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Europe, in favor of the allied courts, and principally of Spain. expedition against Minorca was decided with unanimity. The English had penetrated, in great part, the plans of their enemies; and were preparing to oppose them with all those obstacles which they deemed the most likely to render them abortive. They exerted an extraordinary activity in equipping a fleet, which was to carry lord Cornwallis a reenforcement of several English regiments and three thousand Hessians. It was hoped that this addition of force would enable that general not only to maintain the conquests he had made, but also to extend still further the progress of his arms. The victories of Cambden and Guildford had inspired the British nation with new confidence; all promised themselves a speedy conclusion of the war, and the subjugation of America. The British ministers even flattered themselves that the fleet they sent to the West Indies, though it was not considerable, would nevertheless prove sufficient, by its junction with the naval force already stationed there, to uphold the present preponderance of England in those seas. The public attention was particularly attracted by an armament which consisted of one ship of seventy-four guns, one of fifty-four, three of fifty, with some frigates, cutters, fire-ships and other light vessels. This squadron was to serve as escort to a great number of transports loaded with an immense quantity of arms and military stores. General Meadows embarked in it with a body of three thousand picked soldiers. The fleet was under the orders of commodore Johnstone. Manifold were the conjectures in public circulation respecting the object of this expedition, which the government studied to cover with impenetrable secrecy. It was generally presumed to be destined for the East Indies, in order to reduce all the French possessions in that part. This supposition, so far as appeared from the events which followed, was not destitute of foundation. But it would seem also that the war which broke out against Holland, constrained the British ministry to change the destination of this armament, or at least to restrict it to the attack of the Cape of Good Hope, and the reenforcement of the troops which guarded the establishments in the hither peninsula of India. It was deemed essential to provide for their safety, even though it were not permitted by circumstances to think of conquering those of the enemy. But of all the cares which occupied the British cabinet at this epoch, it assuredly had none more urgent than that of revictualling Gibraltar. Herein, besides the importance of the place, the honor of the British nation was deeply interested. The Spaniards and English seemed to have set each other at defiance at the foot of this rock. The first relying upon the fleet which they had at Cadiz, expected to be able to intercept whatever succours should approach for the relief of the garrison. It already began to suffer excessively from the scarcity of provisions; the supplies which admiral Rodney had introduced the

preceding year, were almost entirely consumed, and what remained were so marred as scarcely to be edible. Already general Elliot had been constrained to lessen a fourth of his soldiers' ration. In order to give them the example of privations, the officers ceased to dress their hair with powder. But the inhabitants of the city suffered still more from the absolute want of the necessaries of life. Such was the vigilance, and such the industry of the Spaniards in their endeavors to cut off all relief by sea, that since the supplies of Rodney, scarcely a few vessels from the African shore and Minorca had been able to make good their entrance into the port of Gibraltar. But how far was these feeble succours from being in proportion to the exigency! Besides, the prices which the masters of these vessels demanded for their commodities were so exorbitant, as to exceed the faculties of the greater part of the inhabitants. The miserable remains of the old provisions, spoilt as they were, commanded extravagant rates.*

The garrison supported all their sufferings with an heroic firmness; but without prompt succours it was impossible to prevent that formidable place, the key of the Mediterranean, from soon returning under the domination of its ancient masters. The general attention, in England, was directed towards this important point.

In Holland, meanwhile, the greatest industry was exerted in equipping a fleet that should be capable of maintaining the dignity of the republic, and of resuscitating its ancient glory. It was particularly intended to protect the commerce of the Baltic against the rapacity of England. These laudable intentions, however, were not attended with all that effect which was to have been wished. The government overruled the conflicting parties, but it could not prevent their fermenting covertly. Besides, a long peace had enervated minds, and caused the neglect of naval preparations.

