"Seeing that we possess no historical account of one of the most remarkable dependencies ever held by the British Crown, I have endeavoured (however unworthily) to fill what appeared to me to be a vacancy upon the book-shelf of our colonial histories. It has been my object to chronicle faithfully the events with which Gibraltar has been connected since its first occupation by the Moors in 711, and to sketch the influence which this coveted stronghold has exercised over the political state of Europe, more especially during the last two centuries. The records of its early history under Mohammedan rule, which I have collected from the works of Gayangos, Conde, Ayala, Montero, and others, are necessarily but crude and disjointed chronicles, almost impossible to connect in the form of a continuous narrative"--Preface (p. [v]).

On October 19, 1781, British general Charles Lord Cornwallis surrendered his army at Yorktown, effectively ending the Revolutionary War and conceding the independence of the United States of America. Britain soon overcame the humiliation of defeat by expanding its empire elsewhere. Five years after Yorktown, Cornwallis was installed as governor and commander of the army in India, determined to make the subcontinent the brightest jewel in the British crown. Officers who served under him during the War rose to high positions in the British army and navy. Emulating Cornwallis's deep sense of duty to king and country, they vigorously pursued the conquest of India, put down the 1798 Irish Rebellion, defended Canada, defeated the Dutch at the Cape of Good Hope, occupied Ceylon and battled Napoleon. Prominent among them was General Sir James Henry Craig, governor of Canada, whose clumsy attempt to spy on the U.S. was a factor in setting off the War of 1812.