“And so, indeed, they might have been, had General Dalling met with no obstacles in arranging the business in Jamaica:  and, had there been no delay in sending out the force from England; which did not arrive till August, when it ought to have been on the Spanish Main in January.

     “The obstacles experienced by General Dalling, were many; and,
     from various causes.

“A long continued martial law, and military preparations against a threatened invasion by the French, had almost exhausted the island of military stores and provisions.  There was but little of either, excepting in the king’s ordnance and victualling magazines.  Over these the admiral claimed an exclusive command and controul, and exercised his authority.

“This embarrassment, not to be viewed without regret, was however in a great measure surmounted, by the powerful resources, and spirited exertions, of a worthy and disinterested individual, Hercules Ross, Esq. a merchant of Kingston, who enabled the general to carry his government’s orders into execution.

“Misunderstandings, opposition, and delays, the ruin of many military operations, were the origin of the failure of this.  But even these perplexities and disappointments, great as they were, would not have defeated the expedition; or, at least, the Spaniards might have been saddled with the expence of it; if we could only have made a lodgment on the lake, to have kept open the river:  which might have been done, had the first detachment that General Dalling sent taken San Juan Castle in two hours, instead of sitting down formally before it for eleven days.

“The first detachment, consisting of about two hundred men, from the sixtieth and seventy-ninth regiments; one hundred of the Loyal Irish Corps; and two hundred Jamaica Volunteers; left Jamaica, under the convoy of the Hinchinbroke, on the 3d of February 1780; and directed their course to the Musquito shore, to take with them some of the Musquito Indians, who were waiting for their arrival.

     “On the 11th of February, they arrived at Cape Gratias a Dios;
     disembarked, and encamped about a mile from the sea, on Wank’s
     Savanna; an unhealthful situation.

     “Here they were joined by a party of men from the seventy-ninth
     regiment, from Black River.

“On the 10th of March, the troops re-embarked, and took their departure from Cape Gratias a Dios; and anchored at several places on the Musquito shore, to take up our allies, the Indians, who were to furnish proper boats for the service of the river, and to proceed with them on the expedition:  and, on the 24th of March, they arrived at the River San Juan.

     “San Juan river is the northern branch, or mouth of Lake Nicaragua;
     and is situated in north latitude twelve degrees, west longitude
     eighty-three degrees forty-five minutes.