service. She is dressed like an officer, and commands a battery: she sits on horseback like a man; and, indeed, you would not know her from a man by her appearance. Her husband was a captain, and in that same battery was killed. On seeing the Spanish soldiers confused at the sight of their dead captain, she instantly took the command, and told them to mind their duty and their country's honour. She continued at the sanie post for a week, and did not even go to see her husband interred. The commander of the forces gave her her husband's commission for her bravery.*" At the close of the year, the French, who had strong batteries on every side, had began to throw shells into Cadiz. Their shot and shells could both reach the town; but the distance was so considerable that they produced little or no effect. They had collected an immense number of gun-boats, and threatened a descent on the Isle of Leon. * Extract of a letter from an officer of the 79.h regiment, received in Glasgow. dated Isla de Leon, May 16, 1810. 1 4 CHAP. CHAP. X. The Operations of the Spaniards and their English Allies, not confined to the defence of Cadiz. - The Mountaineers of Alpujarras excited to arms-and supported and also the Inhabitants of the Mountains which separate Murcia, Grenada, and Jaen. These Mountaineers defeated and dispersed.-A combined Expedition from the Port of Cadiz against Moguer-Successful.-French Batteries and Redoubts destroyed by English Gunboats. A secret Expedition from Giraltar against Malaga - Unsuccessful-Reduction, by the French, of the Town and Fortress of Hostalrich in Catalonia. Fruitless Attempt by General O'Donnel, to raise the Siege of Hostalrich.--- Effects of the Redu tion of Hostalrich.Reduction, by the French, of the strong Fortress of Mequineuza, in Catalonia-The Siege of Valencia raised by a Sally of the Spanish Garrison under the Command of Don Ventura Coro. - Reduction of Tortosa, by the French General Souchet, after an obstinate resistance. has been observed above, that it was a part of the general plan of the French to cut the peninsula into two divisions, by a cordon, extending from Bayonne to the Bay of Malaga, and that the corps under General Sebastiani should communicate with that under General Victor. The mountainous region between Marbella, and the near vicinity of Cadiz, became, therefore, a scene of contest between the contending parties. Genetal Blake, who was employed in Murcia, as above noticed, in collecting the remains and re-organizing the army of Ariezaga, 1 excited the mountaineers of Alpujarras to arms, and for their encouragement and support, sent out a column from Almeira on Adra, Torbision, and Motril. Alpujarras, or Alpuxarras, is a mountainous district in the kingdom of Grenada, about 17 miles in length from east to west, 11 in breadth, from north to south, and so high that their summits are visible, not only from Gibraltar, but between Ceuta and Tangier, from the coast of Africa. On the advance of the Spaniards to Motril, a French battalion stationed there fell back to Velez Malaga.* A detachment of 5000 men under the command of the Spanish General Don Louis Lacey, disem. barked at Algesiras, and marched by St. Roche, on the town of Ronda. At this place there was stationed a French force of 6000 * Soult to Berthier, Grenada, 17th of March, 1810. men men. Being informed of the unexpected arrival of the Spaniards, whose numbers report had greatly exaggerated, and that they were to be attacked by surprise, in the night, they suddenly evacuated Ronda, and fled in great disorder, leaving behind them their arms, provisions, and ammunition: the whole of which fell into the hands of the Spaniards. Though the number of the Spanish regulars was exaggerated, the whole of Lacey's troops, regulars and volunteers, in a few days after his landing, at Algesira is said to have amounted to 12,000. All the arms found at Ronda, were distributed among the inhabitants of the mountains. Parties of French were again marched against the insurgents, as the French called them, by General Sebastiani. A murderous warfare was carried on on both sides. The Spaniards were obliged to retreat. The mountaineers were defeated in various actions, but not pacified. All the British officers and men who have had occasion to see any of the Spanish mountaineers, agree in their descriptions of the ferocious and savage appearance and air of the Alpujarrese, and other Spanish mountaineers. They every day were bringing prisoners to Gibraltar, with spoils taken from the Frenchmen they had killed, such as horses, helmets, uniforms, &c. The rustics, who were wont to be clothed like the Russian boors, in sheepskins, were many of them completely accoutred in French uniforms. 'Whilst General Blake was making demonstrations in the Alpujerras, and on the sea-coast, where he was supported by two ships of the line, he also raised the inhabitants of the mountains, which separate Murcia, Grenada, and Jaen. General Sebastiani being ordered to penetrate into Murcia, to drive away the troops that scoured the frontiers of these provinces, set out April 18, and his advanced guard entered Murcia on the 23d. The Spanish force, computed at 15 or 17,000 men, retired, with a good deal of fighting between the French and the rearguard of the Spaniards, to Alicant, from whence they detached 4000 men to Carthagena. On the 22d of August a combined expedition set sail from the port of Cadiz against Moguer, a town in the province of Seville, on the river Huelva, below its junetion with the Tinto, where a French division was posted under the command of the Duke of Aremberg. The land force consisted chiefly of Spaniards, to the number, it would appear, of from 12 to 1500; but there was also an English division, under the orders of Captain George Cockburn. The land force was commanded by the Spanish General Lacey. Captain Cockburn had charge of the naval part of the expedition In the evening of the 23d, when the squadron was about four leagues from the entrance of the Huelva, the General intimated to Captain Cockburn his desire to disembark on the coast along which they were sailing, by which means the troops could reach Moguer a good deal sooner than by water. About ten o'clock the troops began to disembark; and the