On the early morning of March, 2nd 1782, the Spanish...directed a well-coordinated attack against the English at Port Royal. "After a heavy cannonade, detachments of the troops landed and opened regular trenches against the forts, which were so closely invested and hotly pressed that on the 16th of the month they surrendered at discretion. The lives of the defenders were spared, but all their dwellings, to the number of 500, were destroyed." Six years later, in 1788, England completely evacuated all of her settlements in the Bay Islands as well as on the Miskito Shore.