In consequence of King Charles having desired that _Sardinia_ should be reduced, with a view to a passage being opened for his troops into Naples to attack Sicily, and also to secure the means of supplying provisions for his armies, it was decided that a body of _marines_ should be withdrawn from Catalonia to assist in this enterprise. On the 12th of August, 1708, the armament designed for this service arrived before _Cagliari_, the capital of Sardinia, and after receiving a hesitating reply to the summons to surrender, the bombardment commenced on that evening, and continued until the following morning, when, at the break of day, Major-General Wills (Thirtieth regiment), at the head of the Marines, with one Spanish regiment, landed, and the place surrendered. It was next decided that an attempt should be made upon the island of _Minorca_. The fleet accordingly set sail, and arrived before _Port Mahon_ on the 28th of August, 1708. At this period the six _marine_ regiments had been much reduced in numbers by the arduous services on which they had been employed from the commencement of the war, so that it became necessary to draft the men of _two_ of these corps into the other four regiments, in order to render this force effective for the service for which it was now destined, and which, there was reason to expect, would be difficult, and would require the most energetic measures towards effecting the conquest of the island. For this purpose all the Marines fit for service, were drawn from the ships about to return home, and were incorporated in the four regiments which were employed in the reduction of this island. The two regiments (Holl’s and Shannon’s) returned to England in order to recruit their numbers. The fleet proceeded to commence operations, and the first attack was against _Fort Fornelle_, which was cannonaded, and surrendered after a contest of four hours; a detachment proceeded to _Citadella_, the capital, which surrendered; batteries, which had been erected, were opened on the works defending the town of _Port Mahon_, on the 17th of September, when, after a short but brisk fire, a lodgment was effected under the walls of St. _Philip’s Castle_, and on the following day the place surrendered. The valuable and important _Island of Minorca_ was thus reduced to submission to the British Crown by the gallantry of the Navy, and about two thousand four hundred Marines; the island, which was ceded to Great Britain at the Treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, continued in the British possession until the year 1756, when it was recaptured by a combined Spanish and French force under the command of Marshal the Duke de Richelieu.[7] [Sidenote: 1709]