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Chap.XXIIL from the I. of James I, to the Revolution,
1625. his Men, and put some Assurance intothem, and given Testimony to the E-nemy, that he went not off for Fear ofthem, but because he was to go a Ship-board, he had been sure to be beaten.
Having now staid a sufficient Timefor those Ends, he began to make hisRetreat, and then missed one Divisionof the Pikes of his Regiment, whichmy Lord Marshal had sent for away,without his Knowledge, which trou-bled him. First he commanded hisLieutenant-Colonel to advance his Pikesand Colours about ten Paces towards theEnemy, to countenance his Musketeersin coming off, which put the Enemy toa Stand, and which Time he made Useof to begin to retire. But when hecommanded his Men to turn theirFaces, and march off’ they began tobreak and run away, and much ado hehad to keep them together: But by theHelp of his Lieutenant-Colonel, andother Officers, who all stood firm, andhelped, with much Difficulty, by De-grees, he came off in reasonable goodOrder, and with little Loss. The Ene-my followed him close to the Fort,
where he having the Advantage of anold House, and placing Musketeerssafely in it, and about it, and at ei-ther End a Drake , which, alter he wascome under the Fort, with his Pikes, Jir ^„ a ls, hmy Lord Marshal sent him, and charg-ing them with Musket-Bullets, afterfour or five Times discharging, the E-nemy, by little and little, went clearaway, and he shipped his Men withoutany Trouble.
In all this Time, neither my LordMarshal, nor Sir William St. Leger ,ever came at Colonel Harwood, 'till hewas, with his Pikes, come close underthe Fort. (j) My Lords of Essex andValentia, and Colonel Bruce came se-veral Times to fee him ; (f) Yet noneof them do assume the making of theRetreat themselves, as my Lord Mar-Jlcal did, saying before this Table, he,and Sir fVilham St. Leger, made theRetreat, (u)
M y Lo/d MarJJoal proposed, thisDay,to keep the Fort, with one Hundredand twenty Men, (x) in which Cafe hewas opposed by them who said: " If" he left these Men in the Fort, it was
" needful
(s) This argues, that he, or those, who wrotethat Part shew, they do not understand what be-longs, either to the War, or how every oneought, in his Place, to perform his Duty. For ifa Colonel or two are not sufficient to make a Re-treat against an Enemy, that was nomore in Num-ber, (not so much as half those Troops that wereordained to make the Retreat against them) shew-eth, that they despaired of their Sufficiency, thatmade their Retreat, tho’ I held them sufficient to haveperformed a greater Business; But had I thoughtthey had not been so, then would not I have Ship-ed my Horse as I did ; But would have made myRetreat myself, which was not my Place to havedone; For my Place was rather to have looked tohave given Order, to have seconded him with newTroops, if either he had needed, or had sent tome for Order, which he never did.
(t) That cannot be; For my Lord of EJfexwas with me, when Sir Henry Bruce cast off hisCoat, and went to fee the Reason why ColonelHarwood did so long stick upon the Retreat.
(a) I must answer him who urges this Point,I mould be sorry to deliver any Thing before thisTable, that was not true, especially of myself;My Answer is; That he who has contradictedthat Point is no Soldier, and does not know whata Retreat is for Part of the Army, and a Retreatof the whole Army, and it’s Appurtenances, asCannon, Horses and Baggage, and to fee the Ar-my embarked, with all belonging to it. So that,as Colonel Harwood made the Retreat of Part of theArmy, ’till he came to me to the Sconce , (underavhichProtection)andto which Place he wastomakehis Retreat; And that when I sent him the smallPieces; then it could not be properly said, that hemade any more Retreat. Then, to speak proper-ly? I made the Retreat; For I stay’d there so
long, to see all Things shipped, that most of theOfficers, except the Serjeant-Major-General, andColonel Burgh, left me, without taking theirLeave. This Charge was ignorantly, and forWant of Judgment, as many of the others are ;For altho’ there be sufficient Soldiers among theten who have subscribed, and therefore I cannotthink it came from their Pen; Yet I know theyare of the lesser Number by many, that are .pro-fessed Soldiers, and not many, and yet those maybe content to let such Errors pass, for their Ad-vantages, and to see whether I would take Ex-ceptions at it.
(x) It is true, I did propose it, and would wehad kept it ; For then we had now been Mastersof the P/a/e-Fleet, which came into that Bay,.within four Days after our Departure. It was aFort that might have been well defended, or, atleast, so well disputed, as.those that had been in_it, might have made as good a Composition forthemselves, as the Enemy we put out of it did ;For I meant to have left two Hundred Men, andabout twenty Ships for about fourteen Days, witha sufficient Number of Ordnance, and well victual'd,and furnished with Ammunition, but there wasnone who would condescend to it, doubting os theDanger. Then my Answer was,. that withouttheir Consent I would not do it. It had, how-ever, been a good Service, especially to have gi-ven us the Assurance of a good Harbour, which.
■ we had nowhere else, upon any Occasion. WhenI saw no one would venture the Danger to holdit, my Answer was; It is true, there is no goingto the Wars without Danger, and that he whowill undertake any Thing of Worth, must ven-ture more than two Hundred Men..