THE LAST SIEGE OP GIBRALTAR. 95 



no doubt whatever that our right to Gibraltar is not merely that of possession nine points 

 of the law but cession wrung from a people unable to hold it. And that, in war, is fair. 



Twenty years later Spain again attempted to wring it from us. Mr. Stanhope, then 

 our representative at Madrid, was told by Queen Isabella : " Either relinquish Gibraltar or 

 your trade with the Indies." We still hold Gibraltar, and our trade with the Indies is 

 generally regarded as a tolerably good one. In December, 1726, peace or war was made 

 the alternative regarding the cession ; another bombardment followed. An officer* present 

 said that it was so severe that " we seemed to live in flames/' Negotiations for peace 

 followed at no great distance of time, and the Spaniards suddenly drew off from the attack. 

 Various offers, never consummated, were made for an exchange. Pitt proposed to cede it 

 in exchange for Minorca, Spain to assist in recovering it from the French. At another time, 

 Oran, a third-class port on the Mediterranean shores of Africa, was offered in exchange ; and 

 Mr. Fitzherbert, our diplomatist, was told that the King of Spain was " determined never 

 to put a period to the present war " if we did not agree to the terms ; and again, that 

 Oran " ought to be accepted with gratitude." The tone of Spain altered very considerably 

 a short time afterwards, when the news arrived of the destruction of the floating batteries, 

 and the failure f the grand attack. f This was at the last the great siege of history. 

 A few additional details may be permitted before we pass to other subjects. 



The actual siege occupied three years and seven months, and for one year and nine 

 months the bombardment went on without cessation. The actual losses on the part of the 

 enemy can hardly be estimated; 1,473 were killed, wounded, or missing on the floating 

 batteries alone. But for brave Curtis, who took a pinnace to the rescue of the poor 

 wretches on the batteries, then in flames, and the ammunition of which was exploding every 

 minute, more than 350 fresh victims must have gone to their last account. His boat was 

 engulfed amid the falling ruins; a large piece of timber fell through its flooring, killing 

 the coxswain and wounding others. The sailors stuffed their jackets into the leak, and 

 succeeded in saving the lives of 357 of their late enemies. For many days consecutively 

 they had been peppering us at the rate of 6,500 shots, and over 2,000 shells each twenty- 

 four hours. With the destruction of the floating batteries " the siege was virtually concluded. 

 The contest was at an end, and the united strength of two ambitious and powerful nations 

 had been humbled by a straitened garrison of 6,000 effective men."! Our losses were 

 comparatively small, though thrice the troops were on the verge of famine. At the period 

 of the great siege the Rock mounted only 100 "guns ; now it has 1,000, many of them 

 of great calibre. In France, victory for the allies was regarded as such a foregone conclu- 

 sion that "a drama, illustrative of the destruction of Gibraltar by the floating batteries, 

 was acted nightly to applauding thousands !" The siege has, we believe, been a favourite 

 subject at the minor English theatres many a time since ; but it need not be stated that 

 the views taken of the result were widely different to those popular at that time in Paris. 



Gibraltar has had an eventful history even since the great siege. In 1804 a terrible 

 epidemic swept the Rock; 5,733 out of a population of 15,000 died in a few weeks. The 

 climate is warm and pleasant, but it is not considered the most healthy of localities even 



* " Journal of an Officer during the Siege." f See ante, page 16. 



$ Sayer's "History of Gibraltar," J Barrow's "Life of Lord Howe," 



