g out for war service; the
statements are now almost incredible, and the results most deplorable.
It was not a question of sanitation only; the material sent was
entirely unfit to meet the conditions of sea life under the most
favorable circumstances. In both the French and English service a
great deal of weeding among the officers was necessary. Those were the
palmy days of court and political influence; and, moreover, it is not
possible, after a long peace, at once to pick out from among the
fairest-seeming the men who will best stand the tests of time and
exposure to the responsibilities of war. There was in both nations a
tendency to depend upon officers who had been in their prime a
generation before, and the results were not fortunate.

War having been declared against Spain by England in October, 1739,
the first attempts of the latter power were naturally directed against
the Spanish-American colonies, the cause of the dispute, in which it
was expected to find an easy and rich prey. The first expedition
sailed under Admiral Vernon in November of the same year, and took
Porto Bello by a sudden and audacious stroke, but found only the
insignificant sum of ten thousand dollars in the port whence the
galleons sailed. Returning to Jamaica, Vernon received large
reinforcements of ships, and was joined by a land force of twelve
thousand troops. With this increased force, attempts were made upon
both Cartagena and Santiago de Cuba, in the years 1741 and 1742, but
in both wretched failures resulted; the admiral and the general
quarrelled, as was not uncommon in days when neither had an
intelligent comprehension of the other's business. Marryatt, when
characterizing such misunderstandings by a humorous exaggeration,
seems to have had in view this attempt on Cartagena: "The army thought
that the navy might have beaten down stone ramparts ten feet thick;
and the navy wondered why the army had not walked up the same
ramparts, which were thirty feet perpendicular."

Another expedition, justly celebrated for the endurance and
perseverance shown by its leader, and famous both for the hardships
borne and singular final success, was sent out in 1740 under Anson.
Its mission was to pass round Cape Horn and attack the Spanish
colonies on the west coast of South America. After many delays, due
apparently to bad administration, the squadron finally got away toward
the end of 1740. Passing the Cape at the worst season of the year, th