Star.
London, England, 1809-03-21 00:00:00

#. • • • • • . •
height and brought to bear on. the enemy, it was and as repittiEdly received the enemy on
opened with much apparent effect on the morning of the „ of the lsayonet. A detachment of-the West
the 31st, Major Henderson, with a party of sharp- India ceps, it is said, was engaged in the front. of
shooters, being at die same time advantageously pos- the battle, and behaved uncommonly well, having
ted, within 300 yards of the enemy's works, and con- twice stood the charge of the enerny!sgrenadiers,,and,
siderably annoying them with musketry and Shrap- although broken by them, rallied and completely
nell shells. The fire of the enemy was vigorously touted them.. Captain Taylor (erroneously men-
returned on this post, and they often threw four or tinned in our last as Lieutenant-Colonel) of thelth,
five shells to each one of ours, but not with much Major Maxwell of the Bth, and. Captain Sinclair of
effect, although unfortunately two seamen of the the 25th, being killed ; and Lieutenant-Colonel Pack-
Pompee, employed in the battery, were killed by the enham, of the 7th, Majors Campbell and Turner, of
bursting of one of them ; and by that of another, Sir the Royal West India Rangers, and Captain Gled.
A. Cochrane on a visit to them, had nearly sared staves, of the Sd. West India Regiment, wounded ;
the same fate. • it is presumable that their corps had an active part
While these operations were carrying on in this in the action. General Beckwith is stated, in many
quarter, the enemy, who had upon our first approach letters, to have personally led to the, attack, and is
burnt the Carnation, now also destroyed the.Favou- said to have narrowly escaped the enemy's premedi-
rite sloop of war, lying at St. Pierre, which Captain tated aim, which killed a soldier by his side, in the
Napier, of the Recruit, had orders to cut out ; and act of receiving the General's horse from him. The
the Admiral, with the principal part of his squadron, •possessien of Sourier is of the first consequence to our
hiving, after leaving several vessels in advantageous operations against Fort Bourbon, which is scarcely
situations for keeping up a communication with the otherwiseassailable; and thereductionof Pigeonlsland
army, and supplying them with stores and provisions, gives all the facilities of supplying the troops through a
taken up anchorage at Petit Ance d'Arlet, and direct communication from Fort Royal Bay, so that
being informed that the enemy's frigate AMphitrite our future operations will be carried on with but little
was ordered from the Carenage round to Pigebn- interruption and impediMent. These positions be-
Island, with a view of dislodging our party from the ing gained from the enemy, the final reduction of the
mortar battery, he sent in two frigates and a brig to island rests entirely on the impression which we can
intercept her, and during the night they worked up mike upon his principal and only remaining strong
into the Bay, and brought up beyond Pigeon Island; hold, Fort Bourbon, and this may now be considered
which the enemy discovering, they set fire to their as entirely circumvallated by our troops. General
frigate, and she was speedily consumed—giving, by Maitland, with his army, having moved from Lamers- I
thus prematurely destroying their vessels,thestrongest tin round the Cul de sac de Cohee, to Point Negro ;
demonstration of the appjeliension and dismay into and Major Henderson, With his party, proceeded by
which they had been thrown. water across Fort Royal Bay down to Cass Naviere,
The one mortar battery that had opened on Pigeon "and has taken a position on the heights above it. It
Island on the 31st, and with the co-operation of Ma- i is from Fort Bourbon only that the enemy can make
jor Henderson's brigade had been constantly annoy- any further defence ; and he has there concentrated
ing the enemy, had the happy effect also of diverting his whole force, now confined to regular troops, all
their attention ft oni the. proceedings of our engineers, the militia being disbanded and sent trom the fortress.
who in the mean time had been indefatigably em- From deserters (a great many having come over to
played in constructing a battery of five mortars and I us from the first of our landing) it is understood, that
three howitzers on a more commanding eminence, in 1 General Villaret has avowed his intention of perishing
effecting which, our seamen displayed a perseverance, under the ruins of the Fort sooner than surrender it,
and underwent fatigue and laboUr almost peculiar to and three other General Officers with him have sworn
themselves, this height being hitherto considered as to share his fate. This desperation has created much
inaccessible. Sir C. Shipley was superintending and discontent among his troops, and if the reports re-
directing this battery in person, the works of which ceived in our camp are to be depended on, a mutiny
were entirely covered by a thick wood fronting the has manifested itself among them.
harbour and completely_screeni4 it from the view of From the activity which prevailed when the last
the enemy at Pigu:on Island ;it was in great progress accounts left Martinique (the 6th inst.) there was
on the 3d instant, and so far completed, that a party every probability that our preparations for a gene-
of seamen had gone op to the heights for the purpose ral attack on the works would be ready in eight or
of felling the wood during the night, and the whole ten days, the heavy cannon being at that time landing
line of battery was intended to be opened on the fol- arAnce Noir, where the Admiral and several of his'
lowing morning. So advantageous was this position squadree, with the ordnance ships, were at anchor,
fa- dislodging the enemy, that it was confidently ex- and using every exertion to forward the siege.
petted they would, within 21. hours after the battery The inhabitants of the Island -are throughout, at
was opened, be compelled to surrender Pigeon Island, least neutral, if not friendly to our reduction of it.
a post, seemingly,designed by nature for defending the They have not in any instanee annoyed our troops,
grand harbour of the Island, which would cone- and towards the squadron have shewn great hospi:-
eliently be then completely open to our fleet. talky, having repeatedly supplied them with fruit,
During the operations carrying on here, and the vegetables, &c. St. Pierre's has . not been either at-
progress for a more effectual attack on the enemy's tacked or summoned, but the inhabitants have, it is
strong position of Pigeon Island, Major-General ; said, sent to offer a surrender. Our possession of it
Maitland, with the main body of his division of the can be no object until the reduction of Fort Bourbon,
army had advanced as far as Lamentin ; while Gene- with which it will consequently fall.
ral Bcckwith and Sir G. Prevost had proceeded to- A vessel arrived here this day, running clown to
wards Bruno and Sourrier, both brigades of this di- wind Ward ;‘ at Martinique, heard a brisk cannonading
vision having frequent skirmishes with the enemy in during Thursday night, and saw a large fire in the
their march. On the 2d instant they came to same direction.
more general battle with the enemy in the neigh-
bourhood of Sourrier, an important height, that in
some measure commands the redoubt or advanced
works of Fort Bourbon. The particulars of this
affair had not been further ascertained, when the last
advices left the neighbourhood of Fort Royal Bay,
than that our troops had made themselves masters of
this position, having defeated the enemy with the loss
of nearly 300 men, and of a few on our part, includ-
ing several Officers ; among whom are particularly
regretted, Lieutenant-Colonel Taylor (Deputy Ad-
j u :ant-General ) killed ; and Lieutenant-Colonel Pac k-
enham, and Major Maxwell, wounded. The latest
accounts are on the 3d instant, and are up to the
evening of that day (Friday last), at which period,
and at the very moment of the departure of the ves-
sel arrived from the scene of action, the Postcript of
the lette'r adds, " that Pigeon Island has surrendered."
Fen. 11.—The mortar-batteries mentioned in our
last detail of the operations to be in forwardness,
constructing over-against Pigeon Island, were com-
pleted on the evening of
.the 3d, having a range of
about nineteen hundred yards of the enemy's posi-
tion, and directed by Captains Beausise and Debar-
dien, and Lieutenant Turner, opened their fire at
eight o'clock at night, in conjunction with the thir-
teen inch mortar first brought up, directed by Capt.
Gravenbrock, from a lower position. The precision
with which these several batteries played upon the
enemy had the most surprising effect ; scarcely a shell
alter the first three or four erring in its mark, upwards
of '2OO being thrown in the space of a few hours, and
one of them falling on the splinter proof of the ene-
my's works, exploded with such a dreadful crash as
tore every thing up around, kilted and wounded seve-
ral men, aiid generally threw the enemy into dismay:
his fire, which had hitherto been brisk butt ill directed,
(not a man being hurt in our batteries), now slack-
ened, and in a few minutes entirely ceased. __
At five o'clock in the morning of the 4th, he threw
out the white flag, and without further resistance sur-
rendered at discretion, having nearly sixty men killed
and wounded during the bombardment. Upon our
taking possession of this important post, five officers,
and 130 privates were surrendered prisoners of war,
and sent on board the Pompee.

