The struggle between Great Britain and her colonies was watched with great anxiety by Spain, who, having herself a colonial empire, dreaded the effect of example. Spain offered herself as mediator in the quarrel, and was accepted as such, though nothing was effected thereby; not even the terms of mediation being agreed upon. Various considerations, however, inclined her now to favour the cause of the Americans, although she did not acknowledge their independence. She was desirous of recovering Gibraltar, the loss of which had so deeply humiliated her national pride, besides Jamaica and the two Floridas, with a territory on the east bank of the Mississippi, which latter she hoped to obtain through the gratitude of America. She declared war, therefore, against Great Britain, and, in conjunction with France, a formidable armament appeared on the English coast—a second armada, to be dispersed like the former one by tempest, and desolated by disease as pitiless as war itself, upwards of 5,000 soldiers dying in their ships within a very few weeks. While Spain was assuming the character of mediator between the two contending parties, there had been so little good faith on her part, that the Spanish governors and commanders in the West Indies and America were aware of the intended declaration of war before it was made known in Europe. The infant settlements of Louisiana were as yet attached to those of West Florida, and though, as we have already said, they had submitted to the Americans in the preceding year, the submission had been but temporary, and British troops had been since then stationed there to preserve their allegiance. The moment, therefore, that Don Bernando de Galvez, the Spanish governor of Louisiana, heard of the declaration of war with Great Britain, he proclaimed the independence of America by beat of drum, and having already assembled his forces, consisting of Spanish regulars, American volunteers and negroes, at New Orleans, set out on an expedition against the British settlements on the Mississippi. So well had he laid all his plans, that Major-General Campbell, who commanded at Pensacola, was not aware of danger even threatening the western part of that province, until the Spaniard was in possession of it. With the same address and expedition he succeeded in taking a royal sloop which was stationed on Lake Pontchartrain, as well as several vessels laden with provisions and necessaries for the British troops. In this manner were Baton Rouge and Fort Panmure, near Natchez, taken, and a few months later Mobile; and for the honour of the Spanish general it must be told that, in all his successes, his conduct was marked by good faith, humanity and kindness. By the end of the year 1779, Pensacola was the only post of West Florida remaining to the British.