FOOTNOTES:
[231] Jurien de la Gravière: Guerres Maritimes, vol. ii. p. 255.
[232] See map of the Atlantic Ocean, p. 532.
[233] It may be said here in passing, that the key to the English possessions in what was then called West Florida was at Pensacola and Mobile, which depended upon Jamaica for support; the conditions of the country, of navigation, and of the general continental war forbidding assistance from the Atlantic. The English force, military and naval, at Jamaica was only adequate to the defence of the island and of trade, and could not afford sufficient relief to Florida. The capture of the latter and of the Bahamas was effected with little difficulty by overwhelming Spanish forces, as many as fifteen ships-of-the-line and seven thousand troops having been employed against Pensacola. These events will receive no other mention. Their only bearing upon the general war was the diversion of this imposing force from joint operations with the French, Spain here, as at Gibraltar, pursuing her own aims instead of concentrating upon the common enemy,—a policy as shortsighted as it was selfish.
[234] In other words, having considered the objects for which the belligerents were at war and the proper objectives upon which their military efforts should have been directed to compass the objects, the discussion now considers how the military forces should have been handled; by what means and at what point the objective, being mobile, should have been assailed.
[235] Orders of Admiral Villeneuve to the captains of his fleet, Dec. 20, 1804.
[236] Letter of Villeneuve, January, 1805.
[237] Letters and Despatches of Lord Nelson.
[238] Life and Letters of Lord Collingwood.