The attempt was fraught with many apparent obstacles, but it was undertaken and performed with an unexampled spirit and promptitude, which are the surest means of success in military enterprize; but more particularly when it is aimed against the distant territories of an enemy. Upon the 21st of November, the attack was commenced by the ships in line of battle, against the Iron Castle, a strong fort of 22 guns, at the north point of the entrance into the harbour. The Spaniards flying from several parts of it, an instant debarkation of the Seamen and Marines was resolved on, from the Burford, Norwich, and Worcester, under cover of these ships. With the loss of only two killed, they effected a landing, when they compensated for the want of scaling ladders, by each man mounting upon the shoulders of another, and thus entering the embrazures.--This Fort was carried although no breach had been made, which indeed was almost impossible, against walls of 9 feet in thickness, and such as afterwards withstood for a while, the explosions of those mines that were used to raze them. This gallant beginning struck terror into the Garrison of Gloria Castle, and Jeronimo Fort, both which defended the town; the former had two regular bastions, and a curtain between them mounted with 22 guns, besides many more pointing towards the mouth of the harbour. Upon the 22d, an attack was intended against the whole, but the enemy hung out the white flag, a signal of surrender. Upon this occasion, Captain Downing of the Navy led the attack on the Iron Castle. After having landed, he very properly wished to form his men into some order for it. One brave but impetuous Sailor, disdaining such precautions, pushed on, who, on being ordered to halt, answered with an ingenuous oath, "Don't let us halt, Captain, till we are lamed." In this operation we sustained a loss of only twenty killed and wounded, while the enemy were lessened in their numbers by desertions into the country, and by action, nearly three hundred men. After destroying the fortifications, which from their strength required some time, the Admiral with his squadron sailed for Jamaica upon the 13th of December, and previously received from the Governor and inhabitants of the place the warmest acknowledgments for the humanity and generous treatment they had experienced. The bombardment of Carthagena, in February, 1740, and the attack upon Chagre (a fort situate upon the mouth of a river of that name, a little to the north-west of the Gulf of Darien), were all that could be performed before the arrival of reinforcements and supplies from Europe, now much wanted. The latter, surrendered, after a contest with the men of war and bomb-ketches, upon the 24th of March, when the Castle situated on a rock, and the Custom-house, under its protection, were demolished and burnt. The fleet afterwards returned to Porto Bello, and from thence to Jamaica.