“During the tranquil state of the camp, one Strahan, a common sailor, belonging to the _Kent_, having been just served with grog (arrack mixed with water), had his spirits too much elated to think of taking any rest: he therefore strayed by himself towards the fort, and imperceptibly got under the walls. Being advanced thus far without interruption, he took it into his head to scale it at a breach that had been made by the cannon of the ships, and having luckily gotten upon the bastion, he there discovered several Moors[6] sitting upon the platform, at whom he flourished his cutlass and fired his pistol, and then, after giving three loud huzzas, cried out—“The place is mine.” The Moorish soldiers immediately attacked him, and he defended himself with incomparable resolution, but in the rencounter had the misfortune to have the blade of his cutlass cut in two, about a foot from the hilt. This mischance, however, did not happen until he was near being supported by two or three other sailors who had accidentally straggled to the same part of the fort on which the other had mounted. They, hearing Strahan’s huzzas, immediately scaled the breach likewise, and echoing the triumphant sound roused the whole army, who, taking the alarm, presently fell on pell-mell, without orders and without discipline, following the example of the sailors.” Completely taken by surprise and scared out of their wits the garrison bolted _en masse_, and Budge-Budge was ours. It was found to mount in all eighteen guns, mostly 24-pounders—the average size of a siege piece of the day—and to have a well stocked magazine. Neither the Admiral’s official dispatch nor the flagship’s log, as it happens, make any mention whatever of Strahan or his exploit. Admiral Watson says: “At half-past eight the body of the fort was on fire, and immediately after news was received that the Place was taken, but the few people in it had all escaped.” The flagship’s log is briefer still. It simply notes: “At forty-five minutes past eight Captain Bridge came on board with an account of our being in possession of the Fort.” Next morning, according to the etiquette of the time, the British flag was hoisted on the ramparts of the fort and a seventeen-gun salute to Admiral Watson, as commander-in-chief of the expedition, was ceremoniously fired.