whole, with the horses, ammunition, and other things, being safely landed between one and two o clock, the General began his march along the the coast. Eleven English flatbottomed boats advanced for the purpose of transporting the army over a large branch of the Huelva, which intersects the road to Moguer, and comes a great way to the south and west of Moguer, into the country. By the passage of the Huelva, in the boats, the march was not retarded a moment. It arrived at Moguer, 22 miles from the point of disembarkation, towards eleven in the forenoon, August 24. The Spaniards forgetting their fatigues, proceeded immediately to attack the French; who, not expecting such a visit, were driven from the town almost without resistance. They soon rallied, however, and made several attacks on the advanced Spanish line, in order to recover what they had lost. But the Spaniards stood firm, and repelled their onsets with the utmost bravery. Captain Cockburn in his dispatch to Admiral Sir R. G. Keates, commanding the naval force at Cadiz, speaks in the highest terms of the alacrity and ardour with which the Spaniards sustained the fatigue of a march of 22 miles, after three successive nights past without repose, and of the firmness and valour they displayed in their engageinents with the French. These he says had raised his admiration to the highest pitch, and added to the liveliness of his hopes that such a people must ultimately prevail and triumph in such a cause. Of General Lacey he says, that he sliewed himself worthy to command such men. The coolness of the General, his ability, and active bravery, qualified him in a singular manner for the kind of service on which he was then employed. The Spaniards were not less liberal in their praises of the English. In the Regency Gazette Extraordinary of Cadiz, Aug. 30, it is said, "The Spanish and English Marines contributed in the most distinguished manner to the fortunate success of the enterprize; and our allies, and particularly Captain Cockburn, acquired new claims to the gratitude of the Spanish nation." Some artillery, ammunition, and other articles being landed from the vessels on the night of the 24th, measures were taken for pursuing the enemy. The next day a division advanced, and took possession of the town of Niebla, about ten miles north east from Moguer, to the great joy of the inhabitants, and all the country round. But General Lacey, apprised that the French were on their march in great haste towards Seville, having destroyed the magazines and batteries, and spiked the guns of Moguer, reimbarked his troops, and sent them back to Cadiz, where they arrived safely on the 30th of August. Though both Captain Cockburn's letter to the English Admiral, and the Regency Gazette Extraordinary represent the attacks made on the first line of the Spaniards as desperate, it seems difficult to reconcile this with the circumstance that the Spaniards took only 12 prisoners, and that the killed and wounded, left on the field of battle, according to the report of those prisoners, did not exceed 300. The booty taken from the enemy, in trinkets, valuable effects, and some money, was distributed among the troops of the expedition. The The English flotilla of gunboats also destroyed the batteries and redoubts of St. Mary's, and some other points on the Bay of Cadiz. A secret expedition that set sail from Gibraltar, 11th October, under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Lord Blaney, against Malaga, produced very different effects from that of the force under the orders of General Lacey. The object of the expedition from Gibraltar, was to take Fort Faugarola, in order to draw the enemy out of Malaga; then to reimbark, set sail for that ciy, and with the assistance of a reinforcement to be sent without delay from Gibraltar, to destroy the enemy's works at Malaga, and drive away the hords of privatcers that took shelter in its harbour. It was calculated that Fort Fangarola would surrender without resistance. The expedition consisted of about 4 or 500 English of the 39th regiment, 500 German deserters enrolled and armed at Gibraltar, a number of artillery men, and a Spanish regiment sent over from Ceuta. This armament, the lith of Oc. tober, disembarked 3 leagues west from Fangarola, situate about 4 from Malaga. The garrison, 160 men, when a division of the troops under Lord Blaney were within canon-shot, fired upon them with a 24-pounder, and some other pieces of smaller calibre. Lord Blaney had trusted that a herald of truce would do the business. He had not at hand either scalingladders or battering-cannon. He brought up some pieces from the ships in the night, and planted them on ground from whence they could play with advantage. en The fire of the garrison ceased about eleven o'clock, A. M. But they sallied out and stormed the battery. The officers of the English division which remained on the flanks of the height on which the battery was raised, while the rest of the troops were moving to the positions assigned by the General, with some artillery men, attacked the assailants, and the battery was cleared. In this gallant exploit Major Grant, who commanded the division of the 89th, was mortally wounded. In a very short time a more numerous party of the French appeared in the midst of the cannon; the battery was taken, and the English, as well as the rest of the troops, took to flight. The arrival of 1,200 men from Malaga, couraged the French, and struck a panie into the English and Spanish troops. The French from Malaga were disguised in Spanish uniforms; of which stratagem, on their near 'approach to Fort Fangarole, Lord Blaney was apprised by some French deserters: but his Lordship firmly believed them still to be Spaniards, and threatened to cut off with his own hand the head of any traitor that should fire on the troops that were come to join them. He persevered in the error of mistaking them for friends till the moment they told him he was their prisoner; which happened nearly at the same instant when the battery was taken a second time. It fortunately happened that the 32d regiment, which followed the expedition a few days after its departure from Gibraltar, had landed two companies at the moment when the encounter took place. These 1 1 |