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LETTER XI.

Paris, Dec. 3, 1782.

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FRIEND G.

THE

'HE Dutch fleet having returned to the Texel, and the British convoy from the Baltic being out of danger, the fhips fent to the Downs to attend the motions of the Dutch, returned to accompany the British fleet in their expedition to Gibraltar. Upon the juncSept. tion lord Howe failed from Portfmmouth, with 33 fhips of the line, feveral frigates and firefhips, a fleet of transports, victuallers and ftorefhips, with a body of troops on board for the relief of the garrifon. He was accompanied by the admirals Barrington, Milbanke, Hood, and Sir R. Hughes, by commodore Hotham, and an able brave fet of naval officers.

II.

After the reduction of Minorca, the duke de Crillonwas appointed captain general of the Spanifh forces, and was destined to attempt the recovery of Gibraltar. No mean was neglected, nor expence fpared to infure fuccess. Ambition, honor, pride, revenge, all united in urging to the utmost exertions for the conqueft of the place; and as all former ones had failed, the invention and application of fuch as were new became neceffary. The chevalier D'Arcon, a French engineer, was confided in as being equal to the fervice. A plan had been proposed by him in the latter part of the preceding year. The preparations though vaft, and extremely expensive,

were

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were nearly completed; and the reduction of the place 1782, was not only deemed certain, but the powers to be used were fo prodigious and formidable, that little less than the annihilation of the fortrefs was expected to be the confequence of any great obftinacy of defence in the garrison. The plan of the chevalier was, to construct, from ships, floating batteries that could not be funk or fired. They were to be fecured from finking, by the extraordinary thickness of timber, with which their keels and bottoms were to be fortified; and which was to render them proof in that refpect against all external or internal violence. They were to be defended from being fired, by having their fides secured with a ftrong wall, composed of timber and cork, long foaked in water, and including between them a large body of wet fand; the whole of fuch a thicknefs, that no cannon ball should penetrate within two feet of the inner partition. A constant fupply of water was to keep the parts expofed to fire alway wet; and the cork was to act as a sponge in retaining the moisture.

Ten great fhips, from 600 to 1400 ton burden, were cut down to the state required by the plan; and 200,000 feet of timber worked into their conftruction. To protect them from bombs, and the men from grape or defcending fhot, a hanging roof was contrived, to be worked up and down by fprings at pleasure. The roof was made of a strong rope-work netting, laid over with a thick covering of wet hides: its floping pofition was calculated to prevent the fhells from lodging, and to throw them off into the fea, before they could take ef. fect: The batteries were covered with new brafs cannon of great weight; and about half the number of fpare

guns,

1782.

guns,
of the fame kind, were kept ready, inftantly to
fupply the place of those which might be over-heated,
or otherwife difabled. That the fire of these guns might
be the more inftantaneous and effective, the chevalier
had contrived a kind of match, by which all the guns on
the battery were to go off together. Red-hot fhot from
the fortress was what the Spaniards most dreaded. To
reftrain its effect there was a contrivance for communi-
cating water in every direction. A great variety of pipes
and canals perforated all the folid workmanship in fuch
a manner, that a continued fucceffion of water was to
be conveyed to every part of the veffels; a number of
pumps being adapted to the purpose of an unlimited
fupply. By this mean it was expected, that the red-hot
fhot would operate to the remedy of its own mischief,
and procure its immediate extinction by cutting through
the pipes.

The preparation was enormous in other refpects.
About 1200 pieces of heavy ordnance had been brought
to the fpot, for the numerous intended purposes of at-
tack by fea and land. The quantities of every kind of
military store were immenfe. The gunpowder only is
faid to have exceeded 83,000 barrels. Forty gun-boats
with heavy artillery, as many bomb-boats with 12 inch
mortars, beside a large floating battery, and five bomb
ketches on the ufual conftruction, were appointed to fe-
cond the efforts of the great battering veffels. Nearly
all the frigates, and smaller armed veffels of the king-
dom were affembled, to afford fuch aid as they might
be capable of; and between 2 and 300 large boats were
collected, which with thofe already in the vicinity, were
to minister to the fighting veffels during action, and to
land

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land troops as foon as the fortrefs was dismantled. The combined fleets of France and Spain, amounting to about 50 fhips of the line, were to cover and fupport the attack, while they heightened the terrors and magnificence of the scene.

The preparations by land were no lefs confiderable. Twelve thousand French troops joined the Spaniards. The duke de Crillon was affifted by a number of the best officers of both countries, and particularly of the best engineers and artillerifts of his own. The fame of

thefe extraordinary preparations drew volunteers from every part of Europe to the camp before Gibraltar and not only the nobility of Spain, but of other countries affembled, either to difplay their valor, or to gratify curiofity in beholding fuch a naval and military spectacle, as had scarcely been before exhibited. The count de Artois, the French king's brother, and his cousin the duke de Bourbon, feemed eager to immortalize their names, by partaking in the glory of recovering Gibraltar to the crown of their kinfman and ally. Their arrival increased the splendor of the scene; and afforded an opportunity for the difplay of that politenefs, and the exercise of thofe civilities, by which the refined manners of modern Europe, have divefted war of many parts of its ancient barbarity. Some packets, contain ing a number of letters directed to the officers in Gibraltar, having fallen into the hands of the Spaniards, were tranfmitted to Madrid, where they lay when the count de Artois arrived at that capital. The prince, in the true fpirit of generofity, obtained the packets from the Spanish king, and conveyed them under his own care to the camp.

The

1782. The tranfinission of the packets to Gibraltar, afforded an opportunity to the duke de Crillon of accompa nying them with a letter to gen. Elliot, in which, befide informing him of the arrival of the French princes, and of this particular mark of attention fhown by the count, he further acquainted him, that he was charged by them refpectively, to convey to the general the ftrongest expreffions of their regard and efteem for his perfon and character. The duke expreffed his own in the most flattering terms. He alfo requested in the moft obliging manner, that the general would accept of a prefent of fruit and vegetables for his own ufe, and of fome ice and partridges for the gentlemen of his household; further entreating, that as he knew the general lived entirely on vegetables, he would acquaint him with the particular kinds which he liked beft, with a view to his regular fupply. The whole letter may be viewed as a model of military politeness.

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General Elliot was not lefs polite or obliging in his anfwer, whether with refpect to the duke himfelf, or to the princes. But he informed the duke, that in accepting the prefent, he had broken through a refolution, which he had invariably adhered to from the commencement of the war, which was, never to receive or procure by any mean whatever, any provifions or other commodity for his own private ufe. He declared that every thing was fold publicly in the garrifon, fo that the private foldier, if he had money, might become a purchafer with the fame facility as the governor; and that he made it a point of honor to partake of both plenty and fcarcity, in common with the loweft of his brave fellow foldiers. He therefore entreated the duke, not

to

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