Sidebilder
PDF
ePub
[merged small][merged small][ocr errors]

As to our domeftic diffentions, we have ftated as fairly as we could the points in contest between parties. Little heated ourselves, we have not endeavoured to inflame others. We have carefully adhered to that neutrality, which, however blameable in an advocate, is neceffary in an hiftorian, and without which he will not represent an image of things, but of his own paffions.

We have wholly omitted in the Hiftorical part the legal difputes which arofe on the profecution of the authors and publishers of the North Briton. The reader will eafily fee, that these matters did not properly come within the defign of that part of our work; but we have taken care to infert the best account, which has appeared, of that whole tranfaction, at the end of the Chronicle.

[ocr errors]
[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

Plan of the year's hiftory. Invafion of the Philippines defigned. Defcrip tion of thofe islands, and of the city of Manila. Preparations at Madrafs. Part of the fquadron fent before the reft. The fleet unites at Malacca. They arrive at Manila

I

N. our laft volume we were obliged to conclude our account of the peace, before we had fully related all the tranfactions of the war. When Great Britain came to a rupture with Spain, the theatre of hoftility was infinitely enlarged: As that war was in a great measure a war upon commerce, it naturally became as extenfive as its object. And as the vital parts of Spain, contrary to the condition of

most other nations, lie at a great diftance from the head, expeditions of the utmoft moment were to be undertaken in the remotest part of the globe.

The nature of our plan, in which the narrative, perhaps, preffes too close upon the facts, constrains us to relate things, not in the order of time in which they happen, but in that in which we come to the knowledge of them. In this in

[B] 2

ftance,

[ocr errors]

ftance, that plan has not been at tended with any material inconvenience. The fortune of the expeditions, depending during the negotiation of the peace, was not, by the mutual confent of parties, to have any influence on the terms of it. The places taken were to be reciprocally reftored. We, therefore, thought it more pru dent to prefent to the reader anarrative of that important tranfaction, entire and unbroken, rather than poftpone any part of it, until we had gathered in all the fcattered events of the war. However, there were events, and fome of them fo confiderable, to the knowledge of which we have arrived fince the conclufion of our laft year's labour, that they ought by no means to be omitted. They will furnish famething to the entertainment we propofe for the public in the prefent; and they are fuch, as not unworthily clofe that great fcene of national glory, which Great Britain had difplayed to the world, during the five laff campaigns. The chief of thefe was the expedition against the Manilas. Its importance will Juftify that detail, in which we propofe to confider it.

The Manilas, or Philippines, form a principal divifion of that immenfe Indian Archipelago, which confifts of many hundred iflands, fome of them the largeft, and many of them by nature the richeft in the world; and which lie in the torrid zone, e extending from the 19th degree of north latitude, almoft in a continued chain, to New Guinea, and to the neighbouring fhores of the great fouthern continent.

The Philippines form the northernmoft cluster of thefe iflands. They were difcovered in the year

[ocr errors]

1521, by the famous navigator Ferdinand Magellan they were added to the Spanish monarchy by Don Lewis de Velafco, in 1564, in the reign of Philip the fecond, under whom the Spanish dominion was greatly augmented, and its real strength, at the fame time, fo impaired, that almost two centuries have not reftored it to its former vigour. The Philippines are fcaroe inferior to any of the other iflands of Afia, in all the natural productions of that happy climate; and they are by far the beft fituated for an extended and advantageous commerce. By their pofition they form the center of intercourfe with China, Japan, and the Spice Iflands; and whilft they are under the dominion of Spain, they connect the Afiatic and American commerce, and become the general entrepôt for the rich manufactures and products of the one, and for the treasures of the othe. Ber fides, they are well fituated for a fupply of European goods, both from the fide of Acapulco, and by the way of the Cape of Good Hope.

[ocr errors]

In fact, they formerly enjoyed a traffic in fome degree proportioned to the peculiar felicity of their fituation; but the Spanish dominion is too vaft and unconnected to be improved to the best advantage. The fpirit of commerce, is not powerful in that people. The trade of the Philippines is thought to have declined its great branch is now reduced to two fhips, which annually pafs between thefe iflands and Acapulco in America, and to a. fingle port, that of Manila, in an ifland of the fame name.

"

But though declined, this trade is fil a vat object of protection

to

to Spain, and of hoftility to what ever nation is engaged in war with her. In the war, which began in 1739, and which was not diftinguished by fuch a series of wonderful fucceffes as the laft, the taking of the galleon, which carries on the trade, between Manila and America, was confidered as one of the most brilliant advantages which we obtained; and it has, accordingly, been much infifted upon in all the hiftories of that period. This galleon is generally worth more than 600,000 pounds fterling. The principal ifland of the Philippines is called Manila, or Luconia; it is in length fomething more than 300 miles; its breadth is extremely unequal; at a medium it may be about 80 or go. The Spanifh inhabitants, who are not nu merous, have the government and the best part of the commerce; the Chinese are the artifans; and the foil is chiefly cultivated by the natives. These latter are of various origins, and of different degrees of favagenefs, according as they have been more or lefs fubdued by religion, or refined by intercourse with ftrangers. For fo large and fertile an inland the number of inhabitants are but fmall; and the whole, perhaps, not amounting to half a million; and of thofe not a third are in fubjection to the Spaniards.

