It \ ^H4 p„ XXXIX. from the I. oj James I. to the Revolution.

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Upon this Tiddiman began the At-tack, which ended fatally. Divers Fri-gats were disabled, and many Officersand Seamed were killed. The Squa-dron was thus ruined, and Tiddimanwas ready to link : So he was forced toflip his Cables, and retire to the Fleet,which lay without the Rocks, (r) ThisAction was on the third of Augufl:And, on the fourth, the Governour re-ceived his Orders. So he sent for Clif-ford, and shewed him his Orders : But,as the Englifn Fleet had, by their Pre-cipitation,forced him to do what he haddone, so he could not, upon what hadhappened the Day before, execute thoseOrders, ’till he sent an Account ofwhat had passed, to the Court of Den-mark, and had the King’s second Or-ders upon it. And, if the whole En-glish Fleet would not stay in those Seas

so long, he desired they would leavesix Frigats before the Harbour, and hewould engage, the Dutch should not goout to Sea, in the mean while. But theEnglijh were sullen upon their Disap-pointment, and sailed away. The Kingof Denmark was unspeakably troubledat the Loss of the greatest Treasure hewas ever like to have in his Hands.This was a Design well laid, that wouldhave been as fatal to the Dutch, as ig-nominious to the King of Denmark ;And was, by the impatient Ravenous*ness of the Englijh, lost, without Possi-bility of Recovery. ( t')

In the Month of May of this Tear,a terrible Plague broke out in London,which carried of, in that City alone, asit is said, more than a Hundred Thou-sand Souls, in less than a Tear.

1665.

CHAP. XXXIX.

Naval Expeditions and Transactions of the English, with other remarkable Occur-rences, in the Tears, 1666 and 1667. to the Conclusion of the jirjl Dutch War.

'666.

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A Four Days Engagement between theEnglish, uuder the Command of PrinceRupert, and the Earl of Albemarl,and the Dutch Fleet under De Ruyter,Cornelius Van Tromp and Evertzen.

I N the Beginning of the Tear 1666,the French King, at the repeatedInstances of the States General, andat the same Time, pursuing his Interest,

to keep up the Divisions between thetwo Maritime Potentates, in Order toweaken both, and that the Dutch mightbe induced to continue the War theyfound themselves unequal to, becamea Party with them in it. He recalledhis Ambassadors, and having, on thenineteenth of January, declared Waragainst England, fitted out a Fleet ofsix and thirty Men of War, besides

Gallies

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Vie de Mi-chel DeRuyter.Bafnage An-nates desProvincesUnies.

Lev en derZee-HeldenCol. of Voy.VI Vol. inFolio.

British Emp,in America.

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(st Mr. Secretary Burchett says, but Withoutmentioning his Authority, that Tiddiman attack-ed the Enemy’s Ships, with so much Resolution,that notwithstanding the utmost Efforts of theDutch and the Danes , who had raised a strongBattery for their Defence, he burnt some of theirShips, and did considerable Damage to the Rest.He adds, that this Service performed, the Fleetmade Sail again for the Coasts of Holland , whencebeing again forced to the Northward, they metwith the Dutch-EaJl-lndia-Men, under a goodConvoy, and several other of their Merchant-ihips ; And took eight Men of War, two of theirbest India Ships,, and twenty of the other Mer-chant-men, with which, together with some otherFrizes, and four Men of War, and above a Thou-sand Men, and several Ships which they took af-terwards, they returned to the English Coasts.

0 s ) “ To succeed (says Rapid) in this Design,( C there was a Necessity of acquainting the Vice-t roy of Norway , and the Governour of Ber-" ghen, with it; Because, as the King of Den-J m ark was not to appear publickly in it, theywere to make a Shew of protecting the Dutch" Ships, it was likewise requisite, that the Earl

: of Sandwich should be let into the Secret, toprepare him how to take the loud Complaintsthe Governour of Berghen was to make on Ac-count of the Outrages committed by the En-glijh. But several unhappy Incidents renderedthe whole Project abortive- The Governourof Berghen, was to have received his Or-ders from the Vice-roy of Norway, but theywere sent him too late; And the Messengerwhom Talbot sent from Copenhagen to the£'»-glijh Fleet, was intercepted and seized by theDutch.

“ In short, the Earl of Sandwich having Ad-vice, that they were in daily Expectation ofDe Ruyter , was willing to execute his Orders,before he arrived, and therefore detached SirThomas 'Tiddiman, with his Squadron, to per-form it- Sir Thomas fell upon the Dutch withgreat Resolution : But they had Time enoughto prepare for a Defence. On the other Side,the Governour of Berghen, who had receivedno special Orders concerning this Affair, seingopen Hostilities committed, and observing thatthe English Shot did Damage to the Town,fired, in Earnest, from the Citadel, upon the

“ Englijh ,