ployed as senior officer of the naval force stationed at Gibraltar; to the garrison of which place he afforded the greatest assistance, by his active co-operation in repelling the oft-repeated attacks made by the enemy with a view of regaining possession of that important fortress[1]. He sailed from thence on his return to England, March 22, 1783.
A few weeks after the commencement of hostilities against the French Republic[2], our officer commissioned the Daedalus, of 32 guns, in which frigate he proceeded to North America. In the early part of 1794, the Daedalus, on her passage to Halifax, received considerable damage, and sprung her main and mizen-masts, which obliged Sir Charles to put into Norfolk, in Virginia, where he took in new masts, and was about to sail, when a French squadron arrived, and blocked him up. On the 20th April the enemy put to sea with a large fleet of merchantmen, bound to France, leaving only the Clorinde frigate, and a corvette of 16 guns. Sir Charles was now determined to proceed to Halifax, and was making every arrange-
- ↑ The close of the year 1777, when the news of the convention of Saratoga first arrived in Europe, was the period which the Spaniards embraced to introduce themselves into the dispute then existing between Great Britain on the one hand, and her revolted colonies, aided by France, on the other. Hostilities had been carried on for near six months between England and France; Spain therefore judged the opportunity favourable to offer her mediation, proposing such an arrangement as she must be assured would not be agreeable to the principal belligerent powers. Great Britain had no sooner refused her acquiescence, than the Court of Madrid espoused the cause of France; and, on June 16, 1779, the Spanish Ambassador presented to the Court of London his hostile manifesto. On the 21st of the same month, the communication between Spain and Gibraltar was closed by an order from Madrid. It was not long before the inhabitants and garrison were reduced to great distress, by reason of the strictness of the blockade established by the enemy; and, notwithstanding the supplies thrown in at different times by Sir George B. Rodney, Vice-Admiral Darby, and Earl Howe, as already mentioned at pp. 3, 4, and 17, they continued from the same cause, and the destruction of the town by repeated bombardments, to suffer the greatest privations, experiencing, during a period of three years, seven months, and twelve days, (that is, from the commencement of the blockade to the cessation of arms,) a continued series of watchfulness and fatigue, the horrors of famine, and every harassing and vexatious mode of attack which a powerful, obstinate, and revengeful enemy could devise.
- ↑ See note at page 18.
