The principal injury received by the work was from the explosion of the powder magazine.

But very few guns were dismounted by the fire of the French ships, and only three of these on the water front.

The details of the condition of the ships and fort are given in the report of the French officer,[22] but it is unnecessary to repeat them here.
[Footnote 22: Vide also House Doc.No.206, twenty-sixth Congress, first session] In general terms, it appears from the above-mentioned report, that the number of guns actually brought into action by the floating force, (counting only one broadside of the ship,) amounted to _ninety-four guns, besides four heavy sea-mortars_; that the whole number so employed in the fort was only _nineteen, including the smallest calibres_; that these guns were generally so small and inefficient, that their balls would not enter the sides of the ordinary attacking frigates; the principal injury sustained by the castle was produced by the explosion of powder magazines injudiciously placed and improperly secured; that the castle, though built of poor materials, was but slightly injured by the French fire; that the Mexicans proved themselves ignorant of the ordinary means of defence, and abandoned their works when only a few of their guns had been dismounted; that notwithstanding all the circumstances in favor of the French, their killed and wounded, in proportion to the guns acting against them, was upwards of _four times_ as great as the loss of the English at the battle of Trafalgar! _St.Jean d'Acre_ .-- The narratives of the day contained most exaggerated accounts of the English attack on St.Jean d'Acre; now, however, the principal facts connected with this attack are fully authenticated.

For the amount of the fleet we quote from the British official papers, and for that of the fort, from the pamphlet of Lieutenant-colonel Matuszewiez.

These statements are mainly confirmed by the narratives, more recently published, of several English and French eye-witnesses.
The fortifications were built of poor materials, antiquated in their plans, and much decayed.