PRECAUTIONS taken by GENERAL BLAKENEY.

The governor ordered his officers to beat up for volunteers in the adjacent town of St. Philip’s; but few or none would enlist under his banners, and it seems he would not venture to compel them into the service. He recalled all his advanced parties; and, in particular, a company posted at Fornelles, where a small redoubt had been raised, and five companies at Ciudadella, a post fortified with two pieces of cannon, which were now withdrawn as soon as the enemy began to disembark their forces. At the same time major Cunningham was detached with a party to break down the bridges, and break up the roads between that place and St. Philip’s; but the task of destroying the roads could not be performed in such a hurry, on account of the hard rock which runs along the surface of the ground through this whole island; nor was there time to demolish the town of St. Philip’s, which stood so near the fort, that the enemy could not fail to take advantage of its neighbourhood. The streets served them for trenches, which otherwise could not have been dug through the solid rock. Here they made a lodgement close to the works; here they found convenient barracks and quarters of refreshment, masks for their batteries, and an effectual cover for their mortars and bombardiers. The general has been blamed for leaving the town standing; but if we consider his uncertainty concerning the destination of the French armament, the odious nature of such a precaution, which could not fail to exasperate the inhabitants, and the impossibility of executing such a scheme after the first appearance of the enemy, he will be found excusable, if not altogether blameless. Some houses and windmills were actually demolished, so as to clear the esplanade and the approaches. All the wine in the cellars of St. Philip’s town was destroyed, and the butts were carried into the castle, where they might serve for gabions and traverses. Five-and-twenty Minorquin bakers were hired, and a large number of cattle brought into the fort, for the benefit of the garrison. The ports were walled up, the posts assigned, the sentinels placed, and all the different guards appointed. Commodore Edgecumbe, who then anchored in the harbour of Mahon close under the walls of the castle, sailed away with his little squadron, consisting of the Chesterfield, Princess Louisa, Portland, and Dolphin, after having left all his marines, a detachment from Gibraltar, the whole crew of the Porcupine sloop, and the greater part of the Dolphin’s, as a reinforcement to the fort, under the immediate direction and command of captain Scroop of the Dolphin, who, with great gallantry, offered himself for this severe duty, and bravely signalized himself during the whole siege. The French admiral might certainly have blocked up this harbour in such a manner, as would have prevented the escape of these ships, and divers other rich merchant vessels, which happened then to be at Mahon; but in all probability, they purposely allowed them to abandon the place, which, on any emergency or assault, their crews and officers would have considerably reinforced. The enemy were perfectly acquainted with the great extent of the works, and the weakness of the garrison, from which circumstance they derived the most sanguine hopes that the place might be suddenly taken, without the trouble of a regular siege. After Mr. Edgecumbe had sailed from Gibraltar, and general Blakeney had ordered a sloop to be sunk in the channel that leads to the harbour, the French squadron made its appearance at this part of the island; but without having attempted anything against the fort, fell to leeward of Cape Mola. Next day they came in sight again, but soon bore away, and never afterwards, during the whole course of the siege, approached so near as to give the garrison the least disturbance.

On the twenty-second day of April, the governor sent a drummer to the French general with a letter, desiring to know his reasons for invading the island. To this an answer was returned by the duke de Richelieu, declaring he was come with intention to reduce the island under the dominion of his most christian majesty, by way of retaliation for the conduct of his master, who had seized and detained the ships belonging to the king of France and his subjects. If we may judge from the first operations of this nobleman, he was but indifferently provided with engineers; for instead of beginning his approaches on the side of St. Philip’s town, close by the outworks, where he might have been screened from the fire of the garrison, his batteries were erected at Cape Mola, on the other side of the harbour, where they were more exposed, their fire much less effectual, and indeed at too great a distance to be of any service. The fire of St. Philip’s was so severe, and the cannon so well served on this quarter, that in a little time the enemy thought proper to change their plan of attack, and advance on the side of St. Philip’s town, which ought to have been the first object of their consideration, especially as they could find little or no earth to fill their gabions, and open their trenches in the usual form. On the twelfth of May, about nine at night, they opened two bomb-batteries, near the place where the windmills had been destroyed; and from that period an incessant fire was kept up on both sides, from mortars and cannon, the French continuing to raise new batteries in every situation from whence they could annoy the besieged.

On the seventeenth day of the month, the garrison were transported with joy at sight of the British squadron, commanded by admiral Byng; and Mr. Boyd, commissary of the stores, ventured to embark in a small boat, with six oars, which passed from St. Stephen’s cove, a creek on the west side of the fortification, through a shower of cannon and musketry from the enemy’s post on the other side, and actually reached the open sea, his design being to join the squadron; but this being at a great distance, stretching away to the southward, and Mr. Boyd perceiving himself chased by two of the enemy’s light vessels, he returned oy the same route to the garrison, without having sustained the least damage; a circumstance which plainly confutes the notion of Mr. Byng, that it was impracticable to open a communication with the garrison of St. Philip’s. Next day the hopes of the besieged, which had prognosticated a naval victory to the British squadron, a speedy relief to themselves, and no less than captivity to the assailants, were considerably damped by the appearance of the French fleet, which quietly returned to their station off the harbour of Mahon. That same evening they were told by a deserter, that the English fleet had been worsted in an engagement by M. de la Galissonniere; and this information was soon confirmed by a general discharge, or feu-de-joie, through the whole French camp, to celebrate the victory they pretended to have obtained. How little soever they had reason to boast of any advantage in the action, the retreat of the English squadron was undoubtedly equivalent to a victory; for had Mr. Byng acquired and maintained the superiority at sea, the French forces which had been disembarked in Minorca, would, in all probability, have been obliged to surrender prisoners of war to his Britannic majesty. The case was now much altered in their favour: their squadron cruised about the island without molestation, and they daily received, by means of their transports, reinforcements of men and ammunition, as well as constant supplies of provisions.

