, but it was argued that
seamen were better qualified than either cavalry or infantry to defend
fortified places; and of regular artillerists there were but three
hundred in the whole Spanish force. These considerations had their
weight with the soldiers, and the conduct of the seamen fully justified
the conduct of the Captain-General.

The English troops were landed on the 7th of June, and Colonel
Carleton--the Sir Guy Carleton of our Revolutionary history--repulsed a
cavalry attack that was made upon a detachment under his command. This
so disheartened the Spaniards, that they abandoned the position which
they had taken up at Guanabacoa for the purpose of impeding the advance
of the invaders, and fell back on the Havana. The women and children,
with the monks and nuns, were all sent out of the town, and the suburbs
destroyed. On the 11th, the Cabana fortress, which commands the Morro,
was taken by Colonel Carleton. The Spaniards also abandoned the Chorrera
fort, on the other side. Operations against the Morro were then begun.
The English suffered much from the heat, and a little from the assaults
of the defenders; and, though greatly aided by the fleet, it was not
until the 1st of July that they were able to open fire on the Morro.
Among their laborers were five hundred black slaves, purchased at
Antigua and Martinique. Fatigue and sickness had reduced the army's
strength more than one-third, without counting the soldiers who had
died, or been slain by the Spanish fire; and three thousand seamen also
were unfit for duty. Water was procured with difficulty, and fresh
provisions were almost unknown.

The land-batteries opened on the Morro July 1st, and were supported by a
fire from several ships. The latter were roughly received by the
Spaniards, and lost one hundred and eighty-two men, besides being
greatly damaged in hull, masts, and rigging, so that they were forced to
abandon the conflict, without having made any impression on the
fortress, though they had effected an important diversion in favor of
the land-batteries, the fire from which had proved most injurious. On
the 2d there were but two guns in condition to bear upon the besiegers.
The latter, however, had a worse enemy than the Spaniards to contend
against, the heat causing fires in their works that neither earth nor
water could extinguish; and they had to remove their mortars from the
left parallel, and substitute cannon. This was the crisis of the siege;