. Antigua, never behind the other islands in warlike deeds, raised a body of 400 (or, as some authors make it, 800) men, which were placed under the command of that gallant officer, Colonel Rowland Williams, and 200 gentlemen volunteers, under command of Colonel Willoughby Byam, who served as a body-guard to the governor-general, Christopher Codrington; and, by dint of prowess, their object was gained, for not only did they oblige the French to surrender the island, but, according to some authors, actually transported about eighteen hundred of them to St. Domingo and Martinique.[32] A general council and assembly was held this year, and an agent and commissioners appointed for the negotiation and management of the affairs of the Leeward Islands, as well as the raising and settling a proper fund for the defraying the expense of the same.