752 Ann. Naval Expeditions, Scc, of the Englifli,

Book. v*

1702.

A GeneralCouncil ofSea andLand Gene-ral-Officers.

Resolution toReturn toEngland.

The Fleetfails.

the Confederates, as well as to the Ho-nour of all concerned in it.

After all these Councils, Messages,Proposals and Letters, which producedno Resolution conducive to the Designand Expectations of the Voyage, andall the Forces being re embarked, aGeneral Council of Sea and Land-Gene-ral-Officers was held, on Board theRanalagh, where the Point under Con-sideration was, Whether it was advife-able to make a second Attempt in Spain ?And, after some Debate, the Questionbeing put, it pass’d in the Negative;Upon which it was resolved, that theFleet should take the first Opportunityof proceeding for England, (x)

The next Day, the Admiral made aSignal to weigh, having a sine Land-Breeze ; And Bistiop Burnet says, thatsome of the Ships Crews were so em-ployed in bringing and bestowing thePlunder, that they took not the necessa-ry Care to furnish themselves with fresti

Water; But the Wind slackening, they 1702-came to an Anchor again, (y) Thenineteenth, (z) the Fleet weigh’d An-chor again, and plied some Days with an .easy and variable Wind. During this ^sp/ngefTime, two Letters were sent from Mr. p 0 rtugal-Methuen , His Majesty’s Envoy at Lis-bon, one to the Duke of Ormond , theother to Sir George R ooke, by which heassured them, that the King of Portugalwould willingly aslist in any Thingthat should be desired, not only in thatPort, but in any other Ports of His Do-minions. A general Council was there- ]$ ot re gad‘upon called, the twenty-fecond; But ed.it was resolved to adhere to their form- r

er Resolution. The twenty-third, the ^llftosDisposition was made far the Squadron West-In^ 5 'to be sent to the Wejl-lndies , which be-ing compleated, on the four and twen-tieth, the Admiral made his Signal forthem to depart.

(a) The same Day, being off of Cape J Lp° unC>St. Vincent , the Englijh Flag-Officers

took

Annals of i x ) At this Council were present, of Sea-Offi-<0 Ann J cers ’ Sh George Rooke, Admiral, Lieutenant-Ad-' miral Allemonde , the Vice-Admirals Hopfon, Van-dergoes , and Pieterfen , and the Rear-AdmiralsFair born, Waste near, and Gray don ; And of LandOfficers, His Grace, the Duke of Ormond, SirHenry Bellas s, the Lord Portmore, Baron Spar,Sir Charles 0 Haro , and the Brigadiers PalandHamilton and Seymour■ The Debate was, whe-ther upon the Consideration of the Opposition, andObstinacy of the Spaniards, in Andalufia, againstthe House of Austria, the Difficulties which mightbe expected from the Season of the Year, the A-version which they might reasonably expect to findfrom the People of any other Part of Spain, ( whichby the By, their Behaviour at St. Mary'r waspro-bably,' in a great Measure, the Occasion of) andthe Want of Intelligence which the Army hadbeen wholly destitute of, since they had been onShoar; And, besides, that the Dutch Troopscould not be supplied with Provisions from theirFleet for a longer Time than a Month (for theTruth of which I refer to what I have said abovefrom Bijhop Burnet) that the Army would begreatly "diminished, by the Detachment to be sentto the IF eft-Indies, with Captain Walker, and theInconveniences which might arise from Sickness.These Matters, I fay, being thoroughly debated,and the Question put, whether, as the Result osthese Considerations, it would be reasonable to at-tempt a second Landing in Spain, it passed in theNegative, the Duke of Ormond, and Baron Spar,only dissenting; Upon which it was resolved ;That the Fleet should take the first Opportunity,and make the best of their Way for England-, Andthat the Rendezvous should be at St Helens., tillthey receivedfarther Orders.

fy) As we are now come to a Conclusion of thisF. Daniel, unsuccessful Expedition, let us hear what theFrench and Spaniards fay of it. The ConfederateFleets of England and Holland (fays F. Daniel)made an Attempt, this Year, upon Cadiz-, But,after having been at a very great Expence, in thePreparations for this Enterprize, were repulsed,with a considerable Loss- The Marquis De Filla-darias, General of the Coasts, behaved, on thisOccasion, with great Courage and Prudence. The

French Gallies stood by him gallantly, in Defenceof the Fort of Mattagorda, where the Conde Her-nando Nunez, Captain General, and Commander ofthe Gallies of France and Spain , performed hisDuty, with a singular Conduct, the Enemy wereforced to desist from their Undertaking, after hav-ing lost near two Thousand Men in the Expediti-on.

The Marquiss de Villadarias , in his Letter, ofthe seven and twentieth of September, to theCourt of Madrid, lays.

Nothing has been omitted, on my Side, Thewhereby I could merit the good Opinion His de Y "'’Majesty has of me. As the King was, so rias’iwas I, convinced the Enemy could never pre- to Coed'tend to besiege Cadiz, with so small a Num-ber of Men. Had the City sent me the TroopsI required, I could have entirely defeated the 'Enemy's Forces when they re-embarked. Allthe Vessels, both Ships and Gallies, did whatevercould beexpected from the Valour and Experienceof their Commander. The Advantage we had atMattagorda was owing to the Fire from the Gal-lies. (Here we fee the ill Conduit of not fendingin our Fleet at first, before the Entrance into theHarbour was rendered impracticable.) The Conse-quence of that Action was their being forced toleave Pert St. Marys, and the Difapointment ofthe whole Undertaking, (T , the Publick, indeed,but not to those who took Care to enrichthemselves with the Plunder of both Friend andFoe.) ,, J

st) The fame Day, a Flag of Truce was sentto Port St. Marys, with all the French and Spanip R°°Prisoners unredeemed, to the Number of twoHundred and thirty, for which the Spaniards senttwo and twenty Men they had taken from theConfederates.

st) They were fix Men of War, and twelveTransports, Captain Walker , in the Bur ford, be-ing Commodore, and had on Board them four Re-giments. of

1 he Queen, in the mean Time, upon Infor- A##mation, that Monsieur Chateau-Renaud was got Linto the Harbour of Vigo, with the French Fleetand Spanip Gallions, immediately difpatch’d a-way two Expresses, one to Sir George Rooke,

with