MORRO CASTLE. 
6g 
marie sent a letter to Captain Velasco informing him of the fact, setting 
forth the hopelessness of the situation, and throwing upon him as the 
governor of the castle the responsibility for further bloodshed; and he 
assured him of his conviction that if the King of Spain were himself 
present he would be the first to make a capitulation. To which Don 
Luis answered that he declined his Lordship’s overtures, and declared his 
firm resolution to defend the castle to the end. The next day the mine 
was fired, a breach in the wall made, and the British, storming the 
entrance thus made, rushed into the works and quickly made them¬ 
selves masters of the place. In the charge Captain Velasco fell, mor¬ 
tally wounded. Attended by a British lieutenant as a mark of cour¬ 
tesy, he was taken under flag of truce across the bay to the city, that 
there he might be the better cared for. He died the next day. Hos¬ 
tilities were suspended for his funeral. As his body was borne to its 
tomb in one of the churches, the salutes of the Spanish guns in Havana 
were answered by those of the British across the bay. In the report 
of Sir George Pocock to the Admiralty, the Englishman paid a just 
tribute to the gallantry of the Spanish commander. For the conduct of 
Velasco in the defense of the Morro, the Spanish monarch created his 
son Vizconde del Morro, and decreed that a ship in the Spanish Navy 
should always bear the name of Velasco. The war vessel so named at 
the time of the Spanish-American war (built in 1881) was one of the 
fleet at Manila and was sunk by the American ship Boston. 
In the assault Velasco’s second in command, Marques de Gonzalez, 
fell, sword in hand, defending his flag. Of the garrison, 130 men were 
killed, 400 were wounded and many were drowned in attempting to 
escape to the city. 
And now a strange thing happened. La Punta and the batteries of the 
city turned their guns on Morro; the Spanish fortress was the target 
of Spanish cannon fire; and Morro, in the hands of the enemy and flying 
an alien flag, discharged its shot against the city it had been put here 
to defend. In the face of such unequal conditions Havana could not 
long hold out. On the nth of July the whole of the English batteries 
of forty-one guns were opened on the city. Punta Castle was silenced 
“A Plan of the Siege of the Havana. Drawn by an officer on the spot.” Here 
reproduced from the original in the Gentleman’s Magazine, London, September, 1762. 
References: 3. The Dragon against Cojimar. 4. Where the army first encamped. 
5. Where the cannon, etc., were landed. 6. Batteries against the Morro. 7. The 
Dragon, Cambridge and Marlborough against the Morro. 8. The bombs against the 
Puntal. 9. The Belleisle against Chorera fort. 10. Batteries against the Puntal. 
11. Batteries against the Cavannos hill. 12. Holtzers against the shipping.' 13. Three 
Spanish men of war sunk. 14. One company’s ship overset. 15. The chain and 
bomb. 16. Spanish admiral and fleet. 17. Two ships on the stocks. 18. Admiral 
Pocock with the men of war and transports. 19. Commodore Keppel with ditto. 
20. Camp at the water mills. 21. Fortified houses. 21. Headquarters. 
