tremely dangerous, as one false step would have precipitated the person making it into eternity, the side of the mountain being perpendicular, and 1000 yards in height. On the 23d Dec. the gun was mounted with three cheers, and, as Captain Hoste expresses himself, “to the astonishment of friends and foes.”
Meanwhile, the Bacchante had returned to the Boco di Cattaro, and her officers and men were employed in getting other pieces of ordnance mounted. At day-light on the morning of Christmas-day, a fire was opened from four different points; and on the 1st Jan. 1814, two additional batteries of 18 and 32-pounders, began to play against the castle. On the 3d, every thing was arranged for a general assault, and Captain Harper had already taken the command of a storming party, when Baron Gauthier sent out, expressing his wish to capitulate. The terms granted to the enemy were, to lay down their arms on the marina, to be conveyed to some port in Italy, to be considered prisoners of war, and not to serve against Great Britain or their allies till regularly exchanged.
The capitulation for the surrender of Fort St. John, was signed Jan. 5th, 1814 on which occasion Captain Hoste magnanimously said to his indefatigable second, “Come, Harper, you were the first to conceive the expedition; let the Saracen take possession of Cattaro”[1]. In his official letter of that date, addressed to Rear-Admiral Freemantle, he says, “we have received no assistance but from a few Montenegrins. * * * The zeal and activity of Captain Harper are well known to you, and I assure you, Sir, in no instance have they been more conspicuous than on the present occasion – He is a most invaluable officer.”
Captain Harper took possession of Cattaro, and retained the command there until arrangements were made for attacking Ragusa, the fall of which place, Jan. 28, 1814, made the allies masters of every strong hold in Dalmatia, Croatia, Istria, and the Frioul, with all the islands in the Adriatic, The official account of that conquest is given at p. 480 et seq. of Vol. II. Part I. Rear-Admiral Freemantle’s despatches
- ↑ United Service Journal, No. I. p. 8.
