en we read of
the Anglo-Saxon capturing Havana and the adjacent islands on one side
of the globe, and the City of Manila and fourteen of the Philippines
on the other, in the midsummer of 1762, it has a slightly familiar
sound. And when the old record further says, the "conquest in the West
Indies cost many precious lives, more of whom were destroyed by the
climate than by the enemy," and still again, "the capture of Manila
was conducted with marvelous celerity and judgment," we begin to
wonder whether we are reading the dispatches of the Associated Press
in 1898, or history!

In the treaty which followed these victories, upon condition of
England's returning Havana, and all the conquered territory excepting
a portion of the West India Islands, Spain ceded to her the peninsula
of Florida; while France, who was obliged to give to England all her
territory east of the Mississippi, gave to Spain in return for her
services the city of New Orleans, and all her territory west of the
great river. This territory was retroceded to France by Spain in the
year 1800, by the "Treaty of Madrid," and in 1803 was purchased by
America from Napoleon, under the title of "Louisiana."

There was a growing irritation in the Spanish heart against England.
She was crowding Spain out of North America, had insinuated herself
into the West India Islands, and she was mistress of Gibraltar. So
it was with no little satisfaction that they saw her involved in a
serious quarrel with her American colonies, at a time when a stubborn
and incompetent Hanoverian King was doing his best to destroy her.
The hour seemed auspicious for recovering Gibraltar, and also to drive
England out of the West Indies. The alliance with France had become a
permanent one, and was known as a _family compact_ between the Bourbon
cousins Louis XV. and Carlos III. France had at this time rather
distracting conditions at home; but she was thirsting for revenge at
the loss of her rich American possessions, and besides, a sentimental
interest in the brave people who had proclaimed their independence
from the mother country, and were fighting to maintain it, began to
manifest itself. It was fanned, no doubt, by a desire for England's
humiliation; but it assumed a form too chivalric and too generous for
Americans ever to discredit by unfriendly analysis of motive. Spain
cared little for the cause of the colonies; but she was quite willing
to help them by worrying and diverting the