Chap. VIII.

during the Reign of §!yeen Ann.

1705. Danger, the Fleet set Sail, and arrivedj? at Lisbon, in Order to refit.

Phesarflt'e ^ H E n * ne an d twentieth of Januaryiw Gibraltar, the Tartar- Pink, and the Newport, cameinto the Bay os Gibraltar, with frestiSupplies; And, the fifth of February *were followed by the Roebuck and Leo-pard, with six Companies of Dutch, andabout two Hundred of the EnglijhGuards, with other English Troops, andseveral Necessaries, from Lisbon. Theseventh, the Tyger, with a Transport,arrived, with a farther Supply of Menand Ammunition.

j'r John The fourteenth, Monsieur Pontissz fails came into the Bay of Gibraltar, with^Gibr^E fourteen Men of War, and two Fire-ta r. ’ ships; Notice whereof having been gWen to Sir John Leake, at Lisbon, who*in the mean Time, had been joined bySir Thomas Dilkes, with five Third-Rates, with which he had convoyed agreat Number of Merchant-Ships, fromEngland, he set Sail from thence thesixth of March. (/) The tenth, at halfan Flour past five in the Morning, beingwithin two Miles of Cape Cabretta, hediscovered five Sail making out of theBay ,{k) to which he gave Chafe, andthey afterwards proved to be five FrenchFrench Men of War. (/) At nine, Sir ThomasE °f War Dilkes, in the Revenge, with the Newstr yeT dde ~ castle, Antilope, Ezpedition, and aDutch Man of War, got within halfGun-shot of the Arrogant, which theytook, after some Resistance: And theNewcastle ’s Boat first boarded her,. aftershe struck. Before one, two of theDutch Ships took the Ardent and theMarquis. The other two, the Magna-nimous, and the Flower de Luce, in thefirst of which Monsieur Ponti himselfwas, made a stout Resistance, and, inSpight of the Englijh, running alhoar,to the Westward of Marbella, wereburnt by the French themselves. Sir

John, supposing the Remainder of *705*Monsieur Ponti’ s Squadron, which hadbeen driven from their Anchors, out ofGibraltar-B ay, to be in Malaga- Road*looked in there; But they, havingheard the Firing, thought that no secureHarbour, and had, as it was believed*cut their Cables, and were retired toToulon. Off of Malaga, three of HerMajesty’s Ships, the Kent, the Orford, andthe Eagle joined the Admiral; And threeof our Frigats having driven alhoar twoMerchant-Ships, one of three HundredTuns, richly loaden from theWeft-In-TwoMer-dies, near Malaga * and the other of d-ant-Ship*two Hundred and fifty, outward bound ‘ burnt ’to the Weft-Indies, near Almeria, theywere burnt by the French ; And theAssurance and Bedford took two Sattees *

Sir John Leake, having thus relievedGibraltar, a second Time, by his Ap-pearance only, tho’ he could not after-wards reach the Bay* ’till the 19th, hereturned to Lisbon , where he arrived, Sir j 0 j mthe first of April, (m) and where we Leake re-

fliall leave him, and return to England. t s urns t0, \ Lisbon.

(n)

I shall begin my Account of theTranf- The Stand-actions of this Year at Home with on andwhich was of great Glory and Triumph kesYat Elen-to the English Nation. Her Majesty heim put uphaving been pleased to order, that the Westmin-Standards and Colours, taken in the fa- ei ' amous Battle of Blenheim, and then lodg-ed in the Tower, should be put up inWeft minfter-Hall, the third of January ,they were carried thro’ the City of Lon-don, with great Solemnity, in Proces-sion , and put up accordingly^ Thesixth of the same Month, His Grace, The Duke ofthe Duke of Marlborough, was fplended- Marlbo-ly entertained, by the Lord Mayor and YaneYbythlCourt of Aldermen, at Goldsmiths-Hall. City.

The tenth, the House os Commons re-solved to address Her Majesty, thatShe would be graciously pleased, to9 R consider

(i) He had then, under his Command, threeand twenty English , four Dutch, and eight Por-tuguese Men of War, having on Board an Englijhand a Portuguese Regiment, with a Dutch Batalli-on, of fresh Troops.

(k) A Gun being, at the lame Time, fired atthem, from Europa-Pomt, the Admiral concludedthe Garrison safe, and therefore resolved to pursue

t ^(/) They were the Magnanimous , of seventyfour Guns; the Flower de Luce , of eighty-six ;the Ardent, of sixty-fix, the Arrogant , of sixty ;and the Marquis of fix and fifty Guns.

(m) Upon his Arrival there, he appointed aConvoy to some Portuguese Troops designed forLisbon , another to see our Virginia -Trade well

into Sea, and sent the Szviftfure, a Third-Rate,and three Fourth-Rates, