ADMIRAL VERNON SAILS TO CARTHAGENA.
Sir Chaloner Ogle arrived at Jamaica on the ninth day of January; and admiral Vernon did not sail on his intended expedition till towards the end of the month. Instead of directing his course towards the Havannah, which lay to leeward, and might have been reached in less than three days, he resolved to beat up against the wind to Hispaniola, in order to observe the motion of the French squadron, commanded by the marquis d’Antin. The fifteenth day of February had elapsed before he received certain information that the French admiral had sailed for Europe, in great distress for want of men and provisions, which he could not procure in the West Indies. Admiral Vernon thus disappointed, called a council of war, in which it was determined to proceed for Carthagena. The fleet being supplied with wood and water at Hispaniola, set sail for the continent of New Spain, and on the fourth of March, anchored in Playa Grande, to the windward of Carthagena. Admiral de Torres had already sailed to the Havannah; but Carthagena was strongly fortified, and the garrison reinforced by the crews of a small squadron of large ships, commanded by don Bias de Lesco, an officer of experience and reputation. Here the English admiral lay inactive till the ninth, when the troops were landed on the island of Tierra Bomba, near the mouth of the harbour, known by the name of Boca-chica, or Little-mouth, which was surprisingly fortified with castles, batteries, booms, chains, cables, and ships of war. The British forces erected a battery on shore, with which they made a breach in the principal fort, while the admiral sent in a number of ships to divide the fire of the enemy, and co-operate with the endeavours of the army. Lord Aubrey Beauclerc, a gallant officer who commanded one of these ships, was slain on this occasion. The breach being deemed practicable, the forces advanced to the attack; but the forts and batteries were abandoned; the Spanish ships that lay athwart the harbour’s mouth were destroyed or taken, the passage was opened, and the fleet entered without further opposition. Then the forces were re-embarked with the artillery, and landed within a mile of Carthagena, where they were opposed by about seven hundred Spaniards, whom they obliged to retire. The admiral and general had contracted a hearty contempt for each other, and took all opportunities of expressing their mutual dislike; far from acting vigorously in concert for the advantage of the community, they maintained a mutual reserve, and separate cabals; and each proved more eager for the disgrace of his rival, than zealous for the honour of the nation.
The general complained that the fleet lay idle while his troops were harassed and diminished by hard duty and distemper. The admiral affirmed, that his ships could not lie near enough to batter the town of Carthagena; he upbraided the general with inactivity and want of resolution to attack the fort of Saint Lazar which commanded the town, and might be taken by scalade. Wentworth, stimulated by these reproaches, resolved to try the experiment. His forces marched up to the attack; but the guides being slain, they mistook their route, and advanced to the strongest part of the fortification, where they were moreover exposed to the fire of the town. Colonel Grant, who commanded the grenadiers, was mortally wounded; the scaling-ladders were found too short; the officers were perplexed for want of orders and directions; yet the soldiers sustained a severe fire for several hours with surprising intrepidity, and at length retreated, leaving about six hundred killed or wounded on the spot. Their number was now so much reduced, that they could no longer maintain their footing on shore; besides, the rainy season had begun with such violence, as rendered it impossible for them to live in camp. They were, therefore, re-embarked; and all hope of further success immediately vanished. The admiral, however, in order to demonstrate the impracticability of taking the place by sea, sent in the Gallicia, one of the Spanish ships which had been taken at Boca-chica, to cannonade the town, with sixteen guns mounted on one side, like a floating battery. This vessel, manned by detachments of volunteers from different ships, and commanded by captain Hore, was warped into the inner harbour, and moored before day, at a considerable distance from the walls, in very shallow water. In this position she stood the fire of several batteries for some hours, without doing or sustaining much damage; then the admiral ordered the men to be brought off in boats, and the cables to be cut; so that she drove with the sea-breeze upon a shoal, where she was soon filled with water. This exploit was absurd, and the inference which the admiral drew from it altogether fallacious. He said it plainly proved that there was not depth of water in the inner harbour sufficient to admit large ships near enough to batter the town with any prospect of success. This indeed was the case in that part of the harbour to which the Gallicia was conducted; but a little farther to the left he might have stationed four or five of his largest ships abreast, within pistol shot of the walls; and if this step had been taken when the land-forces marched to the attack of Saint Lazar, in all probability the town would have been surrendered.
EXPEDITION TO CUBA.
After the re-embarkation of the troops, the distempers peculiar to the climate and season began to rage with redoubled fury; and great numbers of those who escaped the vengeance of the enemy perished by a more painful and inglorious fate. Nothing was heard but complaints and execrations; the groans of the dying, and the service for the dead; nothing was seen but objects of woe, and images of dejection. The conductors of this unfortunate expedition agreed in nothing but the expediency of a speedy retreat from this scene of misery and disgrace. The fortifications of the harbour were demolished, and the fleet returned to Jamaica.—The miscarriage of this expedition, which had cost the nation an immense sum of money, was no sooner known in England, than the kingdom was filled with murmurs and discontent, and the people were depressed in proportion to that sanguine hope by which they had been elevated. Admiral Vernon, instead of undertaking any enterprise which might have retrieved the honour of the British arms, set sail from Jamaica with the forces in July, and anchored at the south-east part of Cuba, in a bay, on which he bestowed the appellation of Cumberland harbour. The troops were landed, and encamped at the distance of twenty miles farther up the river, where they remained totally inactive, and subsisted chiefly on salt and damaged provisions, till the month of November, when, being considerably diminished by sickness, they were put on board again, and re-conveyed to Jamaica. He was afterwards reinforced from England by four ships of war, and about three thousand soldiers; but he performed nothing worthy of the reputation he had acquired; and the people began to perceive that they had mistaken his character.
RUPTURE BETWEEN THE QUEEN OF HUNGARY AND THE KING OF PRUSSIA.
The affairs on the continent of Europe were now more than ever embroiled. The king of Prussia had demanded of the court of Vienna part of Silesia, by virtue of old treaties of co-fraternity, which were either obsolete or annulled; and promised to assist the queen with all his forces in case she should comply with his demand; but this being rejected with disdain, he entered Silesia at the head of an army, and prosecuted his conquests with great rapidity. In the meantime the queen of Hungary was crowned at Presburgh, after having signed a capitulation, by which the liberties of that kingdom were confirmed; and the grand duke her consort was, at her request, associated with her for ten years in the government. At the same time the states of Hungary refused to receive a memorial from the elector of Bavaria.