HISTORY OF EUROPE. 



155 



A number of priests and monks 

 bad been employed night and day 

 in preaching a crusade against the 

 French infidels. Both the inha- 

 bitants of Malaga, and of the 

 noountainous country around, had 

 taken up arms. A Capuchin friar 

 was appointed their general. All 

 the colonels and other officers 

 were also monks. The insurrec- 

 tion had become alarming. Six 

 thousand men had seized the great 

 pass into the mountain, and deep 

 trenches were dug for securing 

 the roads leading to it from the 

 plain. The inhabitants of Al- 

 hama too, were in a state of in- 

 surrection. General Sebnstiani, 

 therefore, setting out, February 

 5th, with the advanced guard of 

 his army from Antequara, drove 

 the insurgents from their fast- 

 nesses in the mountains to Ma- 

 laga. Here they rallied in a 

 great, but disorderly mass, having 

 with them a great train of artil- 

 lery and a detachment of cavalry. 

 They withstood the musketry and 

 artiller}' of the French infantry 

 with great courage and obstinate 

 valour ; but they gave way to an 

 impetuous charge of the French 

 cavalry. Fifteen hundred of the 

 insurgents, among whom were 

 many priests and monks, were 

 found dead on the field of battle. 

 The French entered the city of 

 Malaga with the flying Spa- 

 niards. The contest had, for a i'ew 

 moments, been kept up by a fire 

 from the windows of houses and 

 at the crossings of the streets, 

 when the inhabitants made their 

 submission. Next day, the inha- 

 bitants of Valez-Malaga arrested 



the ringleaders of this new insur- 

 rection, and sent them to the im- 

 perial army, requesting that they 

 might be brought to justice. The 

 possession of Malaga was a point 

 ofgreat importance to theinvaders, 

 as it cut off the communication 

 between the maritime provinces 

 of Spain, on the east side, and the 

 country in the neighbourhood of 

 Gibraltar and Cadiz: and not only 

 this, the whole peninsula wascut in 

 two parts by a military cord. The 

 communication between the east- 

 ern and the western provinces of 

 Spain, was intersected by a line of 

 posts extending from Bayonne, by 

 Burgos and Valladolid, to Madrid; 

 and from thence by Toledo, An- 

 dujar, and Jaen, to the gulph of 

 Malaga. At Malaga wero found 

 143 pieces of cannon of diflFerent 

 calibres, and a considerable quan- 

 tity of ammunition and provisions. 

 Such of the inhabitants as could 

 not reconcile themselves to the 

 idea of submitting to the French, 

 found refuge in three English 

 ships of war in the harbour. All 

 English merchandize found in 

 Malaga was sequestrated.* 



After the passage of the Mo- 

 rena, both king Joseph, who ac- 

 companied the army as the nomi- 

 nal commander, and his generals, 

 seemed to think that the conquest 

 of Spain was completed. Soult, 

 in a letter to Berthier, from Cor- 

 dova, January 27, says, ''The in- 

 habitants of Andalusia shew the 

 best dispositions possible. They 

 remain all of them quietly at their 

 homes, with the exception of some 

 ringleaders of the insurrection. 

 Their countenances are open and 



o '..V**'""^ deMareschal Due dcDalmatiaau Prince deNeufchatel, Major General, 

 Seville, 10 Fevrier, 1810. 



