604 Charles II, Naval Expeditions, &c, of the Englisli, Book
id
1673. Considering the Heat of Action,Loss on both and the Time the Engagement lasted,Sides. the L 0 f S of Ships was inconsiderable ;
On the English Side, no more than theHenrietta Tacht, which was funk. TheDutch own the Loss of but three or fourFire-lhips; But the English are positive,and the Lord Osfory confirms it, in aLetter, that the Dutch had two of theirlargest Men of War funk. To compen-sate the Loss of our brave AdmiralSpragge, the Dutch lost two of theirVice-Admirals, Sweers, and De Lief de,and in Return of two of our Captains,Sir William R eeves and Captain Hainan,two (some say three) of their Captains,one of whom was De RuyteBs Son inLaw, were kill’d. Of Seamen andSoldiers, the English , being over-man-ned, in Order for a Descent, were thegreatest Loosers: But as, in this Battle,neither Side can, with Justice, pretendto a Victory, so were the Losses on bothpretty equal; Tho’ rather greater onthe Dutch Side, than on ours. ( y)
The Dutch were more successful thisCampaign, by Land, than they were inthe former. The Prince of Orange tookNaerden , and Ronn, and the King ofFrance, tho’ he took Maeslricht, wasobliged to abandon all his Conquests inthe United Provinces, excepting thatand Grave, where he left Garrisons, af-ter having drawn out all the Rest of theTroops, in the Month of November.
This Year, likewise, the Duke ofYorkAf*^ married Maria cVEfle, Sister tocond Mar- Francis, Duke of Modena, very muchrtage. to the Dissatisfactirn of the Nation, aslhe was a Cat ho lick Princess.
Success of thePrince ofOrange.
Fran ceaban-dons herConquests.
Transactions in America, and otherforeign Parts, during this War.
si, Tobias Wh IL E these mugs were transeaing
Bridgestakes in Europe, Sir lobtas Bridges, lastingTabago. with a Squadron of five or six Ships,and a Regiment of Foot Soldiers, fromBarbadoes, to Tabago, a neighbouring
Plantation belonging to the Dutch, made !himself Master of that Island, with aBooty of about four Hundred Prisoners, putci 1 -and five Hundred Negroe-hiaves. DutchWriters fay the Dutch Fort, being at-tack’d by the English, made a fir aveand resolute Defence for five Hours;
But then found themselves under a Ne-cessity of capitulating. Not long after,the English, likewise, took from themSt. Euslace, another of the Caribbee I-slands, which was in their Possession.
About the same Time, four of their A a//
India Ships, having five or six HundredMen on Board, reduced the Island of St.
Helena, on the Coast of Africa ■ Butthe Governour and his People, after The P sl£Chaving severalTimes repulsed theDutch, ta ^finding the Fort not defensible, on the e eLand-side, embark’d with their most va-luable Effects, on Board some Englishand French Ships, and carried them off.
Commadore Richard Monday, who Capt^ 11 /was sent with four Men of War, to con- Monday jvoy the English E as-India Fleet, seing, ^kestVf !at his Arrival at St. Helena, what had Eafrl 11 ^ ■happened, and, besides, being in Want Sbip S -of Water, immediately set about to re-take it; Which he did without anygreat Resistance. This Loss was themore fatal to the Dutch ; Because, soonafter, three Eajl-India Ships, very richlyladen, coming in there, fell into theHands of she English -, And they mighthave taken more, had they not beentoo forward in discovering themselves.
For this notable Service,the King knight-ed Monday, at his Return. ^
In Revenge of these Proceedings, the The P 0 ^Dutch made an Attempt upon the Islandof Bombay, but were repulsed ; And Plantheir Vice Admiral Frederickfon (z) sail-ing, with thirteen (some Accounts fayfifteen) Men of War, to our Plantations . ^on the Continent, did us considerable jSea-^Mischief; ’Till meeting with ten Eng-lish Men of War, and some Merchant-Ships, a sharp Engagement ensued inwhich they lost their Admiral, and theEnglish, on their Side, lost three Mer-
chant-ships.
(y) The Dutch made Pretences to the Victo-ry thisTime, with such Assurance, that they hadPublick Rejoicings and Thanksgivings on that Ac-count, and De Ruyter was, on this Occasion,complimented with the Title of Preserver of hisCountry. This latter may, indeed, in some Mea-sure, be said to be justifiable, because he had pre-served his Country from the intended Invasion ofthe Englijb: And if it may be called a Victory,because the Englijh were prevented in their In-tention, which, indeed, is the chief Reason theyground their Pretence to it upon, they are not al-
together in the Wrong ,* But for any other Advan-tage it is apparent they had none.
(z) It is not very easy to reconcile our Ac-counts of this Transaction, with that of theDutch. Some of ours mention Frederickfon, andothers Evertzen, as Admiral, the Dutch mentiono nl y Evertzen. We fay, the Admiral was kill-led ; But it is certain that Evertzen returned. Ris most probable, that Frederickfon, who, accord-ing to our Accounts, was killed, w r as Commodoreof some particular Squadron-