The reft of the Philippine iflands, fo far as the Spanish power prevails in them, are under the governor of Luconia; but there are many of them, in which that nation has little authority, or even influence. There are in all about fourteen of them which deferve notice.

The capital of Luconia, and of

all thefe islands, and, indeed, the only refpectable place in them, is Manila, fituated to the fouth-eaft of the ifland, and lying upon a very fair and spacious harbour. The buildings, both public and private, being moftly of wood, have as much magnificence as fuch materials are capable of; and the churches, in particular, are very fplendidly adorned. The Spaniards are difcouraged from building with more durable materials by the terrible earthquakes, to which the island is extremely liable. By them the city has been more than once fhaken to the ground. This calamity is fo frequent and dreadful, as, in a great measure, to counterballance all the advantages of fo rich a foil, and fo defirable a climate.

The Spanish inhabitants, within the city, are about three thoufand. Ten thoufand Chinese occupy a large fuburb called the Parian.

On the conqueft of China by the Tartars, in the laft century, great numbers fled their country, filling all the confiderable towns, not only of the Philippines, but of the Moluccas and Sunda iflands, with an ingenious and induftrious people, who brought with them, and diffufed into all thefe countries, the kill of manufacture cture and the fpirit of commerce. The conqueft of China had nearly the fame effect in this part of the world, which the revocation of the edict of Nantes produced in ours. Befides the Parian, there are feveral other fuburbs of great extent contiguous to this city, inhabited by forty thousand of the native Indians, or by that mixed breed fo common in all the Spanish colonies, refulting from that great variety of races of men, who ori[B] 3 ginally

ginally inhabited, or came as adVenturers, or were brought as flaves, itno their extenfive dominions.

From this short account it is vi fible, that the acquifition of fuch a place must have proved of very great advantage towards carrying on the war with Spain effectually, and could not, therefore, fail of having an advantageous influence on the terms of pacification. Accord ingly it was refolved to make an attempt upon the Manilas, from a plan of operations delivered to the miniftry by colonel Draper; and, perhaps, the reader will be glad to know how this plan came to be formed.

After the memorable defence of Madrass in 1759, colonel Draper's bad ftate of health obliged him to leave that country. He embarked, in company with the honourable capt. Howe, then commander of the Winchelfea, for Canton in China, a city with which the inhabitants of Ma nila carry on a confiderable trade. Here they wifely spent that time of relaxation from military opera tions, in attaining fuch knowledge of the Philippine islands, as might afterwards be ferviceable to their country, giving a leffon to all men in public employment, that, at times when they cannot perform an active fervice, they may ftill do a material one by wife attention and fenfible obfervation. They difcovered, that the Spaniards of the Philippine iflands, confiding in their remote distance from Europe, fuppofed an attack upon them impracticable, and were by that fatal fecurity, which is always the confequence of an ill-founded confidence, lulled into a total inattention to a regular military ftrength.

Upon the first rumour of a war

with Spain, lord Anfon and lord Egremont were made acquainted with thefe obfervations concerning the ftate of the Philippine islands; they gave that attention to the information, which the importance of it juftly merited. They ordered colonel Draper to give his ideas in writing; affuring him, that, if the war fhould become unavoidable by the Spaniards joining with France, they would recommend the undertaking to his majefty. The memorial upon the fubject was greatly improved by the naval experience and judgment of capt. Howe, who poffeffes all the noble qualities of his illuftrious family,

The motives for the undertaking (exclufive of the popular and dazzling notions of booty and plunder) were very ferious and interefting, both in a commercial and political light. For Manila, in the poffeffion of an enterprifing people, is capable of ruining the whole China trade of any other, as the port of Cavite can build, fit out, and man very large fhips of war, which, if properly ftationed, no veffels could poffibly efcape, unless protected by a fquadron. Befides, with Manila in our hands, we might at all times depend on the proper refpect being fhewn to our flag in the ports of that extenfive empire. On the other hand, the objections to the enterprize were not inconfiderable. It was impoffible to fpare either hips or troops from England for the conqueft, as the additional weight of Spain in the scale of France demanded the utmost ex. ertion of our power nearer home. The vaft diftance of the object, and the uncertainty of the time, in which the expedition could be undertaken, were, befides, no fmall difficulties:

but

« ForrigeFortsett »