BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 107
ports were lost. The remainder of the fleet reached the West Indies in safety,
and by the month ‘of March 1796 the troops were in B condition for active
duty. The General succeeded in driving the French from all their possessions,
and, assisted by part of a new convoy from Britain, was enabled to capture the
island of Trinidad from the Spaniards.
Sir Ralph next made an attack upon the Spanish island of Puerto Rico,
which proved unsuccessful, but without by any means tarnishing his previously
well-earned laurels. On his return to this country in 1797, he was received
with every demonstration of public respect. He was presented by his Majesty
with the Colonelcy of the Scots Greys-invested with the honour of the Order
of the Bath-rewarded with the lucrative governments of Fort-George and
Fort-Augustus, and, on the 26th of January, he was raised to the rank of
Lieutenant-General in the Army.
Sir Ralph was next appointed to the chief command in Ireland, where the
flame of civil war was threatening to burst forth. After visiting a great
portion of the kingdom, and restoring in a great degree the discipline of the
army, which, in the Commander’s own words, had become, from their irregularities,
“more formidable to their friends than their enemies,” the General
was removed by the Marquis Cornwallis, who united the offices of Lord-
Lieutenant and Commander-in-Chief in his own person, much to the satisfaction
of Sir Ralph, who was anxious to leave Ireland. He was then appointed Commander
of the Forces in Scotland.
In 1798, Sir Ralph was selected to take charge of the expedition sent out
to Holland for the purpose of restoring the Prince of Orange to the Stadtholdership,
from which he had been ejected by the French. In this expedition the
British were at the outset successful. The first and well-contested encounter
with General Daendell, on the 27th of August, near the Helder Point, in
which the Dutch were defeated, led to the immediate evacuation of the Helder,
by which thirteen ships of war and three Indiamen, together with the arsenal
and naval magazine, fell an easy prey to the British. The Dutch fleet also
surrendered to Admiral Mitchell, the sailors refusing to fight against the Prince
of Orange. This encouraging event, however, by no means spoke the sentiments
of the mass of the Dutch people, or disconcerted the enemy. On the morning
of the 11th of September, the Dutch and French forces attacked the position of
the British, which extended from Petten on the German Ocean, to Oude-Sluys
on the Zuyder-Zee. The onset was made with the utmost bravery, but the
enemy were repulsed with the loss of a thousand men. Sir Ralph, from the
want of numbers, was unable to follow up this advantage, until the Duke of
York arrived as Commander-in-Chief, with a number of Russians, Batavians,
and Dutch volunteers, which aupented the allied army to nearly thirty-six
thousand.
An attempt upon the enemy’s positions on the heights of Camperdown being
agreed upon, on the morning of the 19th September the allied forces successfully
commenced the attack The Russians made themselves masters of Bergen;
