nder the command of
Vice-Admiral Sir A. Cochrane, having on board a force of some 5000 men
under Major-General Keane, sailed from Negril Bay and arrived off the
Chandeleur Islands near the entrance of Lake Borgne, on December 10th.

"To reduce the forts which command the navigation of the Mississippi was
regarded as a task too difficult to be attempted, and for any ships to
pass without their reduction seemed impossible. Trusting, therefore,
that the object of the enterprise was unknown to the Americans, Sir
Alexander Cochrane and General Keane determined to effect a landing
somewhere on the banks of Lake Borgne, and pushing directly on, to take
possession of the town before any effectual preparation could be made
for its defence. With this view the troops were removed from the larger
into the lighter vessels, and these, under convoy of such gun-brigs as
the shallowness of the water would float, began on the 13th to enter
Lake Borgne."[37]

The Americans, however, being well acquainted with what was taking
place, opposed the passage of the lake with five large cutters, each
armed with six heavy guns, and these were immediately attacked by the
smaller craft of the British. Avoiding a serious engagement, they
retired into the shoal water where they could only be attacked by boats,
and owing to the delay in getting together a sufficiently powerful
flotilla, it was not till the 15th that they were captured, and the
navigation of the lake cleared. The vessels of a lighter draught having
all run aground in a vain endeavour to pass up the lake, the troops were
embarked in boats to carry them up to Pine Island, a distance of thirty
miles.

"To be confined for so long a time as the prosecution of this voyage
would require, in one posture, was of itself no very agreeable prospect;
but the confinement was but a trifling misery when compared with that
which arose from the change in the weather. Instead of a constant
bracing frost, heavy rains, such as an inhabitant of England cannot
dream of, and against which no cloak could furnish protection, began. In
the midst of these were the troops embarked in their new and straitened
transports, and each division, after an exposure of ten hours, landed
upon a small desert spot of earth, called Pine Island, where it was
determined to collect the whole army, previous to its crossing over to
the main.

"Than this spot it is scarcely possible to imagine any place more
completely wretched.