of June, amounted only to one commiffioned officer and fifty-two private men killed; and to feven officers and 253 others wounded. The damage to the works was too trifling to give any concern to the defenders; but the duty and fatigue were extreme, and they experienced in a high degree all the incommodities and rigours of a fiege, famine and peftilence only excepted. The town and its inhabitants were the facrifice. It could not be large, but it was extremely populous. Though the number of houses was under five hundred, the inhabitants (at leaft in the beginning of the fiege) confiderably exceeded three thoufand. Thefe were compofed of various nations and religions, the English amounting only to 500, the Roman Catholics to ncar 2000, and the Jews were little fhort of 900. They had been formed early in the reign of George the Second into a corporation, with a mayor and aldermen (according to the English model) for their government. The wives and families of the officers and garrifon, it is probable, are not included in this efti mate. Upon thele fell almost the whole weight of this cruel cannonade and bombardment. Such as were not buried in the ruins of their houses, or torn to pieces by the fhells in the general deftruction of the first night, fled, many of them nearly naked, to the remote parts of the rock, But the fhells from the batteries reached to places which had always been deemed fecure; and where thefe failed, the gun-boats, lurking in the dark, poured death and deftruc tion during the night to the moft fequeftered receffes. No scene could be more deplorable. It is faid that mothers and children, clafped in each others arms, were, at the fame inftant, fo completely blown to pieces by the bombs, that it feemed rather an annihilation than a difperfion of their shattered fragments. The cafemates, which could alone afford fecurity, were filled by the garrifon; and happy did ladies of the greateft fenfibility and moft delicate habits deem it to be admitted to a few hours repofe in them, amidst all the noise of a crowded foldiery, and the groans of the wounded who were brought in from their works. Time and fear by degrees led to the difcovery of new places of fecurity; nor was the fire of the enemy at all times equally fatal to thofe within reach; but when a ceflation of its violence enfued, the furviving inhabitants having loft their houfes and property, could no longer live in the place. They accordingly, including the families of the officers, eagerly feized every opportunity of fhipping that offered for an efcape, whether to England or to the neighbouring moft expedition at Breft, which were fent out under the command of M. de la Motte Piquet, in order to intercept the Euftatius convoy, as well as a rich fleet, which was then likewife on its way home from Jamaica. M. Piquet fucceeded in the firft part of his defign. Commodore Hotham had only four fhips of war for the protection of the convoy from St. Euftatius. May 2d. Fourteen or fifteen of the merchant fhips were taken; but the men of war, with the remainder of the convoy, were fheltered in fome of the western ports of Ireland. Advice of this mifadventure being received in the grand fleet on its way back from Gibraltar, Admiral Darby immediately difpatched a fufficient force to intercept M. Piquet's fquadron on its return to France. The French commander prudently evaded this danger; for upon finding the number and richnefs of his prizes, he thought their prefer. vation of too much importance to be hazarded upon a very doubtful contingency; and giving up at once all views upon the Jamaica fleet, his immediate return to his own coafts was barely fufficient to prevent his falling in with the Britif fquadron. It was faid that the under-writers, or infurers in England, loft fix or feven hundred thousand pounds by this cap ture. A fecret expedition to a very remote part of the world had been long talked of, and fuppofed to, have been more than once in contemplation in England. The reports of great commotions in Peru, and fome other of the Spanish dominions in America, made it gene rally fuppofed that the South Seas would have been the destination of fuch an armament. It seems probable that nothing lefs than the numberless exigencies, and the various untoward events of the war, could have delayed the profecution of a defign which feemed pregnant with the most fatal confequences to the enemy. At this time, when our enemies were multiplied, the defign feemed not only to be revived, but to be ferioufly adopted. A fmall fquadron (whose objects and deftination were kept fecret) under the conduct of Commodore Johnftone, with body of land forces commanded General Meadows (who had been fo, highly diftinguifhed in the action with D'Eftaing at St. Lucia) accompanied the grand fleet on its departure from England for the relief of Gibraltar. The fquadron confifted of a feventy-four, a fixtyfour, and