ps to an anchor, about two miles to the
northward of the town, and made every shew for a disposition of
attacking the heights; which appeared to answer the end, from the
great number of people they had placed on them. The Leander,
Captain Thompson, joined this afternoon, and her marines were
added to the force before appointed; and Captain Thompson also
volunteered his services. At-eleven o'clock at night, the boats of
the squadron, containing between six and seven hundred men, a
hundred and eighty men on board the Fox cutter, and about seventy
or eighty men in a boat we had taken the day before, proceeded
towards the town; the divisions of boats conducted by all the
captains, except Freemantle and Bowen, who attended with me to
regulate and lead the way to the attack: every captain being
acquainted, that the landing was to be made on the mole; from
whence they were to proceed, as fast as possible, into the great
square; where they were to form, and proceed on such services as
might be found necessary. We were not discovered, till within half
gun-shot of the landing-place: when I directed the boats to cast
off from each other, give a huzza, and push for the shore.

"A fire of thirty or forty pieces of cannon, with musketry from one
end of the town to the other, opened on us; but nothing could stop
the intrepidity of the captains landing the divisions.
Unfortunately, the greater part of the boats did not see the mole;
but went on shore, through a raging surf, which stove all the boats
to the left of it.

"For a detail of their proceedings, I send you a copy of Captain
Troubridge's account to me; and I cannot but express my admiration
of the firmness with which he and his brave associates supported
the honour of the British flag.

"Captains Freemantle and Bowen, and myself, with four or five
boats, stormed the mole; though opposed, apparently, by four or
five hundred men; took possession of it; and spiked the guns: but
such a heavy fire of musketry, and grape-shot, was kept up from the
citadel, and the houses at the head of the mole, that we could not
advance; and we were all, nearly, killed or wounded.

"The Fox cutter, in rowing towards the town, received a shot under
water, from one of the enemy's distant batteries, and immediately
s