means the whole place was mastered in less than a quarter of an hour’s time from the first landing, with no other loss than that of one man killed on the spot and two wounded, one of whom was the Spanish pilot of the Teresa, who received a slight bruise by a ball which grazed on his wrist.  Indeed, another of the company, the Honourable Mr. Keppel. son to the Earl of Albemarle, had a very narrow escape; for having on a jockey cap, one side of the peak was shaved off close to his temple by a ball, which, however, did him no other injury.  And now Lieutenant Brett, after this success, placed a guard at the fort, and another at the Governor’s house, and appointed sentinels at all the avenues of the town, both to prevent any surprise from the enemy, and to secure the effects in the place from being embezzled.  And this being done, his next care was to seize on the custom-house where the treasure lay, and to examine if any of the inhabitants remained in the town, that he might know what further precautions it was necessary to take.  But he soon found that the numbers left behind were no ways formidable; for the greatest part of them (being in bed when the place was surprised) had run away with so much precipitation that they had not given themselves time to put on their clothes.  And in this precipitate rout the Governor was not the last to secure himself for he fled betimes, half-naked.  The few inhabitants who remained were confined in one of the churches under a guard, except some stout Negroes who were found in the place.  These, instead of being shut up, were employed the remaining part of the night to assist in carrying the treasure from the custom-house and other places to the fort.  However, there was care taken that they should be always attended by a file of musketeers.

The transporting the treasure from the custom-house to the fort was the principal occupation of Mr. Brett’s people after he had got possession of the place.  But the sailors, while they were thus employed, could not be prevented from entering the houses which lay near them in search of private pillage.  And the first things which occurred to them being the clothes which the Spaniards in their flight had left behind them, and which, according to the custom of the country, were most of them either embroidered or laced, our people eagerly seized these glittering habits, and put them on over their own dirty trousers and jackets; not forgetting, at the same time, the tie or bag-wig, and laced hat, which were generally found with the clothes.  When this practice was once begun there was no preventing the whole detachment from imitating it; and those who came latest into the fashion, not finding men’s clothes sufficient to equip themselves, were obliged to take up with women’s gowns and petticoats, which (provided there was finery enough) they made no scruple of putting on and blending with their own greasy dress.  So that, when a party of them thus ridiculously metamorphosed first appeared before Mr. Brett, he was extremely surprised at their appearance and could not immediately be satisfied they were his own people.