board by Don Pablo, accompanied by three French officers. The answers to them were delivered at five P.M. by Captain Crawford, who concluded the capitulation; and the whole of the garrison, consisting of a colonel, 45 officers, and about 1300 or 1400 men, were embarked the next morning.
“I should be wanting in every feeling of an officer, were I not to acknowledge the liberal attention and zealous services of Captain Crawford. It also becomes most gratifying that 1 am enabled to inform you of the spirit and determination of the Spaniards to expel from their country the invaders of all that is dear to a brave and loyal people. No doubt of success could have arisen had the enemy persisted in holding out, from the able and prompt conduct of Don Pablo Murillo, and the good order of his troops, the strongest proof of his zeal in the just cause of his King and country. The ardour of the peasantry is beyond all description. I have the honor to be, &c.
“To the Hon. Vice-Admiral Berkeley [1].”
During the ensuing siege of Vigo by the French army under Marshal Ney, Captain Crawford commanded a party of seamen and marines landed from the Lively and Venus to assist in the defence of the castle, where he continued till the defeat of the enemy at the bridge of San Payo, and his consequent retreat towards Lugo; the particulars of which event are fully detailed in the Naval Chronicle for July 1809.
Captain Crawford was subsequently appointed in succession to the Hussar and Modeste frigates, in the former of which he assisted at the reduction of Java, by the forces under Sir Samuel Auchmuty and Rear-Admiral Stopford, in Sept. 1811. In the latter ship he captured le Furet, a remarkably fine French privateer, of 14 guns and 98 men, near Scilly, at the commencement of Feb. 1813. He was put out of commission at the close of the war, and has ever since been on half-pay.
Captain Crawford has been twice married, and is now a widower. By his first wife, Anne, eldest daughter of Alexander Duncan, Esq., of Edinburgh, he had one child, who has recently been united to the Hon. Captain Henry Duncan,
- ↑ By a subsequent letter it appears, that while the British frigates were in the act of embarking the French garrison, a detachment of 300 men, sent from Fuy to relieve Vigo, was encountered and totally routed by Don Pablo Murillo, who took many of the enemy prisoners.
