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possibility of relieving Minorca; though it appeared, on the fullest evidence, that no attempt to afford such relief was made, and that the landing of troops, at the sally-port of the castle, was very practicable2.

The French fleet, on the retreat of Admiral Byng, returned to its station off the harbour of Mahon. And the garrison of fort St. Philip, being thus deprived of all hope of relief, general Blakeney, the governor, surrendered the place, and with it the island of Minorca, after a siege of nine weeks. The defence was not so vigorous as might have been expected, considering the strength of the works, the advantageous situation of the castle or citadel, and the rocky soil, which renders it almost impracticable to open trenches. But the garrison was too small by one third, not exceeding three thousand men: the besiegers were numerous, amounting to near twenty thousand, and repeatedly reinforced with fresh regiments, after the retreat of the English fleet. Their train of artillery was awfully formidable, consisting of near one hundred pieces of battering cannon, beside mortars and howitzers. The duke de Richelieu pushed his approaches with ardour, and even led on his troops in person to several desperate assaults. Therefore, although only two of the out-works were taken when the capitulation was signed, and but one hundred of the garrison slain, while the French had lost about five thousand of their best troops, the conduct of Blakeney, when contrasted with that of Byng, appeared to such advantage, that he became extremely popular on his arrival in England, notwithstanding his want of success, and was raised by his sovereign to the peerage.

The fortune of admiral Byng was very different. The public cry was loud against him; and he was odious to the ministry, on whom he had endeavoured to throw the blame of his miscarriage. He was superseded by Sir Edward Hawke in the command of the fleet in the

2.ee the Examination of Lord Blakeney, and Mr. Boyd, in the printed Trial of Admiral John Byng. Mediterranean,

Mediterranean, and brought home under arrest to be tried for his life.

The news of the taking of Minorca transported the French populace, and even the court, with the most ex. travagant joy and exultation. Nothing was to be seen, in France, but triumphs and processions; nor any thing heard but anthems, congratulations, and hyperbolical compliments to the victor. The people of England were depressed in an equal degree, when informed of the loss of that important place. But instead of ascribing it to the number and valour of the French soldiers and sailors, or to the skill of their commanders, the great body of the English nation imputed it wholly to the cowardice of admiral Byng, and the improvidence of the British ministry. Petitions accordingly poured in from all quarters, demanding justice, and an inquiry into the conduct of administration relative to Minorca.

Meanwhile a general hope prevailed, that misfortune would not extend to every scene of action. And very sanguine expectations were entertained of success in North-America; where the war had originated, and where our most essential interests were supposed to be at stake. Orders had been issued for raising, in the English colonies, four battalions of regulars, which were soon completed, and disciplined by experienced officers. Two additional regiments were sent from the mother-country. And government resolved to take upon itself the whole weight and conduct of the war in America, on account of the divisions in the provincial assemblies. The earl of Loudon was appointed commander in chief of all the British forces there, and general Abercrombie succeeded Shirley, as second in command.

The plan of operations for the campaign was great, yet promising and flattering. It was proposed to reduce the fortress of Niagara, situated, as already observed, at the junction of the lakes Ontario and Erie, in order to cut off the communication between Canada and Louisiana, and prevent the French from supporting their new posts upon

the

the Ohio; to besiege fort du Quesne, the principal of those posts; to take Ticonderoga and Crown-Point, that the frontiers of New-York might be delivered from the danger of invasion, and Great-Britain acquire the command of lake Champlain, over which forces might be transported in case of any attempt upon Quebeck. Albany was agreed upon as the place of rendezvous.

At that station general Abercrombie arrived on the fifth day of June, and assumed the command of the forces there assembled. They consisted of about four thousand regulars, including the American battalions; four independent companies belonging to the colony of New-York; a regiment of militia from New-Jersey; a formidable body of men raised by the New-England provinces, and four companies levied in North-Carolina.

