Captain Tayler again made his appearance off Castro, where he arrived just as the enemy were preparing to decamp. Observing an unusual number of men drawn up before the castle, and knowing that he had prevented several cargoes of provisions from reaching them, he suspected they were about to retire, and stood in to enfilade them in their retreat. This obliged the French governor to depart so precipitately, as to prevent him destroying his artillery, &c. or doing any mischief to the works, although a train was already laid to the magazine, and a lighted match left near it. Captain Tayler immediately took possession of the castle, which he found to contain 7 long guns (24 and 12-pounders), 2 carronades, 2 brass howitzers, and a large proportion of powder, shot, shells, and ordnance stores; but no provisions, except a quantity of bread scarcely fit to eat. In a letter to the governor of Bilboa, dated June 23, he says:–
“I have hoisted the Spanish standard, and shall defend it against any predatory attack the enemy may attempt by sea, until a force is sent for its protection. The enormities committed by them at Castro are such as almost to exceed belief. Upwards of 3000 persons were murdered in cold blood; infants at the breast were not spared; women, and even children only 11 years of age, were violated; nearly the whole of the town burnt to ashes, and the misery of the few surviving inhabitants beggars all description.”
It is scarcely necessary to add, that Captain Tayler’s “promptitude and zeal,” were highly commended by Lord Keith and Sir George R. Collier, the latter of whom reported that “14 of the savage authors of these excesses were taken at Bilboa, after the evacuation of Castro, and deservedly put to death.”
The Sparrow was next employed in conveying Captain Freemantle, one of Lord Wellington’s aides-de-camp, from Bilboa to Plymouth, with despatches announcing the defeat of Joseph Buonaparte at Vittoria. Had Captain Tayler’s plan for cutting off the communication between France and that part of Spain been acted upon, and a seasonable period chosen, the upstart king, and all his army, must have been taken prisoners.
The battle of Vittoria took place the day previous to the recapture of Castro, and led to the siege of St. Sebastian, a for-
