358 A. D. 1762. 



It is fcarcely worih while to obferve, that the French took ponefliou 

 of Newfoundland in June, and were driven from it in September this 

 year. The temporary fuccefs gave no advantage to the French, though 

 confiderablc damage was thereby done to our fifliermcn. 



The Portuguefe, who in the fifteenth century were the firfl maritime 

 power in the world, had now declined fo much from their anrient pre- 

 eminence, that about half a dozen fhips of the line, and a few frigates 

 compofed their whole navy, when they were attacked by the united 

 powers of France and Spain, in order to compell them to withdraw 

 from their connedion with Great Britain : and to that ifland, which in 

 the days of their fplendour fcarcely poflefled a iliip of war, the Portu- 

 guefe now looked up for protection, and the prefervation of their na- 

 tional independence. After they recovered from the confternation of 

 the firfl attack, the natural ftrength of the country, which, under the 

 management of the great Viriathus, baffled the power of Rome, when 

 in the zenith of her military glory, was judicioufly taken advantage of 

 to retard the progrefs of the invaders ; and two furpriles of the Spanifh 

 armies by General Burgoyne completed the deliverance of Portugal ; 

 after which a fcafonable fall of heavy rains put a flop to further hofli- 

 lities, till they were more happily terminated by the conclufion of a 

 general peace. 



In the meantime an expedition, againfl the mofi: important pofleflion 

 of Spain in the eaflern world, was undertaken at Madras under the 

 command ot General Draper and Admiral Cornifh, who with a fmall 

 force made an attack upon Manilla, the capital of fourteen valuable 

 and important iflands in the Indian ocean, fubjeft to the crown of 

 Spain, and the entrepot of a very limited, but very rich and lucrative, 

 commerce with America, the Indian iflands, China, Japan, &c. which, 

 with all its dependencies, furrendered on the fame day that the Britifli 

 forces completed the expulfion of the Spaniards f-'om Portugal. The 

 conquerors permitted the inhabitants to preferve their property, and 

 even their owm government, on condition of paying a ranfom of a mil- 

 lion of flerling money. The ranfom, however, has never been paid ; 

 and they would have reaped nothing but barren laurels from their 

 vidlory, if two frigates detached from the fquadron had not taken a 

 galleon, which had I'ome time before failed from Manilla for Acapulco 

 with a cargo valued at aboiit half a million flerling. 



Thus in the courfe of a few fliort months were the Spaniards be- 

 reaved of their mofl: capital pofl'eflioa in the Wefl-Indies, and of all 

 their dommions in the Eafl-Indies, upon which the whole fyifem of 

 their commerce and revenue in the two hemilpheres depended ; their 

 vafl; unweildy empire lay bleeding at every vein ; and, for fomc time at 

 leaft, they might defifl from their empty boafl, that the fun never fets 

 in their dominions. 4 