The English colonies toward the south, but especially Virginia and Maryland, had suffered so severely from the ravages of the French and Indians, to which they were still exposed, that it was with the utmost difficulty they could defend themselves. The inhabitants of Pennsylvania, of whom quakers form the most considerable body, though exposed to similar barbarities, could hardly be prevailed upon to make any provision for their own security; but, instead of sending troops to the general rendezvous, when smote on one side of the head, they presented the other to the savage assailant. And the number of negro slaves, in South-Carolina, above the due proportion of white inhabitants, was so great, that the assembly judged it inconsistent with the safety of the province to spare any part of their domestic force for distant enterprises.

The army assembled at Albany, however, though perhaps too small to have completed the whole extensive plan of operations, was of sufficient strength to have performed very essential service, if it had entered immediately upon action. But as general Abercrombie delayed the execution of every part of that plan until the arrival of Lord Loudon (which proved too late in

the

the season for any thing of consequence to be afterward effected, or at least undertaken with a reasonable probability of success), another campaign was lost to GreatBritain, through neglect and procrastination; while time was afforded the French, not only to take precautions at their leisure against any future attempt on their back settlements, but to proceed unmolested in their ambitious. scheme of encroaching on the British colonies, and reducing all our fortifications in the neighbourhood of the lakes. The marquis de Montcalm, who had succeeded Dieskau in the command of the forces in Canada, and who possessed a bold military genius, accordingly invested Oswego, and reduced it in a few days. The garrison, to the number of sixteen hundred men, were made prisoners of war; and, beside seven armed vessels and two hundred batteaux, one hundred and twenty-one pieces of cannon, fourteen mortars, with a great quantity of ammunition and provisions, also fell into the hands of the enemy3.

So unfortunate for Great-Britain was the issue of the second campaign in North-America! Nor did our affairs wear a more favourable aspect in the East-Indies. Admiral Watson, who commanded the British fleet in those latitudes, had indeed, in the beginning of the year, reduced Gheria; the principal fortress of Tulagee Angria, a piratical prince, whose ancestors had established themselves near Bombay, on the coast of Malabar, and who had there become rich and powerful by pillaging European vessels. And the English factories at Madras and fort St. David, where hostilities could never be said to have ceased, were able to maintain their ground against the French and their Indian allies. But destruction came from an unexpected quarter, and fell upon a place that. was thought to be in the most perfect security.

The vast commerce of England to the East-Indies, since the middle of the present century, and her immense

3. Paris Gazette, Oct. 30, 1756.

territorial

territorial acquisitions in Bengal, where this blow was struck, provokė me to attempt a description of that rich country, whose memorable revolutions I shall have occasion to relate.

Bengal, the most easterly province of Indostan, lies between the twentieth and twenty-seventh degrees of north latitude, and extends from east to west almost seven hundred miles. As Egypt owes its fertility to the Nile, Bengal is indebted for its opulence to the Ganges. This magnificent body of water, after having received, in a course of six hundred miles, from its irruption through the mountains on the frontier of India, to the twenty-fifth degree of latitude, seven large rivers, and many inferior tributary streams, enters the province of Bengal near the mountain of Tacriagully, whose foot it washes, and whence it runs in a south-east direction to the sea.

An hundred miles below Tacriagully, the Ganges stretches towards the south an arm, which is called the river Cossimbuzar; and fifty miles lower, another arm, called the Jelingeer; which, after flowing about forty miles to the south-west, unites with the Cossimbuzar at a town named Nuddeah. The river formed by the junction of the Cossimbuzar and Jelingeer is sometimes called the Little Ganges, but more commonly the river Hughley; which, after flowing one hundred and twenty miles in a southern direction, enters the sea at the island of Sagor.

The principal stream of the Ganges, which, for the sake of distinction, is called the Great Ganges, continues to receive, from the going out of the Cossimbuzar, to the middle of the twenty-second degree of latitude, a multitude of small rivers. There its flood is joined by that of the Baramputrah, a yet greater river, which rises on the eastern side of those vast mountains, that send forth the Ganges to the west. The conflux of those two mighty rivers is tumultuous, and has formed several large islands between their junction and the open sea, which their waters reach about thirty-five miles lower.

Tacriagully,

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