SIR,

Toulon, December 12, 1793.

SINCE the affair of the 30th ultimo, no considerable event has taken place. By the repeated accounts of deserters the enemy are very much increased in numbers: none state them lower than thirty or forty thousand men.

They have fired of late little from the battery we were in possession of. Four of its guns were certainly disabled. They have increased the number of their mortars, which have much annoyed our two posts of Cape Brun and Fort Mulgrave, on the heights of Balaguier. We have lost some men at each from the effect of shells, which, in such temporary exposed situations, cannot be sufficiently guarded from. Against each of these posts they have opened a new battery of cannon and mortars, but at the other points they have worked little. We continue strengthening our position, though we cannot expect to give it any much more substantial form.

We have in all near eleven thousand men bearing muskets, and four thousand sick. Deserters all report the intention of a speedy general attack.

This will be delivered by Captain Hill, a very deserving young man, who has been Aide-de-Camp to Lord Mulgrave, Lieutenant-General O'Hara, and myself. The opportunity of his departure is sudden, and therefore I am to beg you will excuse the shortness of this letter. I am, &c.

Right Hon. Henry Dundas,

DAVID DUNDAS.

Whitehall, January 15, 1794.

THIS morning Sir Sydney Smith and Major Moncrief arrived at the office of the Right Honourable Henry Dundas, His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, with dispatches from Vice-Admiral Lord Hood and Major-General David Dundas, of which the following are copies and extracts: Victory,

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Victory, Hieres-Bay, December 20, 1793.

IT is my duty to acquaint you, that I have been obliged to evacuate Toulon, and to retire from the harbour to this anchorage.

It became unavoidably necessary that the retreat should not be deferred, as the enemy commanded the town and ships by their shot and shells; I therefore, agreeable to the Governor's plan, directed the boats of the fleet to assemble by eleven o'clock near Fort La Malgue, and am happy to say the whole of the troops were brought off, to the number of near eight thousand, without the loss of a man; and in the execution of this service, I have infinite pleasure in acknowledging my very great obligations to Captain Elphinstone, for his unremitting zeal and exertion, who saw the last man off; and it is a very comfortable satisfaction to me that several thousand of the merritorious inhabitants of Toulon were sheltered in His Majesty's ships.

propose sending the Vice-Admirals Hotham and Cosby, with some other ships, to Leghorn or Porto Ferrara, to complete their wine and provisions, which run very short, having many months to feed, and to remain with the rest to block up the Ports of Toulon and Marseilles. Circumstances which had taken place made the retreat absolutely necessary to be effected as soon as possible, and prevented the execution of a settled arrangement for destroying the French ships and arsenal. I ordered the Vulcan fireship to be primed, and Sir Sydney Smith, who joined me from Smyrna about a fortnight ago, having offered his services to burn the ships, I put Captain Hare under his orders, with the Lieutenants Tupper and Gore, of the Victory, Lieutenant Pater, of the Britannia, and Lieutenant R. W. Miller, of the Windsor Castle. Ten of the enemy's ships of the line in the arsenal, with the mast-house, great storehouse, hemp-house, and other buildings, were totally destroyed;

destroyed; and before day-light all His Majesty's ships, with those of Spain and the Two Sicilies, were out of the reach of the enemy's shot and shells, except the Robust, which was to receive Captain Elphinstone, and she followed very soon after without a shot striking her. I have under my orders RearAdmiral Trogoff, in the Commerce de Marseilles, Puissant, and Pompée of the line, the Pearl, Arethusa, and Topaze frigates, and several large corvettes, which I have manned, and employed in collecting wine and provisions from the different ports in Spain and Italy, having been constantly in want of one species or another, and am now at short allowance. Don Langara undertook to destroy the ships in the bason, but, I am informed, found it not practicable; and as the Spanish troops had the guarding the powder vessels which contained the powder of the ships I ordered into the bason and arsenal on my coming here, as well as that from the distant magazines, within the enemy's reach, I requested the Spanish Admiral would be pleased to give orders for their being scuttled and sunk; but, instead of doing that, the Officer to whom that duty was intrusted, blew them up, by which two fine gun-boats, which I had ordered to attend Sir Sydney Smith, were shook to pieces. The Lieutenant commanding one of them was killed, and several seamen badly wounded. I am sorry to add, that Lieutenant Goddard, of the Victory, who commanded the seamen upon the heights of Grasse, was wounded, but I hope and trust not dangerously.

