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cure for them in Grenada; which promise, however, from inability or some other cause, he altogether failed of performing.

It was now absolutely necessary we should adopt some decisive course of proceeding; and Captain- coincided with me in opinion (notwithstanding the desperate nature of the service), that there remained no alternative but that of attaching ourselves to some of the other corps, which, although daily declining in strength, and much disorganized, had not as yet been actually disembodied. This resolution we had scarcely formed, when the arrival of several officers, recently in the patriot service, and who had just then succeeded in effecting their return, gave us such information of the state of affairs on the Spanish main, as clearly proved the madness of our previous decision, and convinced us that it would be preferable to risk every vicissitude of fortune, rather than personally engage in a contest, not only far more hazardous, and accompanied by infinitely greater hardships and privations, than an ordinary state of hostilities, but

likewise conducted by both parties, on principles at variance with every feeling of honour and humanity; whilst the extreme difficulty attendant on a departure from the patriot service of those who once actually join their standard, renders every attempt at return so nearly impracticable as to place foreigners, thus circumstanced, almost in a state of slavery. Exclusive, however, of the obstructions to return, originating in the peculiar local circumstances of the country, and the hazard which must unavoidably be encountered in traversing the interior, the Independents, for reasons sufficiently obvious, are particularly cautious of permitting individuals to withdraw from their armies.

The information received from the of ficers to whom I have just referred, was to the following purport: They assured us, that in consequence of the extended duration of the war, and exterminating principle upon which it had been conducted, the country in general displayed one uniform scene of devastation and wretchedness. That the patriot forces were reduced to a state of

the greatest poverty, totally devoid of discipline, and not one-fourth provided with proper military arms, the remainder being compelled to resort to bludgeons, knives, and such other weapons as they found most readily procurable.

In clothing they were still more destitute and deficient, in most instances merely consisting of fragments of coarse cloth wrapt round their bodies, and pieces of the raw buffalo hide laced over their feet as a substitute for shoes, which when hardened by the sun's heat, they again render pliant by immersion in the first stream at which they chance to arrive.

A blanket, with a hole cut in the middle, let over the head, and tightened round the body by a buffalo thong, has been frequently the dress of the officers; and one of them who witnessed the fact, assured me, that suchwas actually the uniform of a British colonel (R) who was at that time in the Independent service. Whilst these gentlemen thus described the patriot habiliments, they commented in the strongest language on the impolicy and imprudence

of proceeding to serve in conjunction with an army barefooted and in rags, provided with such splendid uniforms as we had been obliged to procure ; and ridiculed the strange contrast which our dresses and those of the Patriots would exhibit in the field; observing, that such clothes would be alone sufficient to excite the jealousy of the natives, to whose eagerness for their possession, we would almost inevitably become a sacrifice *.

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The Independent armies march in hordes, without order or discipline; their baggage consisting of little more than the scanty

* There is serious reason to apprehend that the truth of this observation has been recently but too fatally exemplified on the banks of the Oroonoco, in the massacre of several British officers, who were proceeding to join the Independent armies. As, however, this melancholy event has not received perfect confirmation, I shall merely observe, that the occurrence was fully credited at St. Kitt's, previous to my departure from that island; and I have, since my return, heard from officers more recently arrived that it was universally reported that our unfortunate countrymen had been assassinated by a party of the Patriots themselves, for the purpose of gaining possession of their baggage.

covering on their backs. They are totally destitute of tents, and in their encampments observe neither regularity nor system. The commanding officers are generally mounted, and likewise such of the others as are able to provide themselves with horses or mules, the latter of which are in great plenty. The exterminating principle upon which the war is carried on between the contending parties, render their campaigns bloody and destructive; desolation marks the progress of those hostile bands, to whose inveterate enmities the innocent and unoffending inhabitants are equally the victims, with those actually opposed to them in military strife. In action the Independents display much bravery and determination, and frequently prove successful, notwithstanding their want of discipline, deficiency of arms, and disorderly manner of attack and defence. Unhappily the work of death terminates not with the battle, for on whatsoever side victory rests, the events which immediately succeed those sanguinary struggles are such as must cast an indelible stain upon the Spanish American Revolution.

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