720
1697.
Death oftheVice-Admi-ral.
1697.
Kennet.Burnet.Burchett-j Hist. of ICWilliam.Death of theLord Berke-ley.
W. and M. Naval Expeditions, &c. of the English, Book
was told, he had no such Orders, andtherefore could not accept of the Cour-tesy. The Admiral, therefore, put hisShips into the best Condition he could,and failed for Virginia , where he died,the seven and twentieth of -August ; Butthe Seamen most of them recovered their
Health there. The Command of theFleet thereby devolving on CaptainThomas Dilkes, he arrived with it in The Fleets 1England, the four and twentieth of Oc- turns 'tober ■, (k) Being the only survivingCaptain of the whold Fleet.
CHAP. XXL
Naval Expeditions and Transactions of the English, in Europe, with other Occur-rences, to the Conclufon of the Peace of Ryswick. ( a )
EFORE I proceed to the Trans-■'v actions of our Fleet, I shall take& Notice of some few other Occur-rences which happened before itwent to Sea. The Beginning of this Year,died the Lord Berkeley, of whom fre-quent and honourable Mention has beenmade, in the foregoing Sheets.The twen-ty-seco nd of .April, the King appointed
the Archbishop of Canterbury, the LordChancellour, the Earl of Pembroke,Lord Privy Seal, the Duke of Devon-shire, the Duke of Shrewsbury, theEarl of Sunderland, the Earl of Romney,and Edward Rujfel, Esq; first Commis-sioners of the Admiralty, to be LordsJustices of England, during his Absence.Two Days after, the King left Kenfing-
ton ,
1697-
(k) As the Reader may be desirous to knowwhat came of Monsieur Ponti, after he escapedVice-Admiral Nevil’s Squadron, I think it pro-per to mention here, that the first Place he touch-ed at, in his Way Home, was Newfoundland ,where Captain John Norris , (afterwards SirJohn Norris, ) lay, in the Harbour of St.John’s, with a Squadron, consisting of fourFourth-Rates, two Fifth-Rates, two Sixth-Rates,two Fire-lhips, and two Bomb-Vessels, with aHagboat. But tho’ Captain Norris had re-iteratedIntelligence of this being Monsieur Ponti ’s Squa-dron, returning with the Riches he had takenfrom Carthagena, and that his Ships were butweakly manned ; And tho’ the Commadore wasconvinced of the Truth of this Intelligence, andwas for going in Search of them ; Yet he was 0-ver-ruled in several Councils of War, held on thatOccasion; And, upon a Persuasion, or Pretext, thatthiswas a much stronger Squadron, under the Com-mand of Monsieur Nefmond, a Resolution taken,not only to remain in the Harbour of St. John’s,but to secure themselves from any Attack fromhis Part, by laying Booms a-crofs the Mouth ofthe Harbour, raising Batteries, and placing theShips in a proper Posture of Defence ; And thusMonsieur Ponti escaped us a second Time, tho’not so honourably for us as the first, that beingprobably owing to the Knavery, or, at least,Neglect of the Purveyors for the Navy ; Butthis, to an ill-timed Caution (if not worse) of ourown Officers.
Bishop Burnet fays; Commadore Norris "sSquadron (which was sent to those Parts,- withsome Land-Forces, to recover Hudson’s Bay)might have fallen upon the French , and would pro-bably have mastered them ; But as they had nocertain Account of their Strength, so being sentout upon another Service, they did not think itproper- to hazard the attacking them : So theFi'ench got safe Home, and the Conduct of our Af-fairs at Sea was much censured : Yet our Admi-ralty declared themselves satisfied, with the Ac-count the Commanders gave of their Proceedings:But that Board was accused of much Partiality.On all such Occasions, the Unfortunate must ex-pect to be blamed, and, to outward Appearance,there was much Room given either to censure the
Orders, or the Execution of them.The King own-ed, he did not understand those Matters: And(now made Earl of Orford) had both the Admiral-ty, and the Navy-Board, in a great Dependanceon himself; So that he was considered almost asmuch, as if he had been Lord High Admiral :He was too much in the Power of those, in whomhe confided, and trusted them too far; And it wasgenerally believed, that there was much Corrupti-on, as it was certain there was much Faction,if notTreachery, in the Conduct of our Marine. Our Mis-carriages made all People cry, that we must have aPeace ; For we could not manage the War to anygood Purpose. Since, notwithstanding our greatSuperiority at Sea, the French conducted theirMatters so much better than we, that we wereLosers, even in that Element, where we used totriumph most. Our Squadron, in the Bay ofMexico, did very little Service ; They only rob-bed and destroyed some of the French Colonies;And that sent to Hudfons Bay found it quite aban-doned by the French ; So that both returned homeinglorious.
(a) Not to break the Thread of my Discourseabove, I shall here mention a small Action of aDetachment of our Fleet. We left MonsieurPonti, at the Conclusion of our Notes to the fore-going Chapter, escaped a second Time, from aSquadron of our Men of War. He was nowmaking the best of his Way for Brest, when, onthe fourteenth of August, he fell in with five En-glish Men of War, two of eighty Guns, two ofseventy, one of thirty, and a Fire-ship, under theCommand of Captain Harlow, about ninetyLeagues W. S. W. from Scilly. Our Ships dis-covered their Lights in the Night, and, abouteight m the Morning Monsieur Ponti , bore downon them, and they plied up to him. About three,they begun to engage, at about two Thirds Gun-shot, and the Fight continued very smartly for a-bout two Hours, when the French tack’d about,and took to their Heels, with all the Sailthey could make ; And tho’ Captain Harlow pur-sued them two Nights and two Days, they prov-ed too nimble for him , and had the good Fortuneto escape this third Time, and carried the Spoilof the Spaniards , into Brest, without any fartherIn terruption.