Chap. II, during the Reig

1702. took into Consideration several Clausesin Her Majesty’s Instructions, (b) relat-ing to the Wintering of several of thegreat Ships abroad j But it was conclud-ed not to be adviseable, for severalReasons.

A particular Account of the Ruiningthe French Fleet, and Spanish Gal li-ons, at Vigo.

^'ps sent to Sir George Rooke, being on his Way^ in to England, with the Fleet, as I havea §os*Bay. haid above, sent, the twenty-first ofSeptember, the Eagle, the Sterling Ca-fle, and Pembroke, with some Trans-ports, to water in Lagos-Eay. Theyj arrived there, the next Day, and the

I Land-Officers, who were on Board the

with positive orders to attempt the taking or de-stroying them, and another to Sir Cloudjly Shovel,to fail with his Squadron, tore-inforce the GrandConfederate Fleet: But Sir George received theIntelligence by another Channel.

^ (h) Bishop Bur net fays, that Rocke, without

' prosecuting his other Instructions, in Cafe the De-sign on Cadiz miscarried, gave Orders only for aSquadron, to fail to the West-Indies, with someLand-Forces ; And tho’ he had a Fleet of Victu-alers, that had Provisions to the Middle of De-cember, he ordered them to Sail home ; By whichMeans, the Men of War were so scantily furnissi-ed, that the Men were soon forced to be put onshort Allowance. Nor did Rooke send Advice -Boats, either to the Ports of Algarve, or to Lis-bon, to fee what Orders or Advices might be ly-ing for him, but failed in a direct Course for En-

V gland.

>ir ^Har- F) This Discovery was made in the follow-ing Manner: In Company with these Officers,

FsC of went on Shoar Mr. Beauvoir, a Gentleman ofJersey, and Chaplain of the Pembroke. Whenthey came to the Town, they could find no Bodythat could understand them, so that roving, forfomeTime, from Place to Place, the Chaplain, atLength, espying a Gentleman, who by his Coun-tenance and Garb, seemed to be no Portuguese,and addressing himself to him, in the French Lan-guage, he proved to be the French Consul, intowhose Favour Mr. Beauvoir had so far insinuatedhimself, that the other offered the Use of hisHouse, both for himself and some of his Friends.They lay there two Nights, in which Time theChaplain having an Opportunity of several Con-versations with the Consul ; the latter boastinglymagnified the Power os France, adding, that HisMost Christian Majesty would have such a potentFleet at Sea, next Summer, that neither the En-glijh nor Dutch should dare to stir out of theirHarbours: For the Proving of which, he gavethe Chaplain broad Hints of Mr. Chateau-Re-naud’s being side, not far off, with the Gallions.On the twenty-fourth, in the Evening, the Chap-plain being informed, that there was a Gentlemancome from Lisbon, bound for the Fleet, and thathe designed, next Morning, to go on Board oneof the English Nlen of War, his Curiosity ledhim, to send to the Gentleman, to acquaint him,that if he did not go on Board, that Night, hewould loose his Passage, since the Squadron was

! of %deen Ann.

Pembroke, going immediately on Shoar,they got Intelligence,* that the SpansPlate-Fleet, with a good Convoy of ^French Men of War, had put in at Vigo, Fleet.a Port in Galicia. (c)

This Intelligence being made known A Consulta-to CaptamHar dv (afterwards Sir 'Ihomas,and a Flag-Officer) Commander of thePembroke; he communicated it to Cap-tain kVijhart, Commander of the Eagle,and of the whole Squadron. Therewas immediately a Consultation of Cap-tains held, wherein it was resolved, thatthis News was of such vast Importance,'that a Ship should be lent to acquaintthe Admiral with it, and as CaptainHardy had the best Sailer, and wasMaster of the Intelligence, he was pitch-ed upon to fail a-head, to find out theFleet, (d) The sixth (Mr. Burchett

fays

to fail away early the next Morning j And that,if he pleased to go off, he Had a Boat at his Ser-vice, and he should be welcome on Board thePembroke. The Gentleman having accepted of theInvitation, and both. of them now waiting on Shoarfor the Boat, Mr. Beauvoir asked the Gentle-man, What News? Great News answered theother, for Chateau-Rendud is at Vigo, with thirtyMen of Was and two and twenty Gallions, beingmuch the fame Number the French Envoy hadmentioned td the Chaplain, whose Curiosity en-creasing, he enquired farther, who he was, andfrom whence he came ? To which the Gentlemanreplied, He was both a Spaniard and a German,that he came from Lisbon, was sent by the Impe-rial Ambassador, at that Court, to Faros, in Or-der to go on Board the Fleet, which they suppo-sed to be still before Cadiz, but that coming thi-ther, he found the Fleet had passed by. Andthat being informed, that an Englifr Squadron,was in Lagos-B ay, he came to that Town, to gethim a Passage, and that he had two Letters, onefor the Prince of Hejse, and the other for Mr.

Methuen, Jun. which contained the Particulars ofthat important News, for the confirming of whichhe pulled them out of his Pocket, and shewedthem Mr. Beauvoir. The latter being satisfiedwith the Truth of what the Gentleman said, and,at the same Time, knowing, that the Prince ofHefe and Mr. Methuen were gone from on Boardthe Fleet for Lisbon, he had so much Presence ofMind, as to conceal it from the Messenger, lesthe should refuse to go along with him, and socarried him on Board the Pembroke, where theyfound the Captain already a-Bed; And the Mes-senger being tired with his long Journey, wentalso immediately to repose himself. However,the Chaplain, impatient of discovering what In-telligence he had got, bolted into the great Cab-bin, awaked Captaip Hardy, and having acquaint-ed him with the News, of the French Squadronand Spani/h Gallions being at Vigo, the Messen-ger, next Morning, confirmed the fame, and pro-duced his Letters, but when he heard that thePrince and Mr. Methuen were gone by Sea, toLisbon, he was much surprized, and earnestly de-sired to be put on Shoar, which the Captain a-greed to-

(d) He was put upon so very difficult a Pieceof Work, that had he not been a very experiencedSeaman, and eminently zealous for the Service,

he

75

1702.