three fifty-gun fhips, befides feveral frigates, a bombveffel, fire-fhip, and fome floops of war. The land-force was compofed of three new regiments, of a thousand men each. Several outward bound East Indiamen and ftore or ordnance veffels, went out with this convoy; and the whole fleet, including tranfports and armed fhips, amounted to more than forty fail. The object of this armament was undoubtedly changed in confequence of the Dutch war, which occafioned an attempt upon the Cape of Good Hope to be fubftituted in the place of the large field of enterprize which lay open in South America. The war was too vaft to afford a poffibility of feeding it in all its parts. manner; ftill however keeping a conftant eye to his principal object, the effectual protection of the Cape of Good Hope, which was to take place of all other confiderations whatever. As there was no great difference in point of time between the departure of the two armaments from England and France, their encounter was, even in the ufual courfe of things, not improbable; but, as the court of Verfailles was accurately informed of Johnftone's force, and of all the circumstances attending its convoy, it may be reasonably fuppofed, that they were not totally ignorant of his courfe, any more than of his def-tination. Tais change of object did not efcape the penetration of France and Holland. The latter trembling at the danger to which all her poffeffions in the Eaft would be expofed by the lofs of that moft important and valuable fettlement, and being totally incapable her felf of providing for its defence, had no other refource in this extreme urgency, than by an application to her new friend and ally for affiftance, to avert an evil which was capable in its confequences of fhaking the Republic to its foundations. France was fcarcely lefs interefted in the prefervation of the Cape of Good Hope, or lefs concerned in the confequences of its lofs than Holland; but he was befides defirous, and it was no lefs neceffary, that, under the circumftances of fo new and unexpected a connection, fhe fhould, by a timely difplay of her power and gratitude, juftify to them and to the world the extraordinary part which he had led the States-General to take in the conteft. A fquadron of five fhips of the line, and fome frigates, with a body of land-forces, were accordingly deftined to this fervice, under the conduct of M. de Suffrein, who failed from Breft in company with the grand fleet bound to the Weft-Indies, under the Count de Graffe, in the latter end of March. The naval part of this armamer was ultimately defigned to reinforce M. de Orves, and to oppote the English fleet under Sir Edward Hughes, in the Eaft Indies; but Suffrein's immediate and particular inftructions went to purfue and counteract island. Johnstone's armament upon every occafion, and in every poble The commodore had, with the fleet under his care, put into the Cape de Verd Iflands, belonging to Portugal, for water and fresh provifions; and as they had no idea of any enemy or danger being at hand, they feem to have lain without much care or order, as it fuited the convenience of the relpective captains, in an open harbour or bay, called Port Praya, fituated in the most confiderable of thofe iflands, called St. Jago, and belonging to the principal town. A great number of the crews were abfent from the fhips, being engaged in the various purpofes of watering, fishing, embarking live cattle, and all the other occupations neceffary to the preparation or fupply of fo many veffels for fo long a voyage. number of men and officers were likewife on fhore, partaking of the health and recreations of the A In this unprepared and difordered ftate, the Ifis man of war of 1781. faty guns, which happened to be one of the outermoft fhips, perceived, between nine April 16, and ten in the morning, a ftrange fquadrou, coming clofe round under a narrow flip of land, the extreme point of which forms the eastern angle at the entrance of the harbour; and although the land of the intervening neck was high, fo much was feen of their fignals and manner of working, that they were eafily perceived to be an enemy, and judged to be French. The alarm being given, fignals for unmooring, for preparing for action, and for recalling the people on fhore, were fpeedily thrown out; for though the port was neutral, it was well known that the French, where advantage offered, were feldom fcrupulous in the obfervation of it; and befides, as the Portuguese fort and garrifon were utterly incapable of maintaining the rights of fovereignty, it might be fuppofed that they would be less attended to. No fleet could be taken at a greater difadvantage; and among their various embarraffments it was not the leaft that the decks of most of the thips were encumbered with water-cafks and live-stock, while the fuddennefs of the attack afforded no time for their being