704. W. and M. Naval Expeditions, &c. oj the English,

Book I'

1695. Accordingly, the Commadore pro-They arrive ceeded to Cape Francis, (i) which was

Francis and ver y Windermost Settlement theare fired up- French had, and when he had put onon from the Shoar the Rest of the English Forces,French Fort. w ] t hj n three Leagues of the Cape, hemoved forward,’till he came within Gunshot of the Fort, from whence theFrench fired very warmly at our Ships,and, in some Measure, disabled one ofthem, called the Swan.

Resolution It was concluded, that as soon as theabout attach- Soldiers could march to one End of theingtheimn Town? the Ships should batter the Fort,whereon were mounted forty Guns, andthat the Seamen should assault the backof it, the Ground there being higherthan the Fort itself; In Order to whicha convenient Place was sought for, toland at; But they were repulsed: How-ever, the next Evening, they went with

a greater Strength, and theEnemy ima- ihfygining, that we then intended to land,they blew up the Fort, and burnt theTown, laying Trains of Powder to the , a . c j,Houses, where any Plunder was, whichhad like to have done much Mischief to Iff#.'our Men.

The next Day, the Commadore sent

JieS/utfos

tnarchi^S.

to the Spanish Admiral, to know when plrt&e&yhe could be ready to go to Port dePaix not exetA lJupon whose Answer it was agreed, at aConsultation, that Major Lillingjlonshould march thither, with three Hun-dred English, in Company of the SpanishForces, it being (as they said) aboutfourteen Leagues off; (if) But whatwas thus determined not being put inExecution, and the Men being unruly,they straggled up and down the Coun-try, for Plunder, by which Means se-veral of them were lost. (/)

The

P- 5 °‘ (i) The Colonel fays, that while they were

on Shoar, the Fleet rode in Samina- Bay, on theother Side of the Island. That they came to theFleet, the twenty-fecond of April-, When, tho’he pressed the Commadore to weigh, and standaway for the Cape, yet he loiter'd away six Daysin the Bay, diverting himself with Women andMustek.

p, £ 2> [k) Here {fays the Colonel') Mr. Burchet is

pleased to impose upon the World again ; For itwas agreed, to land a Party; (which was done,and consisted of two Hundred, and not threeHundred Men, commanded by my Brother;) Butas it was not my Business, who commanded thewhole Body ; So I hope the World will believe,I knew my Business better, than to march myselfwith a Detachment, and leave the Rest on Board.At Cape Francis , the French had a small Fort,which they made a Shew of defending -, Nearthis Fort, I resolved to land with my wholeForce, and the Spanijh Army was to destroy theCountry, as they came by Land.

p, £3, (I) The latter Part of this Paragraph Mr.

Burchett had given, in his Memoirs , in the follow-ing Words: " Either (fays he) the said Colonel" thought it not proper to undertake this Af-" fair, or, for some other Reasons, it was laid" aside, and the Men straggled up and down the“ Country, for Plunder, by which Means, seve-re ral of them were lostWhich, in his largerNaval History 1 he has altered as above : To thisthe Colonel answers: “ This, as it is a Notorious" Forgery, so it is a ridiculous Story; For, first," I could not be said to decline the Undertaking,“ for I sent my Major with this Party, and I“ need not trouble the World to tell them, how“ ridiculous I should have look’d, and how I" should have exposed even His Majesty’s Judg-" ment, in sending one so far, who knew no bet-" ter. For as, when on Shoar, I was to com-" ma nd even the Spanish Generals, so it would«- have been a senseless Thing for me to have«« g 0ne with a Party, and expect the Spaniards«< sliould have been commanded by a Leader of“ a Detachment: But to end all the Dispute, I“ affirm it was never concluded or designed, that-- I should go myself; But my Major was order-" ed to command this Party? which he did ac-" cordingly.

" As he was an experienced Officer, and had“ served on all Occasions, with an unbiemifh’d" Conduct, for about twenty Years, so he knew“ better what his Duty was, than to let the MenC£ straggle in an Enemy’s Country. They march-“ ed in Conjunction with the Spaniards , and un-" der the strictest Discipline. Their Orders were“ to destroy the Country, and ruin the Planta-“ tions of the Enemy, and this they observed;

" But with as much Conduct, and as much Obe-“ dience to their Officers, as could be desired of" Old Soldiers, who knew their Duty, and valu-es ed themselves upon it.

Thus far I have transcrib’d Colonel Li tung-stens Reflections v.rbatim , But, as the narrowLimits I am confined to will not allow me to con-tinue doing so, I shall,for the future,endeavour toabridge them, so as not to omit any material Cir-cumstances ; And shall only transcribe such wholePassages, as I shall judge absolutely necessary:

While this was doing (fays my Author) I p. £4*®-'landed, with the Rest of the Army, at Cape Fran-cis, and had all the Interruption, and ill-naturedUsage, in my Landing, as the Commadore wascapable of. The Boats had no Officers to com-mand them, which occasioned great Confusion andDelay ; And the Landing-place was so contrived?that we had five Leagues and a half to march to aPlace whither the Boats would have had but oneLeague and a half, to have rowed. The Frenchiupon our landing, blew up their Fort, and re-treated, carrying off what they could to Port deF’aix.

Here we found the first Experiment 0 f Cap-tain Wilmof s Management, pursuant to the Re-solution, he told me he had taken, of minding hisown Business, without any Respect to His Maje-sty s Instructions. We had about five Miles tomarch, when the Enemy blew up theFort; But asloon as he perceived it, and that the Town wasdeserted, he man’d his Boats with four or fiveHundred Seamen, and, rowing on Shoar, madeI, T‘ ick ^ork, that when we came, we found

. ■‘■own plundered, and the Boats returned,with whatever was worth carrying on Board, onesingle Seaman being left to guard the Flag he hadlet up : And now the-Contrivance of landing usat such a Distance was visible. This Usage had

like