English were immured, they had lost but few, men by the fire of this immense artillery; their wounded did not exceed two hundred and filty. As to the inhabitants, seeing their houses destroyed, and in continual dread of new disasters, they demanded permission to retire. General Elliot acquiesced in their desires, after having furnished them with all the assistance in his power. The greater part embarked in the fleet which had victualled the place, and repaired to England.

Before it had arrived there, fortune, propitious to the French, inflicted a heavy stroke upon their enemies; which was considered as a just chastisement for the robberies committed at St. Eustatius. Intelligence had been received in France, that a numerous convoy of ships laden with the rich spoils of that island, had left it about the last of March, and were on their way for the ports of Great Britain. It was also known, that this convoy was to be followed by another not less valuable, which was freighted with the produce of Jamaica. The first was guarded by four ships of war under admiral Hotham. The moment could not have been more favorable to the French, since the great English fleet was employed in succouring Gibraltar. The court of Versailles knew very well how to profit of so fair an occasion; it had equipped with great celerity in the port of Brest, a squadron destined to intercept the expected convoys. The chevalier de la Motte Piquet put to sea the fifteenth of April, at the head of eight ships of the line, all excellent sailers. He struck into the middle of the convoy of St. Eustatius, and dispersed it entirely. Twenty-two ships fell into his power, two others were taken by privateers. Some few, with the ships of war that had escorted them, made their way good into the ports of Ireland. The British merchants who had insured the captured ships, lost by this stroke upwards of seven hundred thousand pounds sterling. Admiral Darby, during his homeward passage, was very early informed of the disaster. He instantly made his dispositions for cutting off the retreat of la Motte Piquet. But the French admiral, attentive to all the movements of the enemy, and content with the brilliant advantages which he had just obtained, left the convoy of Jamaica to pursue its voyage in tranquillity, and returned without accident to Brest. So rich a capture created no little festivity in France.

Those who had projected this expedition, and those who had executed it, were loaded with just praises. The fleet of admiral Darby recovered the ports of England. In the meantime, the two fleets of Johnstone and Suffren had put to sea for the Cape of Good Hope. These two admirals had the most exact information respecting each other's departure, intended route, and ulterior destination. But the Englishman was obliged to touch at the bay of Praya, in St. Jago, the most considerable of the Cape de Verd islands. He was occupied in recruiting his water and provision for the long voyage

he was about to undertake, and a great part of his crews were on shore. M. de Suffren was soon apprised of it, and immediately shaped his course with press of sail for the bay of Praya, where he hoped to surprise the enemy. He kept so close along under a tongue of land which covers the port towards the east, that he was already on the point of entering it without being discovered. But the British ship Isis, which lay near the mouth of the bay, perceived beyond the eastern point the tops of several masts. Afterwards, by the mode of manoeuvring, it was known that they were French, and the signal of enemy sails was given immediately. The commodore recalled his crews from the shore, and made all his dispositions for battle. Meanwhile, the French squadron doubled the point, and appeared all at once at the entrance of the bay. The attack commenced forthwith. The English had one ship of seventy-four guns, four others of inferior force, three frigates, with several East India Company ships, armed for war. The French had two ships of seventy-four, and three of sixty-four guns. After having cannonaded the Isis, which presented herself the first, they forced the entrance of the harbor, passing into the midst of the British squadron, and firing double broadsides, M. de Tremignon, with his ship the Hannibal, which was ahead of the rest, advanced as far as possible, and with admirable intrepidity cast anchor in the midst of the British line, which assailed him from right and left. He was followed by M. de Suffren, in the Hero, and afterwards the chevalier de Cardaillac joined them with the Artesien. The two other ships could not approach near enough to support them, and having fallen to leeward, after having discharged a few broadsides, they stood out to sea. Two British ships, the Isis and the Romney, were unable to take any considerable part in the action; the first having suffered severely from the fire of the French, at the time of their entrance into the bay, the second finding herself advanced too far within it. The engagement was therefore reduced to that of three ships of the line on either side; the French fired both starboard and larboard guns, as they had placed themselves in the centre of the English. But at length, the British frigates, with the armed ships of the India Company, having rallied, came up to the support of the commodore. After the action had lasted an hour and a half, the Artesien having lost her captain, and being no longer able to sustain so fierce a fire, cut her cables and drew off. M. de Suffren, finding himself deprived of his rear guard, and exposed to be cannonaded at once on both sides as well as in front and rear, took a similar resolution to withdraw from the harbor. The retreat of the Hero and Artesien left the Hannibal alone to sustain the whole weight of the enemy's fire, and of course, she suffered excessively; she lost first her mizenmast, then her mainmast, and at last her rudder. Nevertheless, by incredible exertions she made her way good to the mouth of the