I beg to refer you for further particulars to General Dundas respecting the evacution of Toulon, and to Sir Sydney Smith as to the burning the enemy's ships, &c. on which service he very much distinguished himself; and he gives great praise to Captain Hare, of the Fire-ship, as well as to all the Lieutenants employed under him.

It is with very peculiar satisfaction I have the

honour

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honour to acquaint you, that the utmost harmony, and most cordial understanding, has happily subsisted in His Majesty's army and fleet, not only between the officers of all ranks, but between the seamen and soldiers also.

I herewith transmit a copy of Sir Sydney Smith's letter to me, with a list of the officers employed under him, and also a return of officers and seamen killed and wounded at Fort Mulgrave on the 17th. I have the honour, &c. HOOD.

P. S. The list of the ships at Toulon that were burnt, and those remaining, has been received since writing my letter.

Right Hon. Henry Dundas.

We

MY LORD, Toulon, December 18, 1793. AGREEABLY to your Lordship's order, I proceeded with the Swallow tender, three English and three Spanish gun-boats, to the arsenal, and immediately began making the necessary preparations for burning the French ships and stores therein. found the dock-gates well secured by the judicious arrangements of the Governor, although the dockyard people had already substituted the three-coloured cockade for the white one. I did not think it safe to attempt the securing any of them, considering the small force I had with me, and considering that contest of any kind would occupy our whole attention, and prevent us from accomplishing our purpose. The galley slaves, to the number of at least six hundred, shewed themselves jealous spectators of our operations; their disposition to oppose us was evident; and being unchained, which was unusual, rendered it necessary to keep a watchful eye on them on board the galleys, by pointing the guns of the Swallow tender, and one of the gun-boats, on them, in such a manner as to enfilade the quay on which they must have landed to come to us, assuring them, 1794.

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at the same time that no harm should happen to them if they remained quiet. The enemy kept up a cross fire of shot and shells on the spot from Malbousquet and the neighbouring hills, which contributed to keep the galley slaves in subjection, and operated in every respect favourably for us, by keeping the republican party in the town within their houses, while it occasioned little interruption to our work of preparing and placing combustible matter in the different store-houses, and on board the ships; such was the steadiness of the few brave seamen I had under my command. A great multitude of the enemy continued to draw down the hill towards the dock-yard wall, and as the night closed in, they came near enough to pour in an irregular, though quick, fire of musketry on us from the Boulangerie, and of cannon from the heights which overlook it. We kept them at bay by discharges of grape-shot from time to time, which prevented their coming so near as to discover the insufficiency of our force to repel a closer attack. A gun-boat was stationed to flank the wall on the outside, and two field-pieces were placed within against the wicket usually frequented by the workmen, of whom we were particularly apprehensive. About eight o'clock I had the satisfaction of seeing Lieutenant Gore towing in the Vulcan fire-ship: Captain Hare, the Commander, placed her, agreeably to my directions, in a most masterly manner, across the tier of men-of-war, and the additional force of her guns and men diminished my apprehensions of the galley slaves rising on us, as their manner and occasional tumultuous debates ceased entirely on her appearance. The only noise heard among them was the hammer knocking off their fetters, which humanity forbade my opposing, as they might thereby be more at liberty to save themselves on the conflagration taking place around them. In this situation we continued to wait most anxiously for the hour concerted with the Governor

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