Admiral Hosier in 1726 had been, in the same port, with twenty ships,
restrained from attack, while he and his men were dying of fever. He
was to blockade the Spanish ports in the West Indies and capture any
Spanish galleons that came out. He left Porto Bello for Carthagena,
where he cruised about while his men were being swept away by disease.
His ships were made powerless through death of his best officers and
men. He himself at last died, it was said, of a broken heart. Dyer's
ballad pointed the contrast as a reproach to the Government for
half-hearted support of the war, and was meant for suggestion of the
success that would reward vigorous action.
"Jemmy Dawson" was a ballad written by William Shenstone on a young
officer of Manchester volunteers who was hanged, drawn, and quartered
in 1746 on Kennington Common for having served the Pretender. He was
engaged to a young lady, who came to the execution, and when it was
over fell back dead in her coach.
"William and Margaret," by David Mallet, published in 1727, is another
example of the tendency to the revival of the ballad in the eighteenth
century.
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