6 8o W. and M. Naval Expeditions, &c of the English, Book 1^*

1693. repulsed; However he continued hisFire, with so much Fury, that theMasters themselves seing there was noPossibility of saving the Ships, after hav-ing done their utmost to defend them,funk them : Tho’ Father Daniel pre-tends, the French took six Ships here,The French The French, upon this, returned toreturn to Cadiz, from whence they sent their

Cadiz. Prizes (being about eighteen) to Eoulon,

with two Men of War ; And detach’dabout fourteen Ships, with two Bomb-Vessels, to Gibraltar, where they ap-proach’d so near the Fortifications, thatthey were fired upon, as well fromthem, as the Mole and Ships, the wholeDay, but without any Return on theirSide. They sent in a Frigat to attackfour Merchant-Ships, which were boundfor Turky ; But she met with so warma Reception, that they were obliged tofunk at’oh- rescue, her with their Boats; And thebraltar. Masters of the Merchant-men, in theEnd, followed the Example of those atMalaga, and, boring Holes in theirShip’s Sides, funk them. Upon whichthe French Fleet retired to Lagos-Baj.Here Father Daniel again gives theFrench an Advantage, which I do notfind mentioned elsewhere; And says,

(g) Having- given an Account above of theSeparation of Sir George Rooke’s Squadron, andthe Merchant-ships under his Convoy, after theyfell in with the French Fleet, under the Commandof Monsieur de Tourville, it may not be amiss,before I conclude this Chapter, to give a summa-ry Account of the total Loss occasioned by thisunlucky Accident, and with what Eye that Acci-dent was looked upon by the Publick. Notwith-standing the French , by following the Dutch to-wards the Shoar, gave a fair Opportunity, as Ihave observed before, for a great Part of ourFleet to get off, yet the Loss was very conside-rable : For, (according to Kennet, and the Histo-ry of King William) besides four of the greatestSmirna-SEvps, and one Dutch Man of War, whichMonsieur Coetlogon burnt or funk at Gibraltar,and seven which he took, Monsieur de Tourville,and the Count d’Esirees , took two Dutch Men ofWar, burnt a rich Pinnace, and an Englijh Manof War, took nine and twenty Merchant-men,and destroyed about fifty more.

This Misfortune lay heavy upon the Hearts ofthe Merchants, and indeed upon the Minds of allthe People of England ; The Turky- Company,in particular, complained, that the Departure ofthe Fleet was designedly put off, 'till the FrenchFleet was in a Readiness to wait for them; Thatthe Admirals had Advice of Part of their Fleetbeing at Sea, when they left the Turky -Convoy ;And that the whole Transaction, as it happened,was publickly talked of six Weeks before at Mar-seilles. And therefore, at the Meeting of theParliament, (of which for the Sake of ConnexionI shall speak here) the first Thing they did, wasto enquire into the Miscarriages of the Fleet, thelast Summer, and to consider how best to pre-serve the Trade of the Nation, Some Time was

Monsieur de Coetlogon burnt four Shipsrichly laden, and took thirteen more.

Of English he could take none, therebeing no more in that Harbour thanthe four which funk themselves. Theone Dutch Ship, which was there, fol-low’d the Example of the Englijh ; Be-sides these there were none but sevenDanes and Swedes, and two Genoeses,who were suffered to come peaceablyout of the Bay, and to go unmolested,whither they thought fit:

But to return Home, the Winter- •yheFU eijSeason advancing, the Admirals received orderedOrders,the five and twentieth of August, St.H^to come with the Fleet to St. Helen's,the Soldiers were put assioar at Ports-mouth, and the three-deck’d Ships sentto Blackflakes, excepting four whichwere to be refitted at Portsmouth. Thenineteenth of September, fifteen of the 'large Dutch Ships, with two Frigats,were ordered by His Majesty to Hol-land ; And the Body of the Fleet beingnow separated, it was ordered, thatone Second-Rate; Seventeen Third-Rates; Seven Fourth-Rates; OneFifth-Rate ; Seven Fire-ssiips, and twoHospital-Ships, should be the Winter-guard, (g)

We

Ipent in examining the Instructions and Ordersgiven to the Fleet, (which were thought weaklydrawn, ambiguous and defective, but worse exe-cuted) the Number of Ships for the Line of Bat-tle, and of the Convoys and Cruisers, the Admi-rals who commanded both, and the Results ofthe several Councils of War held by them; GreatExceptions were taken to the many Delays, bywhich it seemed a Train was laid, that theyshould not get out of our Ports, 'till the Frenchwere ready to lay Wait for them. They wereaccused of not having used any Zeal orDiligencein getting Information concerning the FrenchFleet; But had, in that important Article, trust-ed too easily to general and uncertain Reports.

Against all which,they chiefly screened themselves,by alledging, they had punctually obeyed theirOrders. After all which, on the seventeenth ofNovember, the Commons resolved : It was the 0-pinion of that House, that there had been a No-torious and Treacherous Mismanagement in theMiscarriage of the Smyrm-Fleet. Their nextEnquiry was, fVhy ^cStreights Fleet wasftopped,

‘till the Main Fleet went out? And then , Whythe Main Fleet did not convoy Sir George Rooke’iSquadron,. and the Merchant-ships, cut of theDanger of the French Fleet ? And, it being al-ledged. That the Main Fleet was not sufficientlyvictual'd, the Commons examined the State oftheir Stores at Sailing from Spithead, and, there-upon, Resolved, on the seven and twentieth ofNovember, That there were sufficient Beer andower Stores, on Board the Main Fleet, when SirGeorge Rooke separated, to have served them,till they had convoy'd this Squadron and theMerchant-ffijps, out of Danger of the Brdd-Fleet.

But tho' the Miscarriage was very notorious,they knew not where to fix the particular Blame:

For,