contest any British acquisition there to their south. An important Canadian scholar has shown that regardless of the 1600s Stuart King land grants beyond the Mississippi River to the American colonies, Britain's primary motive in ceding its 1763 French territory to the Americans in 1783 was "to cheat the Spaniards." Elliot was made a Knight of the Bath and was created 1st Baron Heathfield of Gibraltar. Many British regiments engaged in the defence were given the badge of the Castle of Gibraltar with the motto "Montis Insignia Calpe," in commemoration of the gallant part they took in the "Great Siege." The failure of the floating batteries reduced General d'Arçon to despair, and he was deeply resentful of the failure for the rest of his life, printing a vindication in 1783 under the title "Mémoires pour servir à l'histoire du siège de Gibraltar, par l'auteur des batteries flottantes." Soon after the siege the town of Gibraltar was reconstructed, the defenses strengthened, and bastions constructed. The tunnelling continued after the siege and a series of connecting galleries and communication tunnels to link them together with the Lines were built. By the end of the 18th century, nearly of tunnels had been dug. Spain made no further attempt to besiege or blockade Gibraltar until May 1968, when the Spanish Government closed the frontier and started an economic blockade. Legacy Literature Captain John Drinkwater Bethune, who was present during the siege, wrote an eye-witness account of the campaign, entitled, A history of the siege of Gibraltar, 1779–1783, first published in 1785, considered one of the best accounts of that campaign. Baron Münchhausen recorded in the fourth version of the book by Rudolf Eric Raspe his visit to Gibraltar, arriving on board Admiral Rodney's flagship HMS Sandwich. Münchhausen writes that after seeing his 'old friend Elliot,' he dressed as a Catholic priest and slipped over to the Spanish lines where he caused considerable damage with a bomb. Music In 1782 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed Bardengesang auf Gibraltar: O Calpe! Dir donnert's am Fuße'' a piece of music commemorating the Great Siege. Mozart was known to have a favourable view of the British. Paintings There are numerous paintings of the siege by well known artists of the period. Poetry Alexei Tsvetkov's poem "The Rock" (Russian: Скала) was inspired by the siege. Commemorative coin In 2004 the Gibraltar National Mint released a commemorative coin into circulation. These