bay, where she was taken in tow by the ship Sphynx. Her masts being refitted as well as it was possible, she rejoined the rest of the squadron. The English would fain have followed the French, in order to recommence the engagement; but the wind, the currents, the approach of night, and the disabled state of the Isis, prevented them from doing it. Such was the combat of Praya, which gave occasion to several observations upon the conduct of the two admirals. The British commander was censured for having anchored so imprudently in an open and defenceless bay, when he must have known that the enemy could not be far off. Vainly would he have alleged, that he believed himself protected by the neutrality of the place, the island of St. Jago belonging to the crown of Portugal; for he affirmed himself, that when the French see an opportunity for seizing their advantage they are not wont to respect these neutralities; an accusation which, though it were founded, appears not the less extraordinary from the mouth of an Englishman. Commodore Johnstone, committed, besides, great errors, in landing so great a part of his crews, in placing his weakest ships at the entrance of the bay, and in letting the Hannibal escape notwithstanding her crippled condition. M. de Suffren, it was said on the other hand, ought not to have attempted to combat at anchor. Every probability assured him a complete victory, if, instead of losing time in coming to anchor, he had immediately resorted to boarding, or even if he had fought under sail an enemy that was in a good degree surprised and unprepared for action.

As soon as the British squadron was refitted, it put to sea in pursuit of the French; but finding them drawn up in order of battle, it avoided a second engagement; night, which soon came on, separated the two squadrons. Commodore Johnstone returned to the bay of Praya. M. de Suffren, continuing his voyage to the south, and towing the Hannibal, repaired to False Bay at the Cape of Good Hope. He was rejoined there by his convoy, which, during his attack of Praya, he had left at sea, under the escort of the corvette la Fortune. Thus was frustrated the design which the English had meditated against the Cape. Constrained to relinquish all hope of conquest, they directed their force against the commerce of their enemies. Commodore Johnstone was advised by his light vessels, that several ships of the Dutch East India Company, very richly laden, lay at anchor in the bay of Saldana, not far from the Cape itself. Upon making the coasts of Africa, acting himself as pilot to his squadron in the midst of 'shoals and reefs, crowding all sail by night, concealing himself by day, he manœuvred with such dexterity, that he arrived unexpectedly before the bay. He captured five of the most valuable ships; the others were burnt. After having obtained this advantage, which preserved him at least from the reproach of having undertaken an expedition without utility, he detached a part

of his force to India, under general Meadows, and returned himself with the Romney, his frigates and rich prizes, to England. M. de Suffren having thrown a strong garrison into the Cape of Good Hope, continued his voyage for the East Indies. Thus the war which raged already in Europe, America, and Africa, was about to redouble its violence upon the distant banks of the Ganges.

