BRITAIN. 



72 J 



Britain. 



mo. 



Expedition 

 oder Lord 

 Blaney to 

 the Spanish 

 oast. 



Guada- 

 loupe 

 taken by 

 the jiritMi. 





prt to his army. The allies had clearly retained, at 

 the end of the campaign, a position which the French 

 could not force, at least in the present circumstances, 

 when tin- winter rains had set in, to which the French, 

 if they had not retreated, would have been exposed 

 without shelter, in a country which afforded no sup- 

 plies, while the allies were securely hutted, and ob- 

 tained supplies of provisions by sea. A desultory 

 resistance to the French was kept up in several parts 

 of Spain, throughout the provinces of Arragon, 

 Catalonia, Valencia, and Murcia ; but the enemy 

 crossed the Sierra Morena once more without oppo- 

 sition, and pushed on their conquests to the isle of 

 Leon. 



An unfortunate attempt was made by the British, 

 in the month of October, to make a diversion on the 

 Spanish coast. The object of the enterprise was to 

 take the castle of Fuengerola, and afterwards to drive 

 the French out of Malaga. Lord Blaney sailed for 

 this purpose with 300 British soldiers, 400 foreign 

 deserters, and the Spanish regiment of Toledo. Af- 

 ter a vain attempt to effect a breach in the fortress 

 with some gun boats and field pieces, the assailants 

 were surrounded by a superior force, the foreign de- 

 serters went over to the enemy, and a retreat was 

 with difficulty effected, by the aid of the flank com- 

 panies of the 82d regiment, who arrived to assist in 

 covering it. The blame of the expedition was unge- 

 nerously ascribed, by some of the courtly newspapers, 

 to Lord Blaney's perseverance in attacking the cas- 

 tle of Fuengolora. The truth is, that the force sent 

 upon the enterprise was utterly inadequate to the ob- 

 ject ; and such an apology, affecting the name of a 

 gallant officer, wounded and a prisoner in the hands 

 of the enemy, could only be devised by those who 

 were interested in covering the true causes of its 

 failure. 



The year was distinguished by colonial conquests, 

 both in the East and West Indies. An expedition sail- 

 ed from Martinique, against Guadaloupe, on the 24th 

 of January, under the command of Admiral Cochrane 

 and General Beckvvith* General Ernouf, the French 

 governor of the invaded island, had been apprised of the 

 intended attack, and had concentrated all his force at 

 Basse Terrc. The first division of the British, under the 

 commander-in-chief, landed at the village of St Mary, 

 and soon after advanced towards Trois Riviers; the 

 second division landed to the north of Basse Terre, un- 

 der General Harcourt. After some skirmishes, a ge- 

 neral engagement took place on the 23d of February, 

 in which the French were defeated with the loss of 500 

 men. In the evening of the same day, the reserve, 

 under General Wade, (who appears to have acted 

 with uncommon skill and activity in getting at the 

 enemy, by a route less than half the distance of the 

 intended one, and whose conduct seems to have deci- 

 ded the success of the enterprise,) turned and beat the 

 enemy's left in the mountains. Ernouf's position be- 

 came socritical,that on the 24th of February, he hoist- 

 ed fljgs of truce, whilst our troops were advancing. 

 Next morning commissioners were -appointed on both 

 sides, and a capitulation was agreed upon, by which 

 the garrison were to have the h.)iiours of war, and to 

 be .-ent to England as prisoner* of war until regular 

 ly exchanged. This service was performed in the 

 space of eight days, -with the loss of less than 300 





killed and wounded, and deprived the enemy of his Britain. 

 last West Indian colony. 



In the came month, and happily with inconsidera- 

 ble bloodshed, the rich island of Amboyna, one of 

 the Moluccas, was captured by a squadron of ships, Amfooyiia 

 under the command of Captain Tucker. Whilst'?'"" X. 

 Captain Tucker cannonaded the enemy's shore, forts, 

 and batteries, from the sea, a selected body of 400 

 soldiers and seamen were landed, who stormed the 

 batteries, and crossed the precipitous heights that in- 

 tervened between the shore and town of Amboyna. 

 They then summoned the town to surrender ; and the 

 garrison, consisting of 1000 Javanese troops, and 130 

 Europeans, capitulated to those hardy assailants. 



A still more important acquisition was made, in lle of 

 the capture of the island of Napoleon, (lately Bour- Bourbon 

 bon,) in the same quarter of the world, by a squa- lalcel1 |>y 

 dron of four ships under Captain Rowley, and a force ' 

 of 3650 European and Indian troops, under Lieute- 

 nant Colonel Keating. On the 7th of July, a partial 

 landing was effected ; but, owing to the violence of 

 the surf, the remainder of the force was not put on 

 shore till next day, when Colonel Keating pushed on 

 to the attack of the capital, St Denis. Every thing 

 was in readiness, and the assault would have taken 

 place in less than half an hour, when a suspension of 

 arms was demanded by the enemy. A capitulation 

 ensued ; and thus, with a trifling loss, a population of 

 100,000 souls was added to our empire. The enemy, 

 1500 strong, surrendered prisoners, but were allowed 

 the honours of war. The laws, customs, and proper- 

 ty of the inhabitants, were to be insured to them. Our 

 whole loss in the expedition amounted to 97 men. 



To these acquisitions was added the island of Ban- Isle of 

 da, which is the principal of a cluster of small islands, Band* 

 lying to the east of the Celebes, in the East Indies. c 

 Its inhabitants, with those of its dependent islets, are ' 

 supposed to contain about live thousand. Their 

 chief produce is nutmegs, of which they yield enough 

 for the supply of the whole world. (See BAMIA.) 

 Three British frigates arrived off Banda on the 8th of 

 August. At night, the boats, containing 300 

 commanded by Captain Cole, pushed for the shore ; 

 but, owing to the tempestuous weather, only ISO 

 reached the appointed rendezvous. After waitii,.; 

 some time for the boats that were missing, they boldly 

 resolved to push ashore. The badness of the weather 

 vvas now of service, for the boats grounded undiscover- 

 ed, in a heavy squall of wind nud rain, within 100 yards 

 of a battery of ten twenty-four pounders, which was 

 stormed ; the sentinel was killed by a pike, an.:', 

 men disarmed without the discharge of a piece. '{.''.' 

 storming party then proceeded to tort Bclgica. The 

 alarm buglt-s were then Miiiin'.ing, a:,d the enemy re- 

 served their fire till the British i(ot close to the 

 The scaling ladders w ere rapidly applied, and T.olinted 

 with extraordinary cekrity, notwithstanding a smart 

 though ill-directed fire from the citadel. The lower 

 works being gained, the ladders were placed against 

 the inner wall, when the enemy fled in all directions, 

 leaving the commandant and ten men killed, and two 

 captains ami 30 men prisoners. The guns near the 

 ladders having been de^-rled by the cowardice of the 

 enemy, the British found themselves in possession of 

 the citadel, without the loss of a single man. The 

 citadel commanded the lown and Fort Nassau. A 



