tress of essential importance to the farther operations of the campaign. Anxious to assist at its reduction, Captain Taylor lost no time in rejoining the squadron under Sir George R. Collier, who immediately assigned him an employment requiring no little perseverance and skill.
This was to prepare a battery, and mount one of the Sparrow’s carronades, on the light-house side; in accomplishing which, he sometimes found it necessary to suspend the gun over deep chasms in the mountain; and then, by means of a cable, made fast to the tops of rugged rocks, and well secured below, to hoist it from one projection to another. So great were the difficulties he had to encounter, and so unfavorable was the state of the weather, that two days elapsed before he could open his fire[1].
On the 24th July, two practicable breaches having been effected in the walls of the town, orders were given that they should be stormed, and Captain Tayler was directed, in concert with the small vessels of the squadron, to make a fabo attack on the north side of Mount Orgullo, commonly called the hill of St. Sebastian. A few soldiers penetrated into the town; but the defences raised by the French being both numerous and strong, and their fire of grape and musketry very destructive, it became necessary to abandon the enterprise, with the loss of nearly 900 men killed, wounded, and missing.
The enemy now increased their fire upon the sailors’ breaching battery, and Captain Tayler soon repaired thither, in company with Sir George R. Collier. Shortly afterwards, while levelling one of the guns, he observed the men around him throw themselves to the ground, and looking up, to ascertain the cause, discovered a falling shell immediately above him. The fuse cut his hat, and gave him a severe contusion in the forehead, which was likewise much lacerated; both bones of his left leg were fractured in two places; he received a dangerous wound in the groin; and was otherwise most dreadfully injured.
A letter, of which the following is an extract, was subse-
