round by Lerida. It is armed by 12 pieces of ordnance, including two 10-inch mortars, and 2 howitzers, and the surrounding heights are so difficult of access, that it has been a work of the greatest labour to establish the necessary batteries before it.
“Two six-pounder field-pieces, and a howitzer, were landed on the evening of 3d instant, dragged up, and placed on the ridge of a steep and rugged mountain, to the S.E. of the fort: two 12-pounders were added to the former by noon the next day. The whole remained under the command of Lieutenant Corbyn, first of the Invincible, having under his orders a detachment of midshipmen and seamen from this ship, and a most excellent fire was kept up from them, which considerably damaged the defences of the fort, and checked its fire upon our working parties.
“In the mean time, 3 Spanish 24-pounders were landed, and 2 more guns, of the same calibre, from this ship, to be got up by the high road to the foot of a very steep height, on the crest of which the breaching battery was to be constructed, at about three hundred yards from the eastern face of the fort.
“In the afternoon of the 4th instant the fort was summoned to surrender; and the commandant answered, that he should defend the place committed to his charge.
“During the night of the 4th, every exertion was used to bring the guns up to the hill, and to complete the breaching-battery; but, as it could not be completed by day-light, the men were withdrawn.
“The seamen and marines were landed early in the afternoon of the 5th, and carried up the stores for the battery, under a brisk fire of shot and shells from the fort.
"The 3 Spanish 24-pounders, notwithstanding their immense size and weight, were conveyed up the side of the hill, over ihe most difficult and rugged ground, by the united exertions of the soldiers, seamen, and marines, under the immediate direction of Captain Carroll, of the Volcano. Two 8-inch mortars were brought as far along the road as was practicable before dark; and the iron 24-pounders were conveyed to the foot of the hill as soon as it was dark.
“The work of the battery advanced rapidly, although it was necessary to fill all the sand-bags at the bottom of the hill; and I was in confident expectation that the battery would open soon after daylight; but by 10 o’clock the rain fell in torrents, attended by the most violent thunder and lightning I almost ever witnessed.
“The quantity of ammunition which had been brought up for the battery, lying in exposed situations, made it the more awful, and the enemy kept up an incessant fire of shells and grape shot.
“In defiance of all these obstacles, 2 of the guns were got high enough up to mount on the platforms; but all our exertion was unequal to place them there, owing to the violence of the rain, and the excessive difficulty of working in the extreme darkness of the night. From the same reason, too, the mortars could not be brought forward; and after a night of the