5 io Charles I. Naval Expeditions ,&c, of the English, Book I it C

1627. October the seventh, there landedseven Boats at the little Fort. For fouror five Days, nothing was done; OurSoldiers died apace, (y)

Prepara- On the thirteenth, there was greattions made Preparations for an Assault; Neitherscr an As- would my Lord Duke be dissuaded (butf ault ’ by the foul Weather) altho’ all theColonels subscribed it under their Handsto be a Thing impossible; And also forour present Departure, in as much as ourArmy grew so weak, and we had cer-tain Intelligence of the Landing of fourThousand Foot, and two HundredHorse, the Horse being already imbark-ed. Sir Henry Sprye used a Soldier likeWholesome Freedom of Speech, in shewing to myAdvice n- £ orc j t be Necessity of our Departure,je e ' and that it would be honourable, hav-ing sufficiently shewn our Valour andResolution, in remaining so long a Timein an Enemy’s Country, with such aHandful of Men, and who never daredto meddle with us; And besides, itwould be no more dishonourable for us,being so few in Number, after fourMonths Siege, to go away from a Placeunfeasible, than it was for one of the

greatest Soldiers in the World, Spinal a , 1627-to rife from Bergenopzoom , with thirtyThousand Men; But he was answered,with a Court like Scorn, that be talked asif he had come from an Alehouse. Andfor the Rest of the Colonels, who wereall of the same Opinion, and durst speaktheir Opinions, instead of hearkning un-to them, by whom he ought to be go-verned, he abused them in Words, in-somuch, as many of them swore theywould never come forth with a Manwho durst not return. But my LordDuke was swayed by some insinuatingSycophants, and others, who told himit would be dishonourable to go away,having two Months Victuals; But, atLength, we were fain to leave our Vic-tuals and Men behind us too, to run a-way far more dishonorably. Then foulWeather happening that they could notfall upon the Fort, Baron St. Serin toldmy Lord Duke, he was very glad ofthe Weather; and told him freely aTruth, the Experience whereof we dear-ly bought; That we should lose our Mento little Purpose. ( z )

On

Ammunition, but how many of them got in hecould not tell.

About three in the Afternoon, at High Wa-ter, we sent six Men in a Bark, to fire the Ene-my’s Boats in the Citadel. Two of them came oft'in a Pair of Oars, and one swum away. The o-ther three they took, and having extinguished theFire, received no Damage in their Boats.

This Night, there came many Boats from themain Land, and landed five Hundred Men in FortLa Pree.

The nine and twentieth, a Council of Warwas held almost the whole Day.

The first of Otlober , we began to dismountour Cannon from our Batteries, and to prepare tofend them on Ship-board-

The second, third and fourth, were spent al-most wholly in Councils of War; My Lord Dukeadvising an OnsetBut most of our Commanderswere much against it, knowing the Citadel to beimpregnable, and not to be taken by Assault.Nevertheless, my Lord Duke resolved to stay itout, expecting my Lord of Holland’s coming fromEngland, with Supplies both of Men and Vic-tuals.

The fifth, Monsieur Monthault came fromthe Fort, to parly with my Lord Duke, and thenext Day another Gentleman.

(y) The seventh, there came a Drum fromthe main Land, with a Letter for my Lord

Duke. , „

By this Time, we had sent aboard all ourCannon, except those on the Battery by the Wa-ter-Side, which were not dismounted.

This Day, Monsieur Dolbear came from Eng-land , and brought Advice that there were greatPreparations in England for my Lord ol Hol-land's, speedy Dispatch hither.

The ninth, we shipped as many of our sickMen as we could. The fame Evening, we had aviolent Storm, which continued all the next Day.A Collier, in which we had about eighty sick Menfunk, and all the Men were drowned. AnotherBark lost her Anchors, and was driven ashoarnear the Citadel. In this Storm, we lost, at least,twenty of our Ships Boats.

The tenth, a Ship came from England laden,with Provisions for my Lord Duke, and the nextDay arrived five more.

The eleventh, we finished Shipping off oursick Men.

The twelfth, four of the Enemy, all Personsof Distinction, came riding full Carreer out ofthe Fort. One of them; who proved to be Mon-sieur St. Serin’s Brother, was knocked off hisHorse by a Serjeant, with his Halbert, and takenPrisoner. The other three escaped to Fort LaPree.

(er) Our whole Army was drawn up in theFields, where my Lord Duke took a View ofthem. His Grace made a Speech to the Soldiers,telling them he had now certain News from En-gland, that the Fleet was coming. He assuredthem they should be eased of their Duty, and besupplied with all Provisions, both Necessaries andCloaths.

This Night, there was a Council of War,where it was agreed, we should fall on the Fort,with all the Force we could make to that Pur-pose. A great Number of Sailors were sent foron Shoar, to be assistant. We were to fall on a-bout three the next Morning, but about two fellso much Rain as hindered the Design ; And so itcontinued raining for two Days. ( This Journalgoes no farther .)

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