which ship he left in order to join l’Aimable frigate, commanded by Captain Jemmet Mainwaring, an active and enterprising officer, whose melancholy fate we have already recorded[1].
Owing to the varied nature of the services on which she was employed, l’Aimable frequently came in contact with the enemy’s batteries; and she appears to have sustained some damage, besides having several men wounded, in an unsuccessful attack upon a squadron of French frigates lying at St. Eustatia: the ships in company with her on that occasion were the Bellona 74, Captain George Wilson; Invincible 74, Captain William Cayley; and Lapwing 28, Captain Robert Barton.
About this period, Lieutenant Dillon was strongly recommended to Sir Henry Harvey for promotion; and being well acquainted with the French language, he was subsequently often employed as the bearer of a flag of truce to Victor Hugues, governor of Guadaloupe, for the purpose of effecting an exchange of prisoners. The difficulties attending a negociation with that ferocious republican will readily be conceived; but notwithstanding the arduous nature of the duty thus imposed upon him, we know that the services he rendered to his country on those occasions were highly appreciated by all his superior officers[2].
In Dec. 1797, Lieutenant Dillon was offered an appointment to Sir Henry Harvey’s own ship, with a promise of early advancement; but his health was then so bad, occasioned by more than ordinary exposure to the climate of the West Indies, that he was under the necessity of returning to England, where he arrived in Mar. 1798; the commander-in-chief having shewn the sense he entertained of his services by granting him leave of absence for six months (instead of causing him to undergo a survey), and thereby affording him an opportunity of joining the flag-ship at the expiration of that period. In May 1798, finding that his health was not sufficiently
- ↑ See Vol. II. Part II. note † at p. 603.
- ↑ Victor Hugues, “the Robespierre of the colonies,” died at Bourdeaux, in 1826.
