made to drag the guns over it.[1] This work, however, was accomplished by the 17th of December, and two batteries were opened, one at a thousand, and the other at seven hundred yards' distance; by which the defences of the wall were much injured, and the fire of the enemy in a great measure silenced. But the difficulty of making a breach was greater than at first expected; the wall being built of immense stores, of which the lower tier was bound to the rock by bolts and clamps of iron.
On the 19th an advanced battery was opened, which it had been found necessary to erect within two hundred and fifty yards of the wall; and before the following night a practicable breach was effected. The forest through which the troops had cut their way with so much labour now became an advantage; as under cover of it, and screened by the projections of the rock, a lodgment was made within twenty yards of the breach.
The flank companies of the 71st and 76th King's regiments having been sent from camp to join the detachment, and everything being in readiness, the morning of the 21st of December was fixed for the assault, Lord Cornwallis, accompanied by General Meadows, having arrived to witness the result. Lieutenant-Colonel Nesbit of the 52nd commanded the storming-party, which was directed on from different points of attack: Captain Gage, with the Grenadiers of the 52nd, and the flank companies of the 76th, to gain the eastern hill to the left; the Honourable Captain Monson, with the light company of the 52nd, to scour the works towards the western hill on the right; and the Honourable Captain Lindsay and Captain Robertson, with the flank companies of the 71st regiment, to separate and attack the works or parties they might discover in the chasm, or hollow between the hills; the 52nd and 72nd regiments were to follow the flank companies. Parties
- ↑ The labour of opening a road through a forest of bamboos can only be known to those who are acquainted with the nature of that tree, which growing in clumps, even from the crevices of the rock, resists more than any other the axe and fire. – Dirom.
