, on which occasion
one hundred and twenty-seven men perished; the rest were
saved by captain Hoare of the Defiance, who happened to be
on the same cruise.

In August, a ship of war was sent from thence, with about three hundred
soldiers, to the small island of Rattan in the bay of Honduras, of which
they took possession. In September, Vernon and Wentworth received orders
to return to England with such troops as remained alive; these did not
amount to a tenth part of the number which had been sent abroad in that
inglorious service. The inferior officers fell ignobly by sickness and
despair, without an opportunity of signalizing their courage, and the
commanders lived to feel the scorn and reproach of their country. In the
month of June the new colony of Georgia was invaded by an armament from
St. Augustine, commanded by Don Marinel de Monteano, governor of that
fortress. It consisted of six-and-thirty ships, from which four thousand
men were landed at St. Simon's; and began their march for Frederica.
General Oglethorpe, with a handful of men, took such wise precautions
for opposing their progress, and harassed them in their march with such
activity and resolution, that after two of their detachments had
been defeated, they retired to their ships and totally abandoned the
enterprise.

In England the merchants still complained that their commerce was not
properly protected, and the people clamoured against the conduct of the
war. They said, their burdens were increased to maintain quarrels with
which they had no concern; to defray the enormous expense of inactive
fleets and pacific armies. Lord Carteret had by this time insinuated
himself into the confidence of his sovereign, and engrossed the whole
direction of public affairs. The war with Spain was now become a
secondary consideration, and neglected accordingly; while the chief
attention of the new minister was turned upon the affairs of the
continent. The dispute with Spain concerned Britain only. The interests
of Hanover were connected with the troubles of the empire. By pursuing
this object he soothed the wishes of his master, and opened a more ample
field for his own ambition. He had studied the policy of the continent
with peculiar eagerness. This was the favourite subject of his
reflection, upon which he thought and spoke with a degree of enthusiasm.
The intolerable taxes, the poverty, the ruined commerce of his
country, the iniquity of standing a