The English garrison, however mortified at finding themselves thus abandoned, resolved to acquit themselves with gallantry in the defence of the place, not without some remaining hope that the English squadron would be reinforced and return to their relief. In the meantime, they sustained and retorted the enemy’s fire with undaunted resolution. They remounted cannon, the carriages of which had been disabled; they removed them occasionally to places from whence it was judged they could do the greatest execution; they repaired breaches, restored merlins, and laboured with surprising alacrity, even when they were surrounded by the numerous batteries of the foe; when their embrasures and even the parapets were demolished, and they stood exposed not only to the cannon and mortars, but also to the musketry which fired upon them without ceasing, from the windows of the houses in the town of St. Philip. By this time they were invested with an army of twenty thousand men, and plied incessantly from sixty-two battering cannon, twenty-one mortars, and four howitzers, besides the small arms; nevertheless, the loss of men within the fortress was very inconsiderable, the garrison being mostly secured in the subterranean works which were impenetrable to shells or shot. By the twenty-seventh day of June they had made a practicable breach in one of the ravelins, and damaged the other outworks to such a degree, that they determined this night to give a general assault. Accordingly, between the hours of ten and eleven, they advanced to the attack from all quarters on the land side. At the same time a strong detachment, in armed boats, attempted to force the harbour, and penetrate into the creek called St. Stephen’s Cove, to storm fort Charles, and second the attack upon fort Marlborough, on the farther side of the creek, the most detached of all the outworks. The enemy advanced with great intrepedity, and their commander, the duke de Richelieu, is said to have led them up the works in person. Such an assault could not but be attended with great slaughter; they were mowed down as they approached, with grape shot and musketry; and several mines were sprung with great effect, so that the glacis was almost covered with the dying and the dead. Nevertheless, they persevered with uncommon resolution; and though repulsed on every other side, at length made a lodgement in the queen’s redoubt, which had been greatly damaged by their cannon. Whether their success in this quarter was owing to the weakness of the place, or to the timidity of the defender, certain it is, the enemy were in possession before it was known to the officers of the garrison; for lieutenant-colonel Jeffries the second in command, who had acquitted himself since the beginning of the siege with equal courage, skill, and activity, in his visitation of this post, was suddenly surrounded and taken by a file of French grenadiers, at a time when he never dreamed they had made a lodgement. Major Cunningham, who accompanied him, met with a severer fate, though he escaped captivity; he was run through the arm with a bayonet, and the piece being discharged at the same time, shattered the bones of his hand in such a manner, that he was maimed for life. In this shocking condition he retired behind a traverse, and was carried home to his quarters. Thus the governor was deprived of his two principal assistants, one being taken, and the other disabled.

The enemy having made themselves masters of Anstruther’s and the queen’s redoubts, from which perhaps they might have been dislodged, had a vigorous effort been made for that purpose before they had leisure to secure themselves; the duke de Richelieu ordered a parley to be beat, in order to obtain permission to bury the dead, and remove the wounded. This request was granted with more humanity than discretion, inasmuch as the enemy took this opportunity to throw a reinforcement of men privately into the places where the lodgements had been made, and these penetrated into the gallery of the mines, which communicated with all the other outworks. During this short cessation, general Blakeney summoned a council of war to deliberate upon the state of the fort and garrison; and the majority declared for a capitulation. The works were in many places rained; the body of the castle was shattered; many guns were dismounted, the embrasures and parapets demolished, the palisadoes broken in pieces, the garrison exhausted with hard duty and incessant watching, and the enemy in possession of the subterranean communications. Besides, the governor had received information from prisoners, that the duke de Richelieu was alarmed by a report that the marshal duke de Belleisle would be sent to supersede him in the command, and for that reason would hazard another desperate assault, which it was the opinion of the majority the garrison could not sustain. These considerations, added to the despair of being relieved, induced him to demand a capitulation. But this measure was not taken with the unanimous consent of the council. Some officers observed, that the garrison was very little diminished, and still in good spirits; that no breach was made in the body of the castle, nor a single cannon erected to batter in breach; that the loss of an outwork was never deemed a sufficient reason for surrendering such a fortress; that the counterscarp was not yet taken, nor, on account of the rocky soil, could be taken, except by assault, which would cost the enemy a greater number than they had lost in their late attempt; that they could not attack the ditch, or batter in breach, before the counterscarp should be taken, and even then they must have recourse to galleries before they could pass the fosse, which was furnished with mines and countermines; finally, they suggested, that in all probability the British squadron would be reinforced, and sail back to their relief; or if it should not return, it was the duty of the governor to defend the place to extremity, without having any regard to the consequences. These remarks being overruled, the chamade was beat, a conference ensued, and very honourable conditions were granted to the garrison, in consideration of the gallant defence they had made. This it must be owned was vigorous while it lasted, as the French general was said to have lost five thousand men in the siege; whereas the loss of the garrison, which at first fell short of three thousand men, did not exceed one hundred. The capitulation imported, that the garrison should march out with all the honours of war, and be conveyed by sea to Gibraltar. The French were put in possession of one gate, as well as fort Charles and Marlborough redoubt; but the English troops remained in the other works till the seventh day of July, when they embarked. In the meantime reciprocal civilities passed between the commanders and officers of both nations.

GEORGE II. 1727-1760