Meanwhile, Gibraltar continued to hold out; to the furious attack given that place, had succeeded an almost total calm. The gunboats, alone, profited of the obscurity of night, to keep the garrison in continual alarms. In order to restrain them, the governor caused his advanced batteries to be armed with guns and inortar pieces, peculiarly calculated to throw their shot to a great distance. As they could now reach the camp of St. Roch, every time the gunboats made their attacks, the Spanish lines were assailed by the most violent fire. Don Mendoza having perceived that general Elliot did thus by way of reprisal for the assaults of the gunboats, ordered the commanders of the flotilla to desist from all further insult against the place, and to keep their station quietly in the port of Algesiras. He enjoined them, however, to exert the greatest vigilance to prevent the entrance of supplies into the place. The Spaniards were indefatigable in pushing forward their trenches. They had now brought them quite to the foot of the rock, so that the circumvallation extended from right to left across the whole breadth of the isthmus by which the rock itself connects with the main land. They had excavated upon their left the nine of communication between their outer circumvallation and the parallels. General Elliot, full of security upon the summit of the rock he defended, unwilling to lavish his ammunition, without utility, had not disturbed the workmen. But when he saw that their works were completed, he resolved to destroy them by the most unexpected and vigorous sally. The twentyseventh of November, towards midnight, he issued from the place at the head of three brigades of infantry, commanded by general Ross. These troops were followed by a great number of pioneers, miners and engineers. The sally was conducted with suitable order and silence. The English appeared all of a sudden before the advanced guards, and routed them in a few instants; they found themselves masters of the first parallel and proceeded to destroy it. The engineers, furnished with combustible materials, set fire to every thing that was capable of receiving it. The carriages of the cannon were rendered unserviceable, and the pieces, including the mortars, were spiked with admirable promptitude. The workmen tore up the platforms and traverses, and levelled the breastworks with the ground. All the magazines were successively consigned to the flames. A single half hour witnessed the destruction of those works which had been erected at so vast an expense of toil and treasure. The Spaniards, whether from the stupor of consternation, or supposing the enemy to

be much stronger than he was in reality, were afraid to go out of their camp to repulse him. They contented themselves with keeping up an incessant, though harmless, fire with balls and grape-shot. The English, after having accomplished their purpose, returned sound and safe into the fortress.

In the meantime, a project was conceived in Europe, the execution of which could not fail to give a severe shock to the British power in the Mediterranean. The Spaniards remained very ill satisfied with France; they believed themselves authorised to reproach her with having hitherto consulted exclusively her own interests, to the prejudice of her allies. They complained, with peculiar bitterness, that she had in no shape promoted the expeditions of Jamaica and Gibraltar, as if she were loath to see the prosperity of the Spanish arms in the seas of America and upon the European continent. The revictualling of Gibraltar, on the part of the English, by dint of force, without a single movement of any sort being made by the French to prevent it, and the despair experienced by the Spaniards at having consumed themselves in vain efforts for the reduction of that place, had prodigiously increased their ill humor, and caused it to degenerate into an open discontent. The Spanish people murmured in bold language; the court was become the object of the most vehement animadversion. It was accused of having undertaken this expedition merely in subservience to the ambitious views of France, and not at all for the interests of the Spanish nation; the Spaniards called it a court war, a family war. Stimulated by the vivacity of these complaints, and reflecting moreover that the reduction, in whatever mode, of the British power, was the augmentation of her own, France took the resolution to give into some enterprise whose immediate fruit should be gathered by Spain. An expedition against Jamaica necessarily involving long delays, and a fresh attack upon Gibraltar promising no better than dubious results, it was determined to attempt. an operation, the success of which appeared the more probable, as the English were far from expecting it; and that was, the conquest of the island of Minorca. If France had motives for wishing it with eagerness, it must have been still more desirable for the Spaniards. Minorca is so favorably situated for cruising, that it was become the habitual resort of an immense number of privateers. Their audacity was not confined to infesting the seas, and disturbing the navigation and commerce of the Spaniards and French; they even intercepted neutral vessels employed in trafficing with these two nations; this island also served as a place of arms for the English. They deposited in it the munitions of war and provisions which they drew from the neighboring coasts of Africa, whether for the use of their shipping or for the consumption of Gibraltar. The facility of the enterprise was another persuasive invitation to attempt it. In effect, however imposing was Fort St. Philip, from its position and works, the garrison which