The annus mirabilis, or the year of military victories in 1759 against the French Empire by the British began in earnest with campaigns in the West Indies. Having foregone the initial plan to capture Martinique in January, British strategy turned to Guadeloupe. By the time of British officer Robert Melville’s letter of the 22nd of April, commanders Major General John Barrington and Commodore John Moore were besieging the island with targeted attacks and preventing French support from the sea. In it, Melville informed his commanding officer on the state of the garrison at Fort Royal (at Basse-Terre on the southwestern shore of the island), shelling by the French, information received from Black deserters, and engineering activities, all relating to the sortée being made to destroy the Cannon at Vieux-Fort on the southernmost tip of the island. Melville assured Barrington that “If The Enemy is once Closely hemm’d in I Dare Say They Will Submitt.”