"Heed, oh heed our fatal story! I am Hosier's injured ghost; I, by twenty sail attended, Did this Spanish town affright; But my orders-not to fight! I had cast them with disdain, For resistance I could could fear none; The Ministers yielded to all this popular clamour, and as Vernon had proposed an attack upon Carthagena, to be followed up by operations against the Havannah and Vera Cruz, they sent him out extensive reinforcements. Meanwhile, in March 1740, the admiral's squadron had made a 'demonstration' off Carthagena, but his force being totally inadequate to the reduction of so strong a place, he proceeded against the castle of Chagres, which, after a bombardment of two days, surrendered. Thence he returned to Jamaica, to await the arrival of the reinforcements. In January 1741, these made their appearance, under the command of Vice-Admiral Sir Chaloner Ogle, and brought Vernon's total strength up to one hundred and fifteen (Smollett says one hundred and seventy) men-of-war, frigates, and transports, manned by fifteen thousand sailors, and carrying twelve thousand troops -the largest combined expedition which England had sent out for many years. So formidable an armament, the like of which had never appeared in West Indian waters, was certainly equal to the conquest of any of the Spanish settlements, had it been directed with judgment and vigour. Unfortunately, Lord Cathcart, an officer of proved ability and experience, under whom the military force had originally been placed, died on the voyage; and his successor, General Wentworth, was a man of marked incapacity, timid, and irresolute, who owed his rise in the army, and his appointment to his high and important post in this expedition, entirely to his parliamentary interest. Between him and Admiral Vernon a strong antipathy soon arose, and throughout the campaign the two leaders were 'at utter and open variance.' To apportion to each the exact share of deserved censure would now be impracticable as well as unprofitable; but it may safely be said that neither was qualified for an efficient discharge of the duties devolved upon him. Vernon was as imprudent as Wentworth was timid; but had the one been a Wellington, and the other a Nelson, success would have been impossible, owing to their lack of a hearty spirit of co-operation. The fleet sailed from Jamaica towards the end of February, and at first bent its course towards the Havannah, which, there is no reason to doubt it, might easily have been captured. Vernon, however, had set his mind on the reduction of Carthagena, and having called a council of war, prevailed on its members to adopt his design. Though Carthagena was the strongest fortified place in Spanish America, there was no reason why an attack upon it by such a force should not have been successful. In Smollett's famous novel of 'Roderick Random,' he has embodied his personal experiences of the campaign, and these vividly indicate that the causes of its failure were, as we have suggested, the incompetency and the jealous rivalry of the commanders, who were ignorant of the commonest principles of the art of war, while they were ready to sacrifice to their private enmities the interests and honour of their country. After various shameful delays, which afforded the Spaniards ample time for preparation, the fleet arrived before Carthagena. The narrow entrance to its harbour, called the Boca Chica, was defended by the castle and several formidable batteries. The troops began to disembark on the 9th of March, and the engineers set to work to erect batteries for cannonading this castle on the landward side, while from the sea it was bombarded by the large men-of-war (March 23d). 'The signal was given,' says Smollett, 'for our ships to engage. We weighed, with others destined for this service, and in less than half-an-hour came to an anchor before the castle, with a spring upon our cable, and the cannonading (which, indeed, was terrible) began. The surgeon, after having crossed himself, fell flat on the deck; and the chaplain and purser, who were stationed with us in quality of assistants, followed his example, while the Welshman and I sat upon a chest looking at one another with great discomposure, scarce able to refrain from the like prostration. And, that the reader may know that it was not a common occasion that alarmed us thus, I must inform him of the particulars of this dreadful din that astounded us. The fire of the Spaniards proceeded from eighty-four great guns, besides a mortar and small arms, in Boca Chica, thirty-six in Fort St Joseph, twenty in two fascine batteries, and four men-of-war, mounting ninetyfour guns each. This was answered by our land battery, mounted with twenty-one cannon, two mortars, and twentyfour cohorns, and five great ships of seventy or eighty guns, that fired without intermission.' Smollett represents a sailor, with his hand shattered by a grape-shot, being brought down to the cock-pit, of whom, while he is employed in dressing the stump, he asks his opinion of the battle. Shaking his head, Jack faintly replies that he believes the English will do no good. 'For why?' 