garrison under General Goyrand surrendered to the British army 26 May. The island had been retaken at the cost of 566 men. A force of around 4,000 was left to hold Saint Lucia under the command of John Moore before Abercromby left for Saint Vincent at the beginning of June. Abercromby arrived on Saint Vincent 7 June with a force of just over 4,000. He marched his troops near to the insurgent base at Vigie Ridge and camped nearby as the British started to execute an encircling movement: Quartermaster General John Knox manoeuvred his men on the seaward side in order to prevent the enemy retreating north, and Lieutenant Colonel Dickens used the 34th Regiment as a diversion on the opposite side. Knox was able to cut off communications with the Vigie, whilst Dickens ousted the nearby Caribs to complete the encirclement. The black French commander, Marinier, signed terms of surrender on 11 June and the Caribs did 4 days later. The British took around 200 prisoners, with another 200 escaping into the jungle. Although some of the Caribs would remain in resistance until October, the rebellion had effectively been put down at the cost of 17 officers and 168 men killed or wounded. Afterwards, Abercromby secured possession of the settlements of Demerara and Essequibo in South America, and the island of Trinidad. A major assault on the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico, in April 1797 failed after fierce fighting where both sides suffered heavy losses. Abercromby returned to Europe and, in reward for his services, was appointed colonel of the 2nd (Royal North British) Regiment of Dragoons. He was also made Lieutenant-Governor of the Isle of Wight, Governor of Fort George and Fort Augustus in the Scottish Highlands, and promoted to the rank of Lieutenant-general. He again entered Parliament as the member for Clackmannanshire from 1796 to 1798. In 1798, Abercromby was made Commander-in-Chief of the forces in Ireland, then in rebellion and anticipating French intervention. He took the unusual step of publicly criticising the command of his predecessor, The 2nd Earl of Carhampton, for bequeathing an army "in a state of licentiousness, which must render it formidable to everyone but the enemy". To quote the biographic entry in the 1888 Encyclopædia Britannica, Abercromby was replaced in Ireland by Gerrard Lake who favoured an aggressive approach in putting down the rebellion, as opposed to Abercromby's attempts at conciliation.