First Cevallos expedition

First Cevallos expedition
Part of the Spanish-Portuguese War (1761-1763) and the Anglo-Spanish War (1762–63)
Portrait of Captain Melgarejo. The ships in the background on the left are the Lord Clive, in the moment she was blown up by the fire of the Spanish coastal batteries, and the damaged HMS Ambuscade.
Date September 1762 – April 1763 Location Colonia del Sacramento, Buenos Aires, Montevideo (present-day Uruguay) and Rio Grande do Sul (South Brazil) Result Decisive Spanish victory Spanish conquers Colonia del Sacramento and most of Rio Grande do Sul
Belligerents
Kingdom of Portugal British East India Company	Kingdom of Spain
Commanders and leaders
Vicente da Silva Robert MacDouall  †	Pedro Antonio de Cevallos
Strength
	1 frigate 1 private merchantman 3 dispatch vessels 12 gunboats 15 transports 700 infantry 200 Dragoons 1,800 militia 1,200 indians
Casualties and losses
Unknown killed or wounded 2,355 prisoners (767 Portuguese defenders, and several mostly British sailors) 87 artillery pieces taken 26 British commercial vessels taken 1 ship of the line destroyed (272 fatalities on board)	12 killed and 200 wounded 1 frigate beached and scuttled

Decisive Spanish victory

The First Cevallos expedition was a military action between September 1762 and April 1763, by Spanish colonial forces led by Don Pedro Antonio de Cevallos, Governor of Buenos Aires, against Portuguese colonial forces in the Banda Oriental area during the Seven Years' War.

The Portuguese territories of Colonia do Sacramento and Rio Grande do Sul were conquered by the Spaniards. The Anglo-Portuguese forces were defeated and forced to surrender and retreat. The Colonia do Sacramento and the near territories were under Spanish control until the Treaty of Paris (1763), while Rio Grande do Sul would be reconquered by Portugal a few years later.

The Cevallos expedition was one of only two significant Spanish successes during its short involvement in the Seven Years' War, a short war marked by heavy losses for the Spanish. The other was the successful repelling of British attempts to take control of the Philippines during their occupation of Manila.

In January 1762, Spain joined France against Great Britain in the Seven Years' War, in accordance with the Third Pacte de Famille. The plan was to attack Portugal, which had been neutral up to then, but which was an important economic ally of Great Britain. On May 5 Spain invaded European Portugal and also decided to attack Portugal in South America, and in particular to take the long disputed Colonia del Sacramento and the Portuguese territories beyond the right bank of Guaporé River, the nowadays Brazilian state of Mato Grosso.

In the first days of January 1762 the frigate Victoria commanded by Carlos José de Sarriá, sailed from Cadiz to Buenos Aires with orders for the Governor of Buenos Aires, Pedro Antonio de Cevallos, to attack and take Sacramento.

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