Note 1 — CHAP. VI.

Being thus apparently disengaged from military service, I received a polite invitation from a Mr. Campbel, who was lodged with a Mr. Kerry at my friend Kennedy’s, to accompany him on a visit to the island of Tobago, where I might recruit my debilitated health and dejected spirits. His plan was to return with me by the Leeward Islands to Europe. It was, indeed, to me a most agreeable offer, all things considered, and I should certainly with pleasure have accepted it, had not my application to Colonel Fourgeoud been prevented by a fresh alarm, which was received on the 15th. The substance of this was no less, than that an officer of the Society troops had been shot dead by the rebels, and his whole party, consisting of about thirty men, entirely cut to pieces. So alarming a piece of intelligence could not fail to throw the whole colony once more into the utmost confusion and consternation; the above gentleman, whose name was Lepper, and only a lieutenant, was in a great measure the cause of this misfortune, by his impetuosity and intrepidity, totally unregulated by temper or conduct1; but as this censure in general terms may appear severe, it becomes in some degree incumbent on me to relate the particulars.