The transactions in the first of these provinces during the siege of Taragona have been already sufficiently noticed; and those in Murcia were of little interest, for the defeat of Blake at Cullar in November 1810, and the fever which raged at Carthagena, together with the frequent change of commanders, and the neglect of the government had completely ruined the Murcian army. The number of men was indeed considerable, and the fourth French corps, weakened by drafts for the expedition to Estremadura, and menaced by the Barossa expedition, could not oppose more than five or six thousand men; yet the province had never been touched by an enemy, and the circumstances were all favorable for the organization and frequent trial of new troops. In February 1811 colonel Roche, the military agent, described the whole army as “ready to disperse on the first appearance of an enemy,” and in the following June he says that “after being left to themselves for three years, the Murcian troops were absolutely in a worse state than they were at the commencement of the revolution, that general Freire, although at the head of sixteen thousand infantry and three thousand cavalry, dared not attack the six thousand French before him, lest his men should disperse, and they thought as little of the general as he did of them; that indolence, lassitude, and egotism prevailed in all parts; that the establishment of the Cortes had proved but a slight stimulus to the enthusiasm, which was fast dying away, and that the most agreeable thing in the world at the moment to the Spaniards, would be to remain neuter, while England and France fought the battle and paid all the expense.” The Murcian force was increased after Mahi’s arrival to twenty-two thousand men, but remained inactive until August, when Blake assumed the command, and the events which followed will be treated of hereafter. The petty warfare in the south of Grenada and Andalusia, deserves little notice, for during Blake’s absence in Estremadura with the fourth army, it was principally confined to the Ronda, where the Serranos aided at times by the troops from Algesiras, and by succours from Gibraltar, were always in arms; yet even there, the extreme arrogance and folly of the Spanish generals, so vexed the Serranos, that they were hardly prevented from capitulating in form with the French, and while Soult continued at Llerena after the battle of Albuera. The Escopeteros and civic guards sufficed to keep the Partidas in check. Thus the blockade of the Isla remained undisturbed from without, and Cadiz itself, the seat of all intrigues and follies, was fed by English fleets and defended by English troops.