^hap, VI.
during the Reign of §lyeen Ann.
1704.
^>e prenchap-
°nte French,.ps fall in
l ! . th
*ket.
escape.
waited some Days for them; But wasforced to fail without them at last, lesthe should come to late to relieve Niceand Villa Franca, then said to be be-sieged, by the French.
Some Time after, the French Fleet,under the Count de Fhoulouse, appearingoff the Rock of Lisbon, bending hisCourse towards the Mediterranean, aFrigat was dispatched (with Orders tocall at Altea-Bayf) to give the AdmiralNotice, that the Count had five andthirty Sail with him, of which onlytwenty appeared to be Ships of Force,and that Nice and Villa Franca were inno Danger of a Siege, (q)
In the mean Time, on the eighth ofMay, in the Afternoon, being hazyWeather, six French Men of War fellin with the Englijh Fleet, off of CapePalos , to the Eastward of Carthagena-,And the Admiral immediately sent someShips in Pursuit of them. The tenth, theFleet arrived in Altea-Bzy, where theDetachment re-joined them, not having
been able to come up with the Enemy. 1704.
(r)
The Admiral proceeded now, at the The Fleetpressing Instances of the Prince of Hesse, arrives atfor Barcelona, before which Place they arc eIlona.arrived, the eighteenth. Upon theEncouragement given by a Priest, andothers, who surrendered themselves tothe Prince of Heffe-Darmjladt, a Flagof Truce was sent, with a Letter fromHis Highness, to the Governour, DonFrancisco de Velafco, to summon him tosurrender to his lawful Sovereign, KingCharlesWl. But he receiving no satisfacto-ry Answer, (s) it was resolved, that allthe English and Dutch Marines, aboutsixteen Hundred, in all, should be land-ed within a Mile of the Town, theSpaniards who surrendered, having as-sured the Prince, and Admiral; Thatthere were five to one, in the City, forKing Charles, and that upon the Ap-pearance of Landing Men, and Bom- S / m Z r . 60 ^ s _barding the Place, they would deliver * ° n ° ar ' >it up. This was done, the nineteenth,
9 O being
Writes, (?) The Commander of this Frigat was very 1
unwilling to carry the Message, but Methuen pro-mised to bear him harmless. Upon that he sailedthro’ the French Fleet, and brought the impor-tant Advertisement to Roche-, Who told him,that, on this Occasion, he would pass by his notobserving his Orders; But that, for the future, hewould find, the safest Course was to obey Orders-A Cafe I thought fit to mention, for the Singulari-
r ty of it.
fstpl. fa a (r) This is all Mr. Burchett thinks fit to fay
* Wop^f' of the Matter ; But, in the Compleat History ofEurope, we have the Substance of a Letter, saidto be written by an Officer, from on Board theFleet, to a Person of Quality, in which are thefollowing Circumstances. These Ships were or-dered, by the Admiral, to be chased by two Shipsof eighty Guns, the Sommerfet and Cambridge -,Four of seventy, the Grafton, Tarmouth, Berwickand Burford -, One of fifty, the 'Tyger, and oneof forty, the Lark. They had all the Advantageof the Moon, which was at full, and, the lastSight they had of them, their Ships seemed tohave gained considerably of the French■ TheNight they seperated from them, they found thatthe Tyger, the Berwick and the Lark , much out-sailed the French-, Insomuch, that the former wasall Night within half Gun-shot of the head-most ofthe Enemy, and so might the other two havebeen, had not they shortned Sail in the Night,which was the Reason that, at Day-break, thenext Morning, they were the farther a-stern, o-therwise those three Ships might then have be-gun to engage the French, and kept them in Play,’till the Rest of their Ships had come up, one afterthe other, to their Assistance, by which theywould most probably have fallen into our Hands.But, instead of this, at four in the Afternoon, SirAndrew Leake, in ^he Grafton, leaving off theChafe, made a Signal to the Captains to come onBoard him, and accordingly, our head most Ships,near the Enemy, were, likewise obliged to do thesame ; But Captain Price, in the Sommerset, com-ing up, in half an Hour, kept on chasing, only, in
passing by the Grafton, he called to Sir Andrew ,asking him the Reason why he left off Chase, sonear the Enemy, having a long Day before them.
To which he replied, if he would come on Boardhe should know his Reasons, which Price refused,being an elder Officer ; And this made it an un-pardonable Presumption in Sir Andrew, to makeany Signal: But Price seing they were all broughtto, and would not follow him, could not help do-ing the like.
It is truly (continues the Letter-Writer) one ofthe most scandalous Actions, that was ever doneat Sea. They told us, to palliate, as they thought,that the French Ships were seventy and eightyGuns ; But we know since, by very certain In-telligence we have lately from Toulon, that thebiggest of them carried but sixty Guns, the Restof fifty, four and fifty, and fix and fifty, being aSquadron fitted out for the Troops and Bomb-Vessels besieging Nice and Villa Franca, in Savoy,commanded by Monsieur Caen -, But upon Adviceof our Fleet’s being designed that Way, they werecountermanded, and sent to Cadiz, to join theirFleet coming from Weft-France -, And that, more-over, they were foul Ships, it being above twoMonths since they were cleaned for that Expedi-tion. ’Tis said, Sir Andrew Leake, and the Restof the Captains concerned in that shameful Action,would be tried at a Court Martial, and have theirDeserts, (Sc. And he was tried accordingly, butwas acquitted.
(j) The Governour was so far from comply-ing with the Summons that he would not give Ad-mittance to those who brought it; But sent aMessage ; That he would entertain no Friendshipor Correspondence, with any that were Enemies toPhilip V. the true King of Spain.
De Larrev fays, his Message was, to desire n Tthe Vice-roy to give Audience to a Secretary ofthe Emperour’ s, in an Assembly of Council, be. r A e . rcause he had Orders from His Imperial Majesty, ytL- 0U1Sto treat with him, on Matters of Great Concern *- LVtto the Publick.
Annals of ^Ann.