An opportunity now offers of addressing you by a conveyance which holds out every probability of my letter reaching you in safety. The 93d and 99th regiments being draughted into the 39th, the officers are about to return to England, and I commit my letter to the care of one of these gentlemen, who will be good enough to see it delivered. I wish I could propose any means equally secure of my receiving tidings from you! But I am sorry to observe, that all our uncertainties continue. We are still in the same state of suspense; placed between the two staffs of the Charibbee islands and of St. Domingo, as if belonging to neither: expecting daily to be ordered to Hispaniola, yet without any intimation when we are to be relieved. Under these circumstances, I can only say as before, continue to address to me at the head-quarters of the St. Domingo army: I may then have the hope of meeting some day or other all your remembrances.

Of news you will expect but little from this region. We hold quiet possession of the colonies which surrendered to us, and the cultivation and commerce is prosecuted with as much industry as if we were resting in the bosom of peace. Great numbers of slaves have been imported, since our arrival, and British property is embarked to extend and improve the settlements, with no less ardor than might be expected if these valuable possessions were confirmed to England by a definitive treaty, guaranteed by the strongest powers in Europe.

I lament exceedingly that it is not in my power to announce to you, by the present occasion, some progress in the health-improvement which we are led to anticipate: we observe that the men are most frequently attacked during, or immediately after exposure to great heat or fatigue. The more robust and plethoric—those occupied as cooks, or blacksmiths, boat parties, men engaged in fishing, non-commissioned officers, sentinels, and those who have acted as servants to officers, have been most subject to the disease. In particular a boat party, employed to fetch water down the river for the use of the hospital and the barracks, have been so invariably attacked in a kind of succession upon that duty, that it has been found necessary to procure a crew of negroes expressly for this purpose. It has also been deemed requisite to abandon the comfort derived from the occasional supply of an article of fresh provision, in consequence of the men whose business it was to draw the seine for fish, being found peculiarly susceptible of the fever.

The speed with which the attack succeeds the exposure to great heat and fatigue is no less remarkable, in many instances, than the rapidity with which, in these or other cases, the disease runs on to death. Only yesterday morning, in returning from the hospital to my breakfast, I was accosted, on passing the soldiers’ barrack, and requested to visit the drum-major, whom I found dangerously ill with fever; although on my way to the hospital, but a short time before, I had seen him walking in the cotton-field apparently, and to his own belief, as well as any man in the regiment. At the same time I was desired to look at a soldier, who was lying at the side of the drum-major, and was said to be complaining. This man also proved to be in a dangerous state of fever, and I learned that he had been attacked the day before, immediately after hurrying nearly a mile to fetch some porter. I likewise saw two or three others, in the same barrack, who had been suddenly taken ill on guard, and were now about to increase our crowded list at the hospital.

