A contingent of janissaries lands during the…

The main British force for the conquest of St. Domingue under General Charles Grey (aka "No-flint Grey") and Admiral Sir John Jervis had set sail from Portsmouth on November 26, 1793, which had been in defiance of the well known rule that the only time that one can campaign in the West Indies s from September to November, when the mosquitoes that carry malaria and yellow fever are scarce.

After arriving in the West Indies in February 1794, Grey had chosen to conquer Martinique, St. Lucia and Guadeloupe and troops from his force under the command of John Whyte only arrive in St. Domingue on May 19, 1794.

Whyte decides rather attacking the main French bases at Le Cap and Port-de-Paix to march towards Port-au-Prince, whose harbor is reported to have forty-five ships loaded with sugar as the allure of rich booty proves more enticing.

Whyte takes Port-au-Prince on June 4, but Sonthonax and the French forces are allowed to leave in exchange for not burning the forty-five ships loaded with sugar.

Rigaud had checked the British in the south, taking the town of Léogâne by storm and driving the British back to Port-au-Prince, which he besieges unsuccessfully.

During the course of 1794, most of the British forces have been killed by the dreaded "black vomit" as the British call it, as within two months of arriving in St. Domingue the British had lost forty officers and six hundred men to yellow fever.

Ultimately, of Grey's seven thousand men, about five thousand will die of yellow fever while the Royal Navy will report osing "...forty-six masters and eleven hundred men dead, chiefly of yellow fever".

The British historian Sir John Fortescue will write "It is probably beneath the mark to say that twelve thousand Englishmen were buried in the West Indies in 1794". (Perry, James Arrogant Armies Great Military Disasters and the Generals Behind Them, Edison: Castle Books, 2005 page 69.)

Rigaud had failed in attempt to retake Port-au-Prince, but on Christmas Day 1794, in a surprise attack he storms and retakes the Tiburon Peninsula.

The British lose about three hundred dead and the French take no prisoners, executing any British soldier and sailor who surrenders.

The Royal Navy under Admiral Sir John Jervis defeats a larger Spanish fleet off Cape St. Vincent, Portugal, on February 14.

Admiral Horatio Nelson sustained a severe injury, losing an arm, during the Battle of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on July 24, 1797.

The Spanish suffered minimal casualties, with only thirty dead and forty injured, while the British incurred heavy losses, with two hundred and fifty dead and one hundred and twenty-eight wounded.

The return journey to England proved arduous, as Nelson had lost a significant number of men.

In an act of chivalry, Lieutenant General Antonio Gutiérrez de Otero y Santayana, Nelson's Spanish counterpart, offered two schooners to assist the beleaguered British on their way back, even allowing them to depart with their weapons and war honors.

This display of generosity led to a courteous exchange of letters between Nelson and Gutiérrez.

Nelson agreed to report news of the battle back to the Peninsula, and in late July, the frigate Emeral arrived in Cádiz, carrying reports of Gutiérrez's victory.

Admiral John Jervis, however, expected to see the Union Jack flying over Santa Cruz and was enraged when he learned of the fiasco.

The Admiral failed to discern the difference between well-defended Spanish port cities like Cádiz and Santa Cruz and the Spanish ships his squadron had defeated in February.

The British fleet's haughtiness, coupled with inadequate resources for an invasion, resulted in a painful defeat, ensuring that they would never again attempt to capture Santa Cruz.