648 W. and M. Naval Expeditions, &c. of the English, Book A

CHAP. VII.

Naval Expeditions and Transactions of the English, in Europe, during the Tear,

1691. with sundry other Occurrences of that Tear.

f g H E three and twentieth of De-i cember, of the foregoing Year,

Mr. Rujsei was appointed Ad-miral of the Fleet, and the greatest Di-K. J William, ligence was used in Order to an earlyMemoires de Campaign, {d) By his Instructions, heMr. Russel was,indeed, impowered to proceed, fromappointed Time toTime, in such Manner as mightAdmiral oj best enable him to destroy the Enemy,the Fleet. bither by Sea or Land, without expect-ing particular Orders; It was, however,expressly provided, that if bad Weatherrendered it unsafe for him to proceed toSea, he should repair to, and remain atTorb ay, ’till farther Orders, the Confe-

fenger on Shoar, to know the Reason of theirnot giving the Assault, which when he under-stood, and that many of the Men were almostfrozen to Death, and the Colonel and othersill of the Small-Pox , he ordered them onBoard to refresh themselves ; And calling aCouncil of War, it was resolved to return.Thus ended this fruitless Expedition, which costthe Colony of New England forty ThousandPounds.

F- Daniel- Fatiier Daniel , in his Relations of thisYear,in the Month of Offober, mentioning this unsuc-cessful Expedition on Canada , by Sir F/illiamPhipps , fays, he summoned the Count de Fron-tenac to give up jpuebec to him, and upon hisRe-fjfd he landed two Thousand Men. Severalsharp Encounters passed between them. On thetenth of that Month, towards Evening, four ofthe biggest Vessels of the five and thirty, of whichSir Williams Fleet consisted, advanced to theTown of ghtebec, and cannonaded it. TheTownplied them so heartily with their Cannon, thatthe Englijh Admiral was very much damaged,and obliged to retire, in Order to refit, as werelikewise his three Companions. They made a se-cond Attempt the nineteenth. Their Design wasto pass a snail River and seize upon certain Posts,from whence they,might, with great Ease, di-stress the Town; But the Count de Frontenac op-posing them, with four Battalions of regularTroops, they had not the Resolution to attackthem. Seing no Prospect of Success, they re-treated that very Night, and embarked theirTroops with so much Precipitation, that theywould not give themselves the Time to take fivePieces of Cannon, which they had brought onShoar, back again to their Ships, but left them,together with their Powder and Bali, a Prey tothe French. They lost a great Number of theirSoldiers, partly in the Attack, and partly by Sick-ness. The Besieged had, likewise, some Officersslain and wounded, among whom were the Che-valier de Clermont, and the Sieur de la Touche.

(a) The Admiral's Instructions were, to fail toBurcheit. such a Station in the Soundings, or on the French

quences of which Restraint were not, 1691*perhaps, so thoroughly considered, asthey might have been. With his In-structions, the Admiral likewise receiv-ed a List of the Ships, of which theMain Fleet was appointed to consist, {b )

The Ships which were to composethis Fleet being victual’d, and tollerablywell-manned, the Admiral receivedOrders from the Queen, dated the se-venth of May, (c) to proceed into theSoundings, provided the Dutch had join-ed him, and that he thought it properto venture the great Ships there, atsuch a Season of the Year.

The

i

Coast, as might be most proper for annoying thaEnemy, and protecting our Trade ; But it wasparticularly recommended to him not to leave theDowns , until he should be joined by twentyDutchShips of War, or at least eighteen, and that hehad appointed a Squadron to look out after theFrench Ships, at Dunkirk, with the Commanderin Chief of which Squadron, he was to leave In-structions, how to join the Fleet, should there beOccasion for it.

From the Soundings, he was to detach a con-siderable Number of Ships and Fire-ships to Gal-loway, in Ireland , either to prevent the Frenchlanding of Succours there, or to destroy them, ifin that Harbour; And it was left to his Discre-tion, to ly, with the Body of the Fleet, in sucha Station, as that this Detachment might mostreadily join him, to prevent the ill Consequencesof his being attacked by the French, when sepa-rated.

(b) According to this List, his Fleet consist-ed of Five First-Rates; Eleven Second-Rates ;

Two and thirty Third-Rates; Nine Fourth-Rates ; Four Fifth-Rates; Three Sixth-Rates ;

Twenty Fire-ships; Four Hospital Ships j OneSloop; One Brigantine ; And one Yacht; In all,ninety-one Sail, seventy of which were of theLine of Battle; Besides the Dutch, which cameover in good Time, and whose gttota wzs general- Bursts'ly five to eight, or, as Bishop Burnet fays, wasthis Time agreed to be, three to five, of equalRates and Strength.

if) Not to interrupt the Thread of my Dis- _course above, I shall hint here at some Transac- /

Bons which happened before, and about the fame

. William had hardly recovered the Fa.

tigue of his Irijh Expedition, and of the Affairsol the Parliament, which assembled on the secondol Otfcber, and remained sitting till the fifth ofJanuary , than he found himself obliged to pre-pare for new Fatigues, I mean those of going toHolland, to be present at the Congress ol theHague. His Majesty went to Gravefend , on thesixteenth of January , and embarked there, seve-

1691.

Burnet.Rennet.Burchett.Hittorv nf