Such were, about that time, the projects and dispositions of the powers engaged in this memorable contest. The preparatives of war were immense; the universe was in expectation of the most important events. The English were the first to put to sea. Their intent was to succour Gibraltar. On the thirteenth of March, a fleet of twenty-eight ships of the line set sail from Portsmouth. It was obliged to cruise some days upon the coasts of Ireland, to wait for the victualling ships and merchantmen which were assembled, in

* Old sea biscuit, quite mouldy, brought a shilling sterling the pound; and difficult to be found. Sour flour, and damaged peas, were worth one shilling and four pence the pound. Black salt, the sweepings of warehouses, eight pence per pound; butter, three shillings per pound; a turkey, when to be had, thirty shillings; a sucking pig forty shillings; a duck, ten shillings and six pence; a lean fowl, nine shillings; a loin of veal at least a guinea; and the head of an ox was sold at a still greater price. Firewood was so scarce, that cold water was used for washing linen, and the flatiron was dispensed with; a thing which proved very prejudicial to the health of the troops, during the cold, humid season, which prevailed in the course of that winter.

very great number in the road of Cork. The convoys bound to the two Indies departed under the protection of the fleet. When conducted out of danger from the hostile fleets, they were to continue their voyage. The squadron of commodore Johnstone sailed in company with the great fleet; being destined upon the expedition against the Cape of Good Hope, it was to escort the East India Convoy up to that point. The armament was commanded by the admirals Darby, Digby, and Lockhart Ross, each heading one of the three divisions of which it was composed. The necessity of revictualling Gibraltar was notoriously evident, and the preparations made by Great Britain for its accomplishment, could no longer be concealed. The English themselves openly professed their intentions on that head. The Spaniards were consequently too well advised, not to have taken all the precautions in their power to confound the efforts of their enemies. They had armed in the port of Cadiz, a fleet of thirty sail of the line. The court had placed it under the conduct of don Lewis de Cordova, a seaman of high reputation. This was without doubt an imposing force, and the Spaniards had exaggerated it greatly beyond the truth, in order to deter the English, if possible, from executing their intended enterprise. Wishing to corroborate also by his audacity, any discouraging apprehensions which the enemy might have entertained, don Lewis often issued from the port of Cadiz to parade along the coasts of Portugal, and even upon the route which the English must keep in sailing towards Gibraltar. The Spaniards, moreover, gave out that they were about to be joined by strong divisions of the French squadrons then at anchor as well in the Atlantic ports as in that of Toulon. There was, in effect, in the single port of Brest, so formidable a fleet, that it would have sufficed alone to make a stand against the whole British armament, and even to engage it with good hope of victory. No less than twenty-six sail of the line were in that port in readiness to put to sea. If this fleet should have made its junction with that of Spain, the allies would have acquired such a preponderance in those seas, as to have rendered the revictualling of Gibraltar an extremely difficult exterprise for the English. The Spaniards confidently depended upon the cooperation of the French. But the latter had it too much at heart to prosecute their designs in the West Indies, and upon the American continent, as likewise to reestablish their affairs in the east, to be willing to direct all their efforts singly towards an object which had no real and direct utility but for Spain alone. Accordingly, the count de Grasse put to sea, the twentysecond of March, from the port of Brest, shaping his course towards the West Indies. M. de Suffren sailed in company with him, having under his orders a squadron consisting of five ships of the line, several frigates, and a strong body of land forces. He had instructions to separate from the great fleet off Madeira, and to steer to the south,

towards the point of Africa; to preserve the Cape of Good Hope, and afterwards proceed to the East Indies. Thus all these naval forces, charged by their respective governments with the most important operations, got under sail almost at the same time. Without

the delay which detained the English upon the coasts of Ireland, it is altogether probable that the French would have fallen in with them, and that they would have settled by a decisive battle in the seas of Europe, that quarrel for which they were going to fight in the two Indies.

Adiniral Darby, sped by a favorable wind, stood for Cape St. Vincent, which having made, he proceeded with the greatest circumspection, on account of the proximity of the Spanish armament. But don Lewis de Cordova, who for several days had been cruising in the bay of Cadiz, was no sooner apprised of the approach of the English, than he lost all confidence in his own force. Forgetting the importance of the post he had to defend, instead of awaiting the enemy, he returned with precipitation to Cadiz, leaving him the ways free to Gibraltar.

