Page:Royal Naval Biography Marshall v3p1.djvu/140

 The island of Leon has the inner and outer harbours of Cadiz on the north; the Atlantic Ocean on the south and west; and the Rio-de-Sancti-Petri on the east. The city and fortifications of Cadiz occupy the whole of a small peninsula, which is connected with the island by a narrow sandy isthmus, about four miles and a half in length, and forms its north-western extremity.

El Rio-de-Sancti-Petri is a channel of deep water, varying from 200 to 300 yards in breadth, with a strong tide running through it, and no where fordable at any time of the tide: it extends from the royal naval arsenal, in the inner harbour, to the ocean, and was defended by a number of batteries on both banks as well as by some Works on a small island near its southern outlet. It has but one bridge across it (El Puente-de-Suazo), the approach to which from Puerto-Real, Medina-Sidonia, Chiclana, &c. is defended by a tête-de-pont, consisting of two detached stone bastions, each mounting five Spanish 26-pounders in each face, and three in each flank; and at some distance retired from the line of a curtain, and rather nearer to the bastion on the right, is a stone redoubt, nearly square in plan, and mounting twenty-two heavy brass cannon, ten of which enfilade the high road that passes through its centre; four pointed towards the bridge and rear, and four towards each flank: numerous wet ditches, some of which were palisaded, and the great extent of swampy ground in front, mostly cut into salt-pans or pits, render the approach to these works very difficult. On the right and rear, close to the Rio-de-Sancti-Petri, is another work of masonry, having two faces and one flank, and capable of mounting nine cannon: this, as well as all the other works of the tête-de-pont, have their artillery in embrasures; and the two detached bastions, as also the last mentioned, arc open at the gorge, and seen into from the redoubt standing in the centre. The bridge could only have been gained by storming these works in succession.

El Puento-de-Suazo is a plain stone structure, sufficiently wide to admit carriages to pass each other; it formerly consisted of three arches, but, on the approach of the French armies towards the south of Spain, in the year 1809, the