At last,
however, we weighed, and anchored again somewhat nearer the harbour's
mouth, where we made shift to land our marines, who encamped on
the beach, in despite of the enemy's shot, which knocked a good
many of them on the head. This piece of conduct, in choosing a
camp under the walls of an enemy's fortification, which I believe
never happened before, was practised, I presume, with a view of
accustoming the soldiers to stand fire, who were not as yet much used
to discipline, most of them having been taken from the plough-tail
a few months before. This expedient, again, has furnished matter
for censure against the ministry, for sending a few raw recruits
on such an important enterprise, while so many veteran regiments
lay inactive at home. But surely our governors had their reasons
for so doing, which possibly may be disclosed with other secrets
of the deep. Perhaps they were loth to risk their best troops on
such desperate service, or the colonel and the field officers of
the old corps, who, generally speaking, enjoyed their commissions
as sinecures or pensions, for some domestic services rendered to
the court, refused to embark in such a dangerous and precarious
undertaking; for which refusal, no doubt, they are to be much
commended.
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