I represent John Payne. I was a pilot aboard HMS Florida, and then the HMS Diligence. I was an assistant – and then comrade – of George Gauld, the surveyor and cartographer of West Florida. In January 1779, I became commander of HMS West Florida, to which George Gauld was assigned in May of that year. In late 1779, Bernardo de Gálvez in New Orleans knew Spain was entering the war against Great Britain. I was in the West Florida patrolling Lake Pontchartrain, unaware of the declaration of war. I sent a boat out to try to make contact with Lt. Col. Dickson at Baton Rouge but they were captured by the Spaniards. After ten days, a ship tried to pass itself off as a Pensacola merchant vessel, but then turned around and attacked us. With only fifteen men on board (and some of them ill), we fended off a force four times our size twice before being overcome and boarded. I was mortally wounded, and two others wounded or killed before we surrendered.
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