was unpopular in the island, the more so, perhaps, because it was set on foot by an Englishman who was also invested with the command. Upon Cuesta’s death, the situation of affairs was critical; the authorities withheld all supplies from the troops, who were also threatened as well as insulted in pasquinades: convents had been converted into barracks for their use, and this may possibly have been one cause of offence. An agreement had been concluded with the Dey of Algiers for a supply of horses, but it was broken off for want of money, the Superior Junta of Majorca disregarding all orders from the Regency. The institution of a military academy was another cause of dislike, owing to the habits of insubordination which prevailed in Majorca, as in every other part of the Spanish dominions. By prudent conduct, however, impediments were removed, and dislike softened or overcome; the troops were clothed and armed by Great Britain, and their hospital supplied: and when the expedition from Sicily called for them at Palma, 4500 men embarked, in a state of efficient discipline. ♦JULY 24. THE EXPEDITION ARRIVES ON THE COAST OF CATALONIA.♦ The fleet made for the eastern coast of Spain, and on the first of August anchored in the bay of Blanes, at the mouth of the Tordera. The enemy occupied Tosa, and had a redoubt there which covered the town and protected the coast. On that and the following day demonstrations of landing were made; but upon an interview with Eroles, it was found that any such measure would be worse than useless, with so inadequate a force. That able Spaniard saw that it was better for the Catalans to be left as they had so long been to their own exertions, than to give the French an opportunity of bringing superior numbers against a British expedition: and it was agreed that the best service which such a force could then perform was to secure the city of Alicante, at that time endangered in consequence of a defeat which Joseph O’Donell ♦DEFEAT OF THE SPANIARDS AT CASTALLA. JUNE 21.♦ had suffered in its vicinity. He had endeavoured to drive the vanguard of Marshal Suchet’s army, under General Harispe, back upon the Xucar, from the line which it occupied at Castalla and Ibi, and other points of the mountainous country; but as usual, when the Spaniards were brought forward in regular war, against well-disciplined and well-commanded troops, some of the officers either misunderstood their orders or executed them ill, and some of the men losing courage as soon as they lost hope, threw into confusion those who were braver than themselves; their loss amounted to 4000 men, being little less than the whole number which they attacked, and they left more than 10,000 muskets in their flight. Suchet, who was the most enterprising and successful of all the French generals in Spain, would have taken advantage of this shameful defeat, and endeavoured to obtain possession of Alicante, if