Admiral Darby reconnoitred Cadiz, and finding the Spaniards were in no disposition to come forth, he immediately pushed forward his convoy, consisting of about a hundred sail, under the guard of a certain number of ships of war. A part of this squadron was to take post in the bay of Gibraltar itself, to cover the transports against the attempts of the Spanish gunboats; the rest was destined to cruise at the entrance of the strait, towards the Mediterranean, in order to oppose any hostile force that might present itself on that side. The admiral himself remained before Cadiz to observe the motions of the Spaniards with due diligence. The event justified his dispositions. The gunboats, it is true, made frequent attacks upon the transports, and that with the more audacity, as their inconsiderable size screened them in a manner from the effects of the enemy's, artillery. The annoyance of this musquito fleet, put the English out of all patience; but still it had no result of any importance. They succeeded in getting ashore all their munitions of war, and all their provisions; their exultation equalled the consternation of the Spaniards; all Europe was in astonishment. The king of Spain, who had set his heart upon the conquest of Gibraltar, and who had already expended so much treasure in the prosecution of this enterprise, persuaded himself that he was on the point of reaping the fruit of his efforts. When apprised of the event which still retarded the attainment of his hopes, he flattered himself that his land troops would prove, perhaps, more fortunate than his naval forces. His ardor was also stimulated by an eager desire to wipe off the stain which he was apprehensive would attach to his arms from the relief of Gibraltar. The labors of the camp of St. Roch were resumed with increase of activity; the trenches and works which beset the fortress, were fur

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nished with an immense quantity of artillery. The batteries mounted no less than one hundred and sixty pieces of heavy cannon, with eighty mortars of the largest caliber. On the twelfth of April, the British fleet being still at anchor in the port of Gibraltar, the whole of this train began to shower upon the place its tremendous volleys of balls and bombs. The narrow extent of the spot upon which they fell, left no other refuge to the besieged but the casemates and vaulted places. General Elliot, the governor, did not remain a peaceable spectator of this tempest; he answered it bolt for bolt, thunder for thunder. The whole mountain, enveloped in flame and smoke from its base to its summit, resembled a volcano in the height of the most terrible eruption. The two neighboring shores of Europe and Africa were lined with people, who had thronged thither to contemplate this dreadful spectacle. But the inhabitants of the unhappy town were more exposed even than the soldiers themselves. Their terror was great, but their dangers were still greater. The limbs of the dead and dying were scattered upon the ground; women, with children in their arms, ran distractedly imploring a shelter which could not be offered them. Some were seen crushed at the same time with their precious burthen, and torn in a thousand pieces by the bursting bombs. Others, with trembling hands, let themselves down precipices in order to retire the farthest possible from the seat of danger; many threw themselves into the casemates, where, breathing an infected air, and deprived of repose by the dismal cries of the wounded who expired around them, they thought themselves happy in having escaped an inevitable death. The town, situated upon the declivity of the rock, and next the sea towards the west, was demolished to its foundations. The Spanish gunboats contributed especially to this disaster. Under cover of night, they slipped between the British vessels, and after having effected their purpose, profited of a wind, which commonly springs up in the morning, to return to the port of Algesiras. Their destructive fire often reached those unhappy persons who had sought, upon the flank of the mountain, a refuge against the artillery of the Spanish lines. It continued to batter the place for upwards of three weeks with hardly any intermission, and was answered with equal vigor. The firing was then relaxed on both sides; the besiegers became sensible that their efforts resulted in little more than a vain noise, and the besieged thought it imprudent to expend their ammunition without necessity. Scarcely a few shot, discharged by intervals from the fortress, attested that the garrison were upon the alert; the greater part of the time, general Elliot observed, in apparent tranquillity, the fruitless toils of his enemy. It was calculated that in this short space of time, the Spaniards consumed fifty tons of gunpowder; they had fired seventyfive thousand volleys of cannon balls, and twenty-five thousand of bombs. Notwithstanding the narrowness of the place in which the

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