alarmed at their firing at the boat, gave them so warm a reception, that four of the launches were sunk, and the remainder, with the schooner, obliged to sheer off with great slaughter. The Racehorse then returned to Quay Boquel, to alarm the Pomona. In the mean time Captain Nugent was stripped to his shirt, and subjected to every indignity; he was taken on shore, where there was a platform, with a guard before it; and it subsequently appeared, that the Governor of Bacular, a town of the province of Yucatan, who headed the expedition against the logwood cutters, had given orders to execute all who made resistance. From this fate Captain Nugent with difficulty escaped, by explaining, that he was the Commander of a British frigate. Himself and boat’s crew were then conducted to prison. In the morning, soon after sun-rise, he was told by one of the towns-people, that the Spaniards were retiring in great consternation; and on breaking from his confinement, found a number of the inhabitants collected together, many of them armed, and the enemy making the best of their way from the island. In such haste were they to get off, that they suffered several of their men to be taken prisoners, although one or two of their boats were just putting off from the shore, and the Pomona, which was coming from Quay Boquel, was at least three leagues off.
Captain Nugent then launched his boat and retook the brig which he fitted out previous to his departure for the rendezvous appointed by Commodore Luttrell, and put 11 men in her, with arms and ammunition for several more, that she might be completed in her crew by the inhabitants of the town, for whose protection she was left, in case of the return of the Spaniards. By this means most of the negroes from the settlements up the rivers Belez, Sherboon, &c., and as much of the property of the inhabitants as could be collected together, were embarked in the different craft in the settlement, and conveyed to the Island of Rattan, where they settled during the continuance of the war. Three hundred of these bay-men were assembled at that island, and served at the capture of Omoa, where they rendered essential service. Captain Nugent remained on the Jamaica station until the summer of 1782, when he returned to England with Sir Peter
