conditions on which the city of Manilla should be preferved from plunder, and the inhabitants maintained in their religion, liberties, and properties; to which the Spaniards confented. In confequence of this capitulation, the town and port of Cavite, with the inlands and forts depending upon Manilla, were to be furrendered to his Britannic majefty; and four millions of dollars paid as a ransom for the city of Manilla, and the effects of the inhabitants. All the British forces employed in this expedition were but barely fufficient to garrifon these important conquefts, which were atchieved with fo little lofs, that not above one hundred men were killed in the whole tervice.

The acquifition of Luconia, with its towns, treafures, artillery, flores, iflands, and dependencies, was rendered compleat by another fortunate event. Admiral Cornish no fooner understood by letters taken in the galley with the Spanish governor's nephew, that the galleon Philippina was arrived from Acapulco at Cajayagan, than he fent the Panther and Argo in queft of her. On the 30th of October, being off the inland Capul, near the entrance of the Embocadero, they deferied a fail ftanding to the northward; they came up with, and engaged her: after having been cannonaded two hours at a very small distance, she ftruck their colours and furrendered. But they were not a little furprifed, when the Spanish general came on board, to learn, that, instead of the St. Philippina, they had taken the Santiffima Trinidad, which had departed from Manilla on the rft day of August, bound for Acapulco. She was a very large fhip, fo thick in the fides, that the fhot of the Panther did not penetrate any part of her, except the upper works, She had 800 men on board; was pierced for fixty cannon, but no more than 13 were mounted. The merchandize on board was registered to the amount of one million and a half of dollars, and the whole cargo fuppofed to be worth double that fum; fo that this

capture

capture was a valuable addition to the conqueft, and a fresh wound to the enemy.

At no period of time had the Spanish monarchy fuffered fuch grievous and mortifying difafters, as those fhe fuftained in the courfe of this year, from a war into which fhe was precipitately plunged, against all the dictates of found policy and caution, meerly to gratify the private inclinations of her fovereign.

The recovery of St. John's, in Newfoundland, was likewife numbered among the fucceffes which gave a luftre to the British arms in the courfe of this autumn; and was regained without much trouble or lofs.

Thus the operations of war were profecuted with unremitting ardour in the East and West Indies; while the king ftill perfifted in his refolution to embrace the first opportunity of re-establishing peace, which, exclufive of motives of humanity, he thought abfolutely neceffary for the advantage of his own people. He faw them exhaufting their blood and treafure in quarrels, not their own, upon the continent of Germany; and that this fatal drain could not be effectually ftopped, but by a general pacification. The national debt was encreased to fuch an enormous burden, as feemed to threaten the immediate ruin of public credit, which a peace alone could prevent. The original scope of the war, namely, the fecurity of the British colonies in America, was fully accomplished; forty fhips of the line were rendered useless by hard fervice: 30,000 recruits were wanted for the army; and the war had occafioned fuch a scarcity of men, that, during the preceding year, it had been found impracticable to raise above 1500 recruits for the established regiments, though great premiums had been offered to engage men in the fervice. These confiderations reinforced the other reasons which induced his majefty to wish for peace; and his fentinents were warmly efpoufed by all the members of his council.

The

The king of Sardinia is faid to have offered his best offices for reviving the negotiation between the courts of London and Verfailles; and, in all probability, his mediation was cordially embraced by both. Certain it is, they agreed to treat in good earneft, and to fend mutually to each other, a perfon of the first rank, vefted with the powers and character of ambaffador and plenipotentiary. The duke of Bedford being chofen for this purpose, by the king of Great Britain, fet out for France in the beginning of September; and, at the fame time, the duke de Nivernois arrived in England with the fame character from his most christian majesty. Many difficulties were levelled by. the hearty defire of peace, which animated both monarchs. The humours and interefts of their German allies no longer obftructed the progrefs of the negotiation, which now turned only upon the re-establishment of peace between England and the houses of Bourbon. The king of Pruffia delivered from two formidable enemies, in confequence of his late accommodation with Ruffia and Sweden, was now in a condition to take care of himself: beside, that system was changed, by which his interefts had been fo warmly espoused at the court of London. In fettling the preliminaries, which were difcuffed in concert with the kings of Spain and Portugal, the belligerant powers made allowances for what might have happened in the East and West Indies, and regulated the conceffions to be made in proportion to the fuccefs or mifcarriage that might attend the British armaments.

