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Charles II. Naval Expeditions, Scc. o) the English, Book lE

1673. Occasions, likewise, during the Engage-ment, with so much Gallantry, and pliedhis Broad-sides with so much Fury, aswell as good Management, on the Ene-my’s Ships, that whole Squadrons fledbefore him. The Fight lasted ’till ten oreleven at Night; At which Time, theretreat^ 1 Dutch, tho’ they had the Weather-secondTime-, gage, and could have obliged the Con-federates to fight the next Day, thoughtfit to retreat, and used their utmostEndeavours to reach their own Coasts.This Retreat, their own Writers allow,and Prince 'R.upert, in his Account ofthe Action, takes Notice of the greatConfusion the whole Dutch Fleet was inat that Time. And, indeed, it plainlyappears, throughout the whole Engage-ment, that tho’ the Dutch came outwith a Design to fight, they had nogreat Inclination to it; For tho’ theyhad the Advantage of the Wind, theywould never make Use of it, to cometo a close Fight. Rapin, for thisReason, calls this Battle, rather a Can-nonading of about'four Hours; But heforgets to observe, that the Confederates,not having the Wind, could come nonearer to the Dutch, than they wouldlet them.

The Night being closed in, beforeAnd are pur- the Dutch began to retreat, with the Bo-ue ’ dy of their Fleet, the Confederates werenot sensible of it for some Hours; How-ever, about two in the Morning, theystood after them, and continued theChafe, as well as the Wind would letthem, ’till six, when perceiving theywere gotten within the Shoals, theygave it over, and steered for the EngUJhCoasts,where they arrived about eleven,(j) This Battle having been fought, asI observed above, at a Distance, therewere no Ships either taken or destroyed,

Damages on on either Side; But many were veryloth Sides. J

much damaged,especially on the Side os 1673'the Dutch, which obliged them to de-cline the Battle the next Day, tho’ theyhad the Advantage os the Wind.

The Confederate Fleet, having land- The Con {e-ed their wounded Men, and taken ' in a derates pjfresh Store of Provisions and Ammuni - to Seaag aition, put again to Sea, on the seven-teenth of the same Month, (in the Pre-sence of the King, who came down theRiver to see the Fleet,) with a Bodyof seven Thousand fresh Troops, where-of four Thousand were distributed onBoard the Men of War. The Design pheirwas to attempt a Descent on the Coast sign ;of Zealand. They appeared before theMaese, the twenty-third, the nextDay,were off of Scbeveling and Zandvort, andquickly after, before the Texel ; Fromwhence they cruised along the wholeCoast of Holland and Frizeland, to theVly, Ame!and, and the JVeftern-Ems ;

And, in theBeginning of August, return- ^ed again before the Dexel. These va - t,on5 ‘rious Motions of the Confederate Fleetwere a great Inconvenience to theDutch, as well by harassing theirTroops,which were obliged to follow them, asby endangering their homeward-boundTrade, and particularly a rich Eaf-In- Adia Fleet, which they were in Expecta- In ^tion of, and of which they took one Ship avery richly laden.

The Dutch bore with this patiently,near a Fortnight, (f) and had the Mor-tification to have not only theirHarboursblock’d up, but their Ships taken intheir very Sight. At Length, Despairroused their Courage, and they resolv-ed, in a Council of War, held on BoardDe Ruyter' sShip, in the Presence of the I

Prince of Orange, to leave their Station,and hazard a third Engagement, rather A Ithan suffer these Insults any longer : Buttho’, pursuant to this Resolution, they ^ °put to Sea on the third of Auguf, it was

the

(s) Because the Dutch did not fee the EngUJhand French, the next Morning, they raise an Ar-gument from thence,that the EngUJh retreated theNight before; And Van Tromp, who is never socandid in his Relations as De Ruyter, goes so far,in his Letter to the States, to fay they chased theEngUJh to within five Miles of Solebay; Thanwhich nothing can be more evidently false. Baf-nage gives the Dutch no other Advantage, thanthat of having prevented the Design of the Eng-UJh, in making a Descent on their Coasts.

(f) The Dutch pretend they were out at Sea,in this Time, and that, in particular, on thetwenty-fecond of July, they met, and not only of-fered the EngUJh Battle, but pursued and urged

them to it, by firing several Shot at them, by Wayof Challenge ; But that they declined it; Which,all Circumstances considered, appears very impro-bable ; I might fay impossible; And they ownthemselves, the whole Country was under the ut-most Consternation at the Approach of the Con-derate Fleet. The Authorjof De Ruyter ’sLife faysthe fame, and relates several Circumstances ofthis pretended Flight; But concludes, that it wasthe Opinion first of De Ruyter, and afterwards ofall the other Flag-Officers, that this Retreat wasonly a Feint of the EngUJh, to draw the DutchFleet from their Coasts, that they might the bet-ter effect their intended Descent: And Bajnage de-clares himself of the same Opinion*

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