A few days ago, on my passing by the guard-house, I observed a soldier, named Chapman, sitting among the men who were upon guard, seemingly unwell; and on my asking him if he felt ill, he answered in a firm strong voice, that he felt “a little poorly with head-ach, but not ill;” still I perceived that he had more of indisposition about him than he was aware of, and I was particularly led to notice any symptoms of disease in this man, from his having been repeatedly an object of conversation and remark, in health. He was a hardy robust grenadier, and, from having been much exposed on fatigue-duty, in Ireland, during the time of the sickness which the troops had experienced at Spike Island and at Cove; from having supported much of similar duty on the passage; and also a considerable share since his arrival in the West Indies, without suffering from it, the officers had pointed him out to me, as a person who was “secure against even yellow fever and the doctors.” He was sitting in his usual clothing, talking to the men of the guard, sensible only of slight head-ach, and lassitude; but as I saw evidently that it was an attack of fever, I hinted, without mentioning this to him, that it would be better he should go to the hospital, if he were at all unwell, in order that he might have the benefit of medical attendance, and of such remedies as his case required. He instantly expressed great alarm, and said, “I am not ill: if you take me to the hospital, I shall catch the fever and die.” On my stating the impropriety of his remaining among the men in health, and not using the proper means of recovery, he replied, “I am not sick, and only want an appetite to be quite well;” and when I urged him further to go into the hospital, he answered with quickness, “Indeed I am not bad, and if I were, I would rather stab myself at once, than go where so many are dying every day of yellow fever.” Poor fellow! he was wholly unconscious, that the disease, he so much dreaded, was upon him; and as I found that his terror of the hospital was quite insurmountable, I did not augment his alarm, either by insisting upon his being carried thither, or by telling him that the fever had already seized him; but in order that he might be removed from the guard-room, I gave directions for a hammock to be put up under the piazza of the house, where he might be in quiet, and alone. This being done, without delay, I prevailed upon him to go directly, and lie down, and was glad to see him safe in bed; for, in my conversation with him, I had discovered enough to cause strong apprehensions lest he should die, before we could have him removed! Although he felt so little of illness, and those around him were so wholly insensible of his peril, there was an indescribable something about him, particularly in his countenance, which bespake extreme danger; and from which an experienced observer might see that he was soon to die! After having him placed in the hammock, and prescribing for him such remedies as were necessary, I instructed the medical gentleman, who had lately arrived at this post to give me assistance, to pay particular attention to his case, remarking, that from his present appearance, I should not be surprised if, in the course of an hour or two, I should learn that he was dead. The event verified my suspicions: a convulsive tremor quickly seized him, and at noon he was a corpse! Such are the fevers of this climate! Often a man is well in the morning, and at night is no more: nor is it possible for any one, who has not seen many cases of the disease, to judge of the degree of danger which threatens those who are attacked. Chapman had been one of the party employed to drag the fishing-net in the sea, and I have been the more minute in relating his case, because, in him, the circumstances I have mentioned were strikingly exemplified. He was a man who possessed great strength of constitution; he had been exposed to the heat of the sun immediately previous to the attack; and was very rapidly destroyed by the disease.

But you will tell me not to dwell on tales of sadness and distress; I obey, and hasten to lead you to a scene of gladness, in which I am sure your heart will cordially participate. I had ordered the convalescents to be assembled, from all the different wards and hospitals, and paraded upon the beach, that I might carefully inspect them, in order to ascertain the number fit to be removed to a distant post for change of air and place; and to give room at the hospital for the better accommodation of the sick; and the pleasure which I witnessed upon the countenances of these poor men, and which throbbed at my own heart, on the occasion, was far greater than words can tell. A very considerable number of pale, feeble, and emaciated beings were brought together, and, being drawn up, on the parade, they hailed each other, in cheerful greetings, like men raised from the dead. Joy gladdened every eye; the comrade hailed his friend as one returned from the grave; all were happy, and the delight of again seeing each other, shone in every face. The meeting was an exhilarating cordial to them. Mirth and liveliness spread around; wit and rapartee prevailed; and they addressed one another in quaint jokes, and comic gratulations, descriptive of their late dangers, and their present escape. This effect of bringing them together gave me great satisfaction: seeing so numerous a body saved from the very jaws of death, I was no less gratified than the happiest of the party. Their appearance was distressful, and their pallid ghastly visages, and wasted figures, to men less conversant with the more direful examples of disease, might have conveyed the idea of speedy dissolution, rather than of approaching health: but, to those who had themselves been in a far worse state, and who had long been lying, surrounded with the sick and the dying, nothing in their looks could be dispiriting, whilst they and their comrades were able to support themselves upon their legs.

We are told by the planters, that since the arrival of the English in these settlements, the people of colour are grown unusually disobedient, and even insolent; which is attributed to our being more lenient towards them, than their Dutch masters were. Whether or not this he admitted as the cause, several recent instances have occurred in proof of the fact, and which have made it necessary to use means of correcting their presumption. Consistently with the rules of the fort, the officer on guard is instructed to examine every vessel that passes; but some boats going from Mahaica creek, worked by people of colour, have resisted the orders of the guard, and, in defiance of the sentinel, attempted to pass without bringing to.

We are informed that a system of smuggling was carried on to a great extent upon this coast, previous to its falling into our possession, and that a very considerable proportion of the produce found its way to the English market, notwithstanding the watchfulness of the Dutch local government: possibly it was from this adventurous traffic that the slaves acquired a disrespect of orders, rather than from the lenity of the present rulers of the colonies.