TUE tIVENING STAR.

LONDON.

TUESDAY, MARCH 21.
PRICE OF STOCKS THIS DAY AT ONE O'CLOCK.
Consols, for money, nil-I—for acci 671+—Onmium 1 1 pre.

Exchequer Bilk, 10s: prem.

We yesterday laid before pur Readers a brief out-
I -line of such
.particulars at had reached Town re-
specting the capture of Martinique.. A circumstan-i
tial detail of that event will be found in another part
.of our Paper.
The capitulation of Cayenne is also given at full
length in our columns of to-day. We formerly no-
tice& the success of the united British and Portuguese
expedition against this valuable Settlement.

The operations of the main body of the army up- !
der General Beckwith and Sir George Prevost has
also been attended with signal success, although un-
fortunately it has suffered much in its attack on the
enemy's l oiition at Sourrier. No correct de-
tails have yet been received from it ; but as far as has
transpired, is satisfactory as to its progress, although
mingled with regret for the brave men who• have
fallen. It appears that the enemy well contested these
heights with our army ; but although he was en-
trenched and had light artillery with ham, our troops
drove him from his position and gained the po
s'on of them, which gives us a commanding lituation
for carrying on a regular siege against Fort EmrbOns.
According to loose accounts, which are all that
have yet been received from the Commander in
Chiefs division, with whom Sir G. Prevost is acting,
our troops advanced against Soul-tier after several
hours bard fighting, in which ;hey were repeatedly