'Because, instead of dropping anchor close under shore, where we should have had to deal with one corner of Boca Chica, we had opened the harbour, and exposed ourselves to the whole fire of the enemy, from their shipping and Fort St Joseph, as well as from the castle we intended to cannonade; that, besides, we lay at too great a distance to damage the walls, and three parts in four of our shot did not take place, for there was scarce anybody on board who understood the pointing of a gun.' Our crews were then ill-trained, ill-treated, ill-paid, and badly provisioned. They were raised chiefly by the pressgang, and kept in subordination by the lash; but, with all their faults, they were brave as lions, and worthy of being better led. The Spaniards, on the 24th, abandoned the Boca Chica, and the British fleet sailed into the outward harbour. His vanity greatly excited by this success, Vernon wrote home in gasconading terms. The public believed that Carthagena had fallen, and a medal was struck in honour of 'the avenger of his country,' who had humbled Spain, and captured the proud and opulent city, hitherto deemed impregnable. The exultation was premature. The fleet, it is true, had overcome the obstacle of sunken ships, and penetrated to the inner harbour; but only after much delay-a delay fatal to the object of the expedition, as from disease and other causes the men were perishing daily by scores. To quote again from Smollett :-' After having put garrisons into the forts we had taken, and re-embarked our soldiers and artillery-a piece of service that detained us more than a week—we ventured up to the mouth of the inner harbour, guarded by a large fortification on one side, and a small redoubt on the other, both of which were deserted before our approach, and the entrance of the harbour blocked up by several old galleons and two men-of-war that the enemy had sunk in the channel. We made shift, however, to open a passage for some ships, that favoured a second landing of our troops at a place called La Quinta, not far from the town, where, after a faint resistance from a body of Spaniards, who opposed their disembarkation, they encamped, with a design of besieging the Castle of St Lazar, which overlooked and commanded the city. Whether our renowned general had nobody in his army who knew how to approach it in form, or that he trusted entirely to the fame of his arms, I shall not determine; but certain it is, a resolution was taken in a council of war to approach the place with musketry only. This was put in execution, and succeeded accordingly; the enemy giving them such a hearty reception that the greatest part of the detachment took up their everlasting residence on the spot (April 9).1 Our chief, not relishing this kind of complaisance in the Spaniards, was wise enough to retreat on board with the remains of his army, which, from eight thousand able men landed on the beach near Boca Chica, was now reduced to fifteen hundred men fit for service (April 16). Thus the failure of the expedition was due to gross incapacity on the part of Wentworth, and the want of accord between him and Vernon; the latter, a man consumed with vanity, and indifferent to success if he could not be the hero of it. He refused to co-operate in the attack upon Fort San Lazar until his assistance could no longer avert disaster. So it came to pass that, on the 24th of April, the siege of Carthagena was abandoned. The rainy season had begun, and an epidemic fever devastated the expedition, which was badly supplied with provisions, both as to quantity and quality, and cursed by an unhappy spirit of discord, pervading both services and all 1 In this attack the British lost six hundred men killed and wounded. ranks. Vernon and Wentworth, each casting the blame upon the other, returned to Jamaica. In July they sailed, in order to attack St Jago, in the island of Cuba; but this attempt was not less disastrous than that upon Carthagena; and in December the unlucky general and not less unlucky admiral slunk back to Jamaica. To re-habilitate his shattered reputation, Vernon, who in January 1742 received a reinforcement of two fifty-gun ships and a frigate, and two thousand marines, resolved on crossing the isthmus of Darien and attacking Panama, in imitation of Sir Henry Morgan and his buccaneers. But the usual delays took place, and the expedition did not sail until the middle of March. Contrary winds impeded its progress, and it did not reach Porto Bello until three weeks later. Then, in a council of war, it was decided that the enterprise should be abandoned, on the ground that the force of the army was much reduced by sickness; that several of the transports had not arrived; and that the garrison of Panama had been considerably strengthened. In vain Vernon protested against this decision; his remonstrances were overruled, and the expedition returned ingloriously to Jamaica in the middle of May. Never, perhaps, was England more inefficiently served by its generals than in this year of disgrace, 1742! But it must be said, in justice to Admiral Vernon, who was wanting neither in courage nor activity, that the result would probably have been very different if he had had the sole command. On his return to England, Vernon re-entered Parliament as member for Ipswich. But his political career does not call for notice. He was made Admiral of the White in 1745, and appointed to the command of the North Sea fleet. In the following year his impetuous temper launched him into a quarrel with the Admiralty, in which he used such intemperate language that, by the King's special command, he was struck off the list of admirals. Thenceforward he lived in retirement at his seat at Nacton, in Suffolk, until his death, which occurred on the 30th of October 1757. Perhaps his principal claim to remembrance is that he was the first naval commander who mixed water with the spirits allowed to the seamen, and that he gave to this mixture the immortal appellation of 'grog.' Smollett's rollicking sea-novel-the first and best in our B |