At Guadaloupe the military artificers were employed in the repairs of magazines and barracks, and in the construction of field works at Basseterre: subsequently they superintended the erection of batteries, &c., against Point à Pitre in the endeavours to recover Grandeterre; but as all attempts to regain this branch of the island were now abandoned, the detachment retreated to Berville with the army for the purpose of preventing Basseterre falling into the hands of the enemy. Here the artificers were engaged in various works for the defence of the camp, and shared in repulsing the three attacks made on the position in September and October. By climate, fatigue, and privation, their numbers gradually dwindled away; and when the post was captured on the 7th October, only ten men were living. Six of these were taken prisoners,[94] with Lieutenant Durnford of the engineers; and the other four, under Lieutenant Evatt, R.E., served at the defence of Fort Matilda from the 14th October to the 10th December, the date of its evacuation.[95] During that protracted struggle, the services of these four men, especially sergeant John Morris and private Samuel Bowes, were found to be particularly useful in every respect. Such was the opinion of Lieutenant Evatt, who, fifty years after, also afforded a general testimony to the merits of the company, by stating that “wherever their services were required they were ever conspicuously forward.” ----- Footnote 94: Privates William Burrell, John Clark, Abraham Mayhead, Robert Torrince, William Fleming, and Thomas Wagg. Four of the number soon died; and the two first, on being released, joined the remnant of the company at St. Domingo on the 18th April, 1796. Footnote 95: ‘London Gazette,’ 13751. 10-14 February, 1795. ----- The yellow fever continued its ravages throughout the year with frightful violence, and carried off more than half of the company. In May the sickness was very general among the artificers. That month twenty-five died; and of the survivors, very few were found sufficiently effective for the service of the works. In June, the party at St. Lucia, which so far had escaped the prevailing scourge, was removed to Martinique to hasten the restoration of Fort Bourbon. But little advantage, however, was obtained by this arrangement, as nearly the whole of the men were immediately seized by the sickness. At the close of the year sixty-five non-commissioned officers and privates had died; of whom forty-two were at Martinique and twenty-three at Guadaloupe; as also Colonel Durnford, Captain Chilcot, and Lieutenants Dowse and Lawson of the royal engineers. The strength of the company was now reduced to twenty-six of all ranks, including the prisoners of war, but the effectives of this number did not exceed ten.