troops in the world more steady than the Spaniards; it was not for want
of bravery they miscarried, but there was some sad mismanagement; and
had the Moors followed their blows, not a man of them would have
returned. My servant, (a French deserter) who was upon that expedition,
says, Gen. O'Reilly was the first who landed, and the last who
embarked;--but it is the HEAD, not the _arm_ of a commander in chief,
which is most wanted. The Moors at _le point du jour_, advanced upon
the Spaniards behind a formidable _masked and moving battery_ of
camels: the Spaniards, believing them, by a faint light, to be cavalry,
expended a great part of their strength, spirits, and ammunition, upon
those harmless animals; and it was not till _this curtain_ was removed
that the dreadful carnage began, in which they lost about nine thousand
men. There seems to have been some strange mismanagement; it seems
probable that there was no very good understanding between the marine
and the land officers. The fleet were many days before the town, and
then landed just where the Moors expected they would land. There is
nothing so difficult, so dangerous, nor so liable to miscarriage, as
the war of _invading_: our troops experienced it at _St. Cas_; and they
either have, or will experience it in America. The wild negroes in
Jamaica, to whom Gov. Trelawney wisely gave, what they contended for,
(LIBERTY) were not above fifteen hundred fit to bear arms. I was in
several skirmishes with them, and second in command under Mr. Adair's
brother, a valiant young man who died afterwards in the field, who made
peace with them; yet I will venture to affirm, that though five hundred
disciplined troops would have subdued them in an open country, the
united force of France and England could not have extirpated them from
their fast holds in the mountains. Did not a Baker battle and defeat
two Marshals of France in the Cevennes? And is it probable, that all
the fleets and armies of Great-Britain can conquer America?--England
may as well attempt moving that Continent on this side the Atlantic.