It was not thought sufficient, sir, to favour the designs of the
Spaniards by the delay which the levy of new troops necessarily
produced, and to encourage them by the probability of an easy resistance
against raw forces; nor was the nation, in the opinion of the minister,
punished for its rebellion against him with adequate severity, by being
condemned to support a double number of troops. Some other methods were
to be used for embarrassing our preparations and protracting the war.

The troops, therefore, sir, being, by the accident of a hard winter,
more speedily raised than it was reasonable to expect, were detained in
this island for several months, upon trivial pretences; and were at
length suffered to embark at a time when it was well known that they
would have much more formidable enemies than the Spaniards to encounter;
when the unhealthy season of the American climate must necessarily
destroy them by thousands; when the air itself was poison, and to be
wounded certainly death.

These were the hardships to which part of our fellow-subjects have been
exposed by the tyranny of the minister; hardships which caution could
not obviate, nor bravery surmount; they were sent to combat with nature,
to encounter with the blasts of disease, and to make war against the
elements. They were sent to feed the vultures of America, and to gratify
the Spaniards with an easy conquest.

In the passage the general died, and the command devolved upon a man who
had never seen an enemy, and was, therefore, only a speculative
warriour; an accident, which, as it was not unlikely to happen, would
have been provided against by any minister who wished for success. The
melancholy event of this expedition I need not mention, it was such as
might be reasonably expected; when our troops were sent out without