cleared. M. de Suffrein having feparated from the convoy, and hauling clofe round the eaftern point of land, with his five fail of the line, was very foon in the centre of the British fleet, the French hips firing on both fides as they paffed. The Hannibal, of 74 guns, M. de Tremignon, led the way with great intrepidity; and when he got as near our flips 4 (the Hero, of 74 guns, Captain Hawker, the Monmouth of 64, Captain Alms, and the Jupiter of 50, Captain Parfley) as he could fetch, dropped his anchors with a noble air of refolution, which gained the applaufe even of his enemies. The Heros, of the fame force, M. de Suffrein's own fhip, took the next place; and the Artefien, of 64 guns, anchored aftern of the Heros. The Vengeur and Sphynx, of 64 guns each, ranged up and down, as they could, through the crowd of fhips, and fired, on either fide, at every fhip as they paffed. The Romney of 50 guns, the commodore's own fhip, being too far advanced towards the bottom of the bay, and too much interrupted by the veffels that lay between, to take an effective part in the action, Mr. Johnftone accordingly quitted her, and went on board the Hero. On The engagement lafted from first to laft about an hour and a half; and the fhips being very close, and the English firing only from one fide, the guns were inceffantly played, and the cannonade was extremely heavy. In fome time after the action began, feveral of the India fhips, having recovered from their firft furprize, fired with good effect on the enemy. the other hand, the two French feventy-fours carried much heavier metal than the Englith, their loweft tiers of 36 pounders throwing fhot equal to 42 pounds of our weight; and the Ifis, as well as the Romney, was by fituation cut off from any great fhare in the action; although the former fuffered feverely from the fire of the enemy as they paffed. In about an hour, the fituation of But va Commodore Johnstone pursued the enemy, and endeavoured to renew the engagement. rious obftacles, among which were the damage fuftained by the Ifis, the nature of the winds and currents, and the late time of day at which there feemed any poffibility of its being done, all concurred in defeating this purpose. The Hinchinbrooke Eaft Indiaman, which, after a gallant refiftance, and being much torn, had been carried out by the enemy, was retaken; and, as if it had been decreed that they fhould bear away no trophy from this action, the Infernal fire-fhip, which (by unluckily lying too near the mouth of the bay) had likewife been carried off, was recovered by her own crew. of the three French fhips at anchor, out from the western point of the. became too intolerable to be en- harbour. dured, and M. de Cardaillac, a knight of Malta, and captain of the Artefien, being killed, that fhip cut her cable, and endeavoured to make the best of her way out. M. de Suffrein, thus deferted by bis fecond aftern, found the danger fo great, and the adventure fo hopeless, that he followed the example. The unfortunate Hannibal was now left alone as a mark to be fired at, by every fhip in the fleet whole guns could be brought to bear upon the object; while he was herfelf fo difman:led and ruined, that her returns were dow and ineffective. Overwhelired by fuch a weight and quantity of fire, the exhibited an extraordinary fpectacle of diftrefs and gallantry; the only comfort left in fo terrible a fituation being the impoffibility of its long conShe had already loft her fore-maft and bowfprit, and her cable being either cut or fhot away in the effort of hoifting more fail to get out of the fire, both her main and mizen mafts went overboard, fo that the remained a mere hulk on the water. It is not ealy to be understood by landmen how the could efcape in fuch a condition. Her colours were either ftruck or fhot away; the former being afferted on one fide, and denied on the other. She however joined the other fhips at the mouth of the bay, and was towed off, and affitted in erecting jury mafts by them. As their at tack was fudden, their retreat was fo precipitate, that the Sphynx of 64 guns narrowly efcaped being loft upon a reef of rocks which runs tinuance. Such was the iffue of this ftrangely conducted, irregular, and confufed action, in which M. de Suffrein made no great difplay of thofe eminent qualities which have fince, through the series of hard fought and defperate conflicts he fuftained against Sir Edward Hughes in India, rendered his name fo highly and fo defervedly renowned. The French feem to have built too much upon the advantages of their furprize; and to have acted as if they had been rushing on to a certain prey, rather than to the rough encounter of an enemy who was in all circumftances and fituations truly formidable. A few of our land officers and foldiers, who were paflengers board the India fhips and tranfports, were killed or wounded; but the lofs of men upon the on whole, |