We have now nothing remaining unnoticed, but an unfortunate affair which was the laft tranfaction of the war; and which ftands in a manner unconnected with any other. Upon the difpute with Spain, fome private merchants and adventurers had fitted out two fhips called the Lord Clive and the Ambufcade privateers. The former, being equal in force to a fhip of 50 guns, was commanded by one captain M'Namara, who was efteemed as a brave experienced officer,

officer, and he was to be joined by other ships, particularly a Portuguese frigate, to proceed on an expedition to the South Seas. In December 1762, the whole fquadron arrived in the river Plata; which they found much better prepared to receive them than they had imagined. The expedition was originally planned for getting poffeffion of Buenos Ayres; but finding the navigation of the river very difficult, they refolved, before they proceeded farther, to attack Nova Colonia; a colony on the north fide of the river Plate, which the Spaniards had fome time before taken from the Portuguese an English pilot, whom they found on board a Portuguese fhip, undertaking to bring the commodore within piftol-fhot of the chief battery on shore. On the 6th of January 1763, the Lord Clive made the fignal for engaging, and foon after anchored under the fire of the eaftmoft battery of the place, while the Ambufcade was feverely handled by the fire of the middle and weftmost batteries, and from fome Spanish frigates. A moft fierce cannonading began on both fides, which lafted from eleven in the forenoon till three in the afternoon; when the enemy's fire, that had been before kept up very fteadily, began to flag, and they themselves to retire to the eastmost battery, as the place of greatest fafety. In this state of the engagement, when the English expected every moment to fee the Spanish colours ftruck, the Lord Clive was found to be on fire. No fooner did the flames appear, than it was eafy to perceive that it was impoffible to extinguish them. In an inftant the attack was difcontinued: the Ambufcade, with vast difficulty, got clear of the other ship's flames, but was little better than a wreck, having received a great number of shot between wind and water. As to the crew of the Lord Clive, fome perifhed in the water, fome in the flames, and many by the enemy's fire, which recommenced on the occafion: fo that no more than 78 of 340, the complement of the fhip when the engagement began, efcaped with their lives, the fhip

6

blowing

blowing up about eight in the evening. The fate of the unhappy fufferers was the more affecting, as it would have been certain deftruction for any of the other fhips to have moved to their relief. The Ambufcade, in danger of finking every moment, found means to ftop her leaks in the river Plate, and to efcape to the Portuguese fettlement of Rio de Janeiro, with the lofs of 24 killed. It ought however to be confeffed, that fuch of the Lord Clive's crew as reached the fhore, were humanely received, treated, and cloathed, by the Spaniards, whofe refentment seemed to be extinguished in the calamity of their enemies.

The definitive treaty of peace was figned at Parison February 10th, 1763; and the terms of it were more advantageous to Great Britain and her allies, than those which were agreed to by the late minister. It must be acknowleged that Great Britain, by extending the frontiers of Canada, to the middle of the Miffifippi, gained a large tract of fertile country lying on the banks of that river, befide the advantage of a free navigation upon it, and the poffeffion of the port of Mobile: but, in order to fecure the English American colonies from all poffibility of disturbance from the French, that reftlefs nation ought to have been expelled from the whole country of Louisiana.

England, by this peace, likewife gained an acceffion, in France's ceding to her the island of Grenada; which, when fully cultivated and peopled, may be of fome confequence. She moreover acquired the unfettled islands of Dominica, Tobago, and St. Vincent; but yielded to France the inland of St. Lucie, faid to be worth all the reft. She retains the fettlement of Senegal on the coast of Africa, by which the engroffes the whole gum trade of that country; as for the rock of Goree, which the reftored, it was no great facrifice. The article that relates to the Eaft Indies, was dictated by the directors of the English company; and furely the French