4,000 militiamen, about 2,000 men from the towns in the interior
(urbános) armed with lances and machetes, 12 gunboats and several
French privateers, the crews of which numbered about 300.

Abercrombie landed on the 18th at Cangrejos (Santurce) with 3,000 men,
and demanded the surrender of the city. Governor Castro, in polite but
energetic language, refused, and hostilities commenced. For the next
thirteen days there were skirmishes and more or less serious
encounters on land and sea. On the morning of the 1st of May the
defenders of the city were preparing a general attack on the English
lines, when, lo! the enemy had reembarked during the night, leaving
behind his spiked guns and a considerable quantity of stores and
ammunition.

[Illustration: Fort San Geronimo, at Santurce, near San Juan.]

The people ascribed this unexpected deliverance from their foes to the
miraculous intervention of the Virgin, but the real reason for the
raising of the siege was the strength of the fortifications. "Whoever
has viewed these fortifications," says Colonel Flinter,[44] "must feel
surprised that the English with a force of less than 5,000 men should
lay siege to the place, a force not sufficient for a single line along
the coast on the opposite side of the bay to prevent provisions from
being sent to the garrison from the surrounding country. Sir Ralph's
object in landing, surely, could only have been to try whether he
could surprise or intimidate the scanty garrison. Had he not
reembarked very soon, he would have had to repent his temerity, for
the shipping could not safely remain at anchor where there was no
harbor and where a dangerous coast threatened destruction. His
communication with the country was cut off by the armed peasantry, who