An unfortunate attempt was made by the British, the month of October, to make a diversion on the Span ish coast. The object of the enterprise was to take the castle of Fuengerola, and afterwards to drive the French out of Malaga. Lord Blaney sailed for this purpose with 300 British soldiers, 400 foreign deserters, and the Spanish regiment of Toledo. After a vain attempt to effect a breach in the fortress with some gun boats and field pieces, the assailants were surrounded by a supe rior force, the foreign deserters went over to the enemy, and a retreat was with difficulty effected, by the aid of the flank companies of the 82d regiment, who arrived to assist in covering it. The blame of the expedition was ungenerously ascribed, by some of the courtly news papers, to Lord Blaney's perseverance in attacking the castle of Fuengelora. The truth is, that the force sent upon the enterprise was utterly inadequate to the object; and such an apology, affecting the name of a gallant of ficer, wounded and a prisoner in the hands attic enemy, could only be devised by those who were interested in covering the true causes of its failure.
The year was distinguished by colonial conquests, both in the East and West Indies. An expedition sail ed from Mat tinique, against Guadaloupe, on the 24th of January, under the command of Admiral Cochrane and General Beckwith. General Ernouf, the French gover nor of the invaded island, had been apprised of the in tended attack, and had concentrated all his force at Basse Terre. The first division of the British, under the commander-in-chief, landed at the village of St Ma ry, and soon after advanced towards Trois Riviers ; the second division landed to the north of Basse Terre, un der General Harcourt. Alter some skirmishes, a gene ral engagement took place on the 23d of February, in which the French were defeated with the loss of 500 men. In the evening of the same day, the reserve, un der General Wade, (who appears to have acted with uncommon skill and activity in getting at the enemy, by a route less than half the distance of the intended one, and whose conduct seems to have decided the success of the enterprise,) turned and beat the enemy's left in the mountains. Ernouf's position became so critical, that on the 24th of February, he hoisted flags of truce, whilst our troops were advancing. Next morning com missioners were appointed on both sides, and a capitnla tion was agreed upon, by which the garrison were to have the honours of war, and to be sent to England as prison ers of war until regularly exchanged. This service was performed in the space of eight days, with the loss of less than 300 killed and wounded, and deprived the enemy of his last West Indian colony.
In the same month, and happily with inconsiderable bloodshed, the rich island of Amboyna, one of the Mo luccas, was captured by a squadron of ships, under the command of Captain Tucker. Whilst Captain Tucker cannonaded the enemy's shore, forts, and batteries, from the sea, a selected body of 400 soldiers and seamen were landed, who stormed the batteries, and crossed the pre cipitous heights that intervened between the shore and town of Amboyna. They then summoned the town to surrender ; and the garrison, consisting of woo Java nese troops, and 130 Europeans, capitulated to those hardy assailants.
A still more important acquisition was made, in the capture of the island of Napoleon, (lately Bourbon,) in the same quarter of the world, by a squadron of four ships under Captain Row ley, and a force of 3650 Euro pean and Indian troops, under Lieutenant Colonel Kea ting. On the 7th of July, a partial landing was effected;
but, owing to the violence of the surf. the remainder of the force was not put on shore till next day, when Colo nel Keating pushed on to the attack of the capital, St Denis. Every thing was in readiness, and the assault would have taken place in less than half an hour, when a suspension of arms was demanded by the enemy. A capitulation ensued; and thus, with a trifling loss, a popu lation of 100,000 souls was added to our empire. The enemy, 1500 strong, surrendered prisoners, but were al lowed the honours of war. The laws, customs, and pro perty of the inhabitants, were to be insurecl to them. Our whole loss in the expedition amounted to 97 men.
To these acquisitions was added the island of Banda, which is the principal of a cluster of small islands, lying to the cast of the Celebes, in the East Indies. Its inhabitants, with those of its dependent islets, arc supposed to contain about five thousand. '['heir chief produce is nutmegs, of which they yield enough for the supply of the whole world. (See BANDA.) Three British frigates attired off Banda on the 8th of August. At night, the boats, containing 390 men, commanded by Captain Cole, pushed for the shore ; but, owing to the tempestuous weather, only 180 reached the appointed rendezvous. After waiting some time for the boats that were missing, they boldly resolved to push ashore. The badness of the weather was now of service, for the boats grounded undiscovered, in a heavy squall of wind and rain, within 100 yards of a battery of ten twenty-four pounders, which was stormed ; the centinel was killed by a pike, and sixty men disarmed without the discharge of a piece. The storming party then proceeded to Fort Belgica. The alarm bugles were then sounding, and the enemy reserved their fire till the British got close to the walls. The scaling ladders were rapidly applied, and mounted with extraordinary celerity, notwithstand ing a smart, though ill-directed fire from the citadel. The lower works being gained, the ladders were placed against the inner wall, when the enemy fled in all di rections, leaving the commandant and ten men killed, and two captains and 30 men prisoners. The guns near the ladders having been deserted by the cowardice of the enemy, the British found themselves in poss.2ssion of the citadel, without the loss of a single man. The cita del commanded the town and Fort Nassau. A flag of truce was dispatched to the governor, who at first re fused to capitulate ; but a shot from Fort Belgica, and a threat of storming the town, produced an imn:ediatc and unconditional surrender. Seven hundred disciplined troops, and three hundred militia, grounded their arms to this handful of Britons. About 400,000/. worth of spices were found by the victors. But the capture of the Isle of France forms by far the most important fea ture of success in the vcar. This place had been a nest for the enemy's marauders, and enabled their privateers to lord it over the seas of India, whilst their greatest na vies durst not venture from the harbour in those of Eu rope. Admiral Bertie commanded the squadron which sailed against this settlement : the army was command ed by General Abercrombie, son of the victor of Egypt.