The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1805-08-09 00:00:00

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pices, perpendicular rocks, a threatesiog enemy,
whom it was impossible to reach, and insurtnount-
abb. difficulties on all sides. We naturally enough
concluded, that from the facility with which the
enemy had suffered us to oecupy the bottom of the
Rock, they had reserved all their force, to destroy us
more securely from the height of their inaccessible
retreat. Our troops suffered severely from a most
galling volley of musquetry, large fragments of the
Rock, cannon balls, and casks filled with stones,
which they poured upon us. They were entrenched
in a number of cavities, which nature had formed at
different heights, and to which it was impossible to
attain, but by ladders of thirty or forty feet in
length. Front the tremendous fire of the enemy,
the Lsoats had been obliged to retreat, without hay.
lag landed any of the articles with which I had
furnished myself for the attack; the ships also had
drifted into the offing, sad we remained without
support or provisions ; I saw we had no resource,
but to retreat into two cavities in the Rock (in one
of which the enemy had eroded two large forges),
where we should at least be under cover ; I had all
our wounded carried into them, and placed a de-
tachment over each. I committed the whole of the
east side t. 3 the charge of Capt. Cortes, giving him
a sufficient number of men to support him, and at
the same time desired him to reconnoitre the most
advantageous point to commence the escalade.
Captain Pinade was placed in the situation on the
right, with like orders ; and the like means....
Captain Balossier had charge of the western side.
and of the landing place. I successively visited
all our detachments, and found the same ardour
for the attack amongst them all, but found also
the most insurmountable obstacles and innumera-
ble dangers. In order to prevent as much as pos-
sible the areas of the en-my's destrudive fire, I
made all the out-posts fall back into the two caverns,
to wait for the approach of night, when we might be
able to form anew. Notwithstanding this, our situ-
ation was truly dreadful ; we were exhausted with
fatigue—and the want of nourishment was the more
severely felt by the troops. who had been prevented
by the sea sickness from taking any for the two pre-
ceding days, that they were on board the ships. The
boats bad net bad time to land any provisions, nor
could we expel they would run the risk of bringing
us any. The enemy too had now, by the quantity
of shot and stones which they continued to dire& at
us, cut off the communication between the two ca-
verns, notwithstanding their vicinity to each other ;
in short, to add to the horrors of this calamitous
wee. we had nothing to offer our wounded, of
whom some were in a most deplorable state, but
barren consolations.
About fire in the evening, a party of the soldiers
came to inform me, that Lieut. Latour, being led
away by his zeal and courage, had ascended, by
means of ropes, to a considerable height on the
Rock, when he was discovered by the enemy, and,
with 15 men, made prisoner. A few minutes after-
wards, I learned, that he bad been fortunate enough
to disengage himself from them, with the loss of
two men killed, and two wounded, one of whom
was Mr. Cailois, a meritorious young man, and a
volunteer, who received a ball thro' the arm. We
found a few casks of water, that the enemy bad
abandoned, with which, though perfedly putrid,
we were obliged to relieve our wounded, and endea-
vour to assuage the thirst that devoured us. A Ca-
noe reached the shore, and delivered me your letter;
the fire of the enemy only allowed me time to write
a few hasty lines, in answer, and the canoe pushed'
off ; but I had the mortification presently, to see
two of her crew killed, one of whom was the man
to whom I had given my note. At night, although
the enemy did not at all relax in their vigorous de-
fence, I endeavoured to reconnoitre the Rock on all
sides ; I sent Captain Cortes to take possession of
one or the buildings, called the Great House, and
established too intermediate posts between him and
hue ; I then caused the guns nn the lower battery.
which the enemy had evacuated, to be spiked ; and
passed the remainder of the night in visiting our de-
tachments. Towards rnitinight, a boat approached
without noise, and succeeded in landing Lieutenants
Dutil and Girandon, with 60 grenadiers of the 82d,
and like rise some provisions, which had been sent
by Captain Meynatel, of the Eine. I embraced this
opportunity of sending away our wounded. A se-
cond boat also attempted to land, but was swept
away by 'he current.
On the 12th, at day-break, I t elieved all our out-
posts with the grenadiers newly arrived. We dis-
covered a magazine, containing a quantity of rum,
Madeira wine, and biscuit, but we were still in great
want of water ; and, :shove all, of cartridges and
flints. In the evening, I determined, in concert
with the other Officers, to summon the garrison to
a..r the following morning, lu the course 01
, we received provisions, ammunition, and
of the grenadiers of the 82d, under the
of Captain Brunet; the Commandant
aI.J arrived, and was as much surprised

euttenaer
the night.
the rest o
command
itichAust