^hap. I. during the Reign

der their Topsails. The Vice-Admiral4 Vice - coming up with them, about four, thehtsfl en ~ Engagement began ; He had disposedem ' his Line of Battle in the following Man-ner : The Defiance, Pendennis, IVmdfior,Breda, Greenwich, Ruby, and Falmouth ;But two of his Ships, the Defiance, andthe IVindfor, did not stand above twoor three Broad-sides, before they luffedout of Gun-Shot; So that the.two Stern-most Ships of the Enemy lay upon theAdmiral, and gauled him very much;Nor did the Ships in the Rear come upto his Assistance, with the Diligencef they ought to have done. The Fight

$n alc f lasted, however, ’till Night, and tho’Æ- the Firing then ceased, the Vice-Ad-! ' r Duty. miral kept them Company all Night.

The Admiral believing, that if he, led himself on all Tacks (perceiving theFrench would decline fighting if theycould) that those Captains, for Shame,would not fail to follow a goodExample,he order’d the following Line of Battle.The Breda, of seventy Guns, Vice-Admiral Bembow and Captain Fogg ;Defiance, of sixty-four, Captain RichardKirkby ; fVindfor , of sixty , Cap-tain John Confiable ; Greenwich , offour and fifty, Captain Cooper fVade ;Ruby, of eight and forty, CaptainGeorge fValton ; Pendennis, of eight andforty, Captain Thomas Hudson, and theFalmouth, of eight and forty, CaptainSamuel Vincent. The next Morning, atBreak of Day, he was near the FrenchShips, but none of his Squadron, except-ing the Ruby , were with him. (/) Attwo, in the Afternoon, the Frenchdrew into a Line; Tho’, at the sameTime, they made what Sail they could,to avoid fighting; However, the Vice-Admiral, and the Ruby, kept themX J, Company all Night, plying their ChafeVjieJ enc h Guns. Thus the Vice-Admiral conti-nued pursuing, and, at Times, Skirmish-ing, with the Enemy, for four Daysmore; But was never duly seconded byseveral of the Ships of his Squadron.

(/) The Rest were three, soar, andfiveMilesastern, notwithstanding which, the French did notfire a Gun at the Vice-Admiral, tho’ he waswithin their Reach.

(?») The Captain of the Defiance , in a veryodd Manner, endeavoured to dissuade him fromrenewing the Engagement, since he had (as healledged) tried the Enemy’s Strength, with solittle Success, for six Days together; And most ofthe other Captains gave it as their Opinion, thatIt was not advifeable to continue the Fight, tho’they were then, on the Enemy’s Broadsides,

os §Lyeen Ann.

Th e twenty-tbird, about Noon, the 1702.Admiral took from them a small Eng- ^nfingliihUfh Ship, called the Ann-GLWy, which c s reta 'they had taken off of Lisbon-, And theRuby, being disabled, he ordered herfor Port-Royal. About eight at Night,the whole Squadron was up with theVice-Admiral, and the Enemy not twoMiles of. There was now a Prospect otdoing something, and the Vice-Admiralmade the best of his Way after them ;

But his whole Squadron, except theFalmouth, fell astern again. At two, inthe Morning, the four and twentieth,the Vice-Admiral came up with theEnemy’s Sternmost Ship, and sired hisBroad-side, which was returned, by theFrench Ship, very briskly; And, aboutthree, the Vice-Admiral’s right Leg Mmhal'swas broken to Pieces by a Chain-lhot. Leg broke.He was carried down; But soon afterordered his Cradle on the Quarter Deck;

And the Fight was continued 'till Day-light, when one of the Enemy’s Ships,of seventy Guns, was discerned to bevery much disabled; Her Main-yardbeing down, and shot to Pieces, herFore-top-sail Yard shot away, her Miz-zen-mast ssiot by the Board, all herRigging gone, and her Sides bored toPieces with our doubled-headed Shot.

In this Fight, not a Ship stood by theAdmiral but the Falmouth, the Rubybeing sent away, as I have said above ;

And when Day appeared, the Frenchbearing towards our Squadron with astrong Easterly Wind, the cowardly ortreacherous Captains behaved as shame-fully, suffering the French to tow off Shme f ttltheir disabled Ship, when the Vice-Admiral, who was within half Gun- EngUihc^ssiot of her, might, with a little of their tains 'Assistance, easily have carried her off

The Vice-Admiral being very un- The Vice -easy at these ssiameful Proceedings, or- Admiral re~dered the Captains on Board ; But find- jamaic°ing he had no Reason to hope any bet-ter Behaviour from them, (m) he thoughtit high Time to return to Jamaica,■

9 C where

with the fairest Opportunity os Success that hadyet offered : And besides, our Strength was thenone Ship of seventy Guns, one of sixty-four, oneof sixty, one of four and fifty, and two of eightand forty, with their Masts, Yards, and everyThing else, in as good a Condition as could be ex-pected, and not above eight Men killed, exceptin the Vice-Admiral’s own Ship ; Nor was thereany Want of Ammunition ; Whereas the Enemyhad no more than four Ships of Force, from six-ty to seventy Guns, one of which was disabled,and in Tow. ’