This Important Fortress Has Been, And Is Still,
Occasionally Most Awfully Distressed For Want Of Provisions; Insomuch,
That If Closely Besieged By Land, By The Moors, And Blocked Up By The
English By Sea, It Could Not Hold Out Any Considerable Time In
Possession Of The French.
The advantages resulting to Great Britain
from such a valuable acquisition are incalculable.
Every person who is acquainted with the situation of Ceuta, the rival
of Gibraltar, must be very much astonished, that it should still be
permitted to remain in the possession of the Spaniards, since a
squadron of men of war, and a flotilla of gun and bomb vessels, might
reduce it, even without the assistance, of the Moors; and thereby
England would be sole mistress of the entrance to the
Mediterranean. Convoys could collect in safety at Ceuta, and our trade
in this sea be comparatively secure from annoyance. I understand this
place was closely invested by Muley Yezid (the late Emperor of
Morocco, and brother to the present Emperor), but for want of proper
co-operation by sea, where it is most vulnerable, he was necessitated
to raise the siege, and withdraw his troops.
This garrison is supplied with provisions from Spain, the Moors being
prohibited, on pain of death, from sending their commodities thither;
and in order that this interdiction may be strictly observed, picquets
and posts of Moorish cavalry and infantry are so judiciously
stationed, that it is impossible for the mountaineers to smuggle in
the smallest article.
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