For a time the garrison and inhabitants of Gibraltar enjoyed both peace and plenty. The Spanish forces seemed to have abandoned their task; and a constant interchange of courtesies was maintained between their leaders and the British officers. On the 13th of February Sir George Rodney’s fleet got under weigh, leaving behind two men-of-war and a couple of frigates, and sailed for England; and immediately afterwards the Spaniards renewed the blockade. About the middle of March, General Elliot found it necessary once more to regulate the issue of provisions, and gave directions that the garrison should be victualled monthly (bread excepted) in the following proportion:--For a soldier, each first and third week, 1 lb. of pork, 2½ lbs. of salt cod (which, by the way, proved very injurious, and caused the appearance of that terrible disorder, scurvy), 2 pints of pease, 1 lb. of flour, ¼ lb. of raisins, 1 lb. of rice, 5 oz. of butter, 1½ pint of oatmeal. Second and fourth week, 1½ lb. of beef, 2 lbs. of fish, 2 pints of pease, 1 lb. of rice, 5 oz. of butter, 1½ lb. of wheat, and 1 lb. of raisins. This, it must be owned, was but meagre fare. In the month of June the Spaniards showed signs of prosecuting the siege with greater vigour, and made a bold attempt to destroy the vessels in the Bay with fire-ships. But the alarm being given, the _Panther_, a 60-gun man-of-war, and the other armed vessels, immediately opened a brisk cannonade to check their progress; and springing into their boats, the officers and seamen, with characteristic vigour, grappled the blazing ships. The flames raged fiercely, but our sailors, nothing daunted, towed them under the British guns, where they were soon destroyed. The blockade increasing in severity, both the garrison and inhabitants felt the pressure of want, and provisions were once more selling at almost fabulous prices. Such vessels as escaped the enemy’s cruisers were chiefly loaded with “luxuries” rather than “substantials;” but a cargo of fruit which arrived in October proved of inestimable value in checking the ravages of scurvy, a disease that at one time threatened to prove much more destructive to the garrison than the enemy’s fire. In March 1781 the want of bread was severely experienced, many families having received none for several days, and biscuit-crumbs selling for tenpence and one shilling per pound. Fresh meat and fish were equally scarce and equally dear. The dietary of the garrison was reduced to the barest necessaries; and the distress which the women and children must have undergone may be inferred from the nature of the weekly allowance to each soldier, which was--5¼ lbs. of bread, 13 oz. of salt beef and 18 oz. of pork (both almost putrid), 2½ oz. of rancid butter, 12 oz. of raisins, half a pint of pease, a pint of Spanish beans, a pint of wheat (which was ground into flour for puddings), 4 oz. of rice, and quarter of a pint of oil.