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On opening Cabrita Point, I found the ships lay at a considerable distance from the enemy's batteries; and having a leading wind up to them, every reasonable hope of success in the attack was afforded.
"The squadron was soon assembled off Europa, and we beheld that of the enemy forming their line off Cabrita, about five miles to leeward, waiting for the Hannibal, which was the last ship to leave Algeziras. Sir James now made the interrogatory signal to know if all the ships were ready for battle, which was most properly answered in the negative, as all had much to do.
Off Europa Point, on the Gibraltar side, there clustered round the Cæsar her four consorts, all but one bearing, like herself, the still fresh wounds of the recent conflict. Four miles away, off Cabrita Point, assembled the three French of Linois's division, having like honorable marks, together with the six new unscarred arrivals.
As the Major looked, a signal was made from Cabrita, and directly two feluccas left their station at Algeçiras, and swooped out, like two white birds, as if to intercept some bark yet hidden by the Point. Again my grandfather looked out to the Strait, and presently a small white sail came in sight near Cabrita.
It was near noon when they reached Algeçiras, where they stopped to breakfast, both of them rather exhausted with fatigue and hunger. This town stands just opposite Gibraltar, across the bay the road they had come by forms the base of a triangle, of which Cabrita Point is the apex, the bay washing one side of the projecting coast, the Straits the other.
Confiding in the zeal and intrepidity of the officers and men I had the happiness to serve with, I determined, if possible, to obstruct the passage of this powerful force to Cadiz. Late in the evening I observed the enemy's ships to have cleared Cabrita Point; and, at eight, I bore up with the squadron to stand after them.
The sun went down as they rounded Cabrita Point, and the breeze, freshening, took them swiftly along under the huge hills that rise abruptly upward from the Spanish coast.
On the 9th, in the afternoon, the Superb and Thames, which had continued to watch the enemy off Cadiz, were seen coming through the Straits under a crowd of canvass, with the signal for an enemy flying; and they had scarcely rounded Cabrita Point before the Spanish squadron, consisting of six sail of the line, were seen in pursuit of them, and soon after anchored in Algeziras with the French squadron.
Captain Keats, having seen the enemy coming out of Cadiz, appeared with the signal of their being in sight, and they soon after came round Cabrita Point. Two are three-deckers, and three are seventy-fours, with three frigates. If it draws this force to the Mediterranean, some good may come from it.
At daylight the enemy were seen making every preparation for sailing; and in the course of the forenoon were getting under way, and working out of the bay with a fresh wind from the eastward. As they required to make several tacks for this purpose, it was past one o'clock before the headmost ships could clear Cabrita Point, when they brought to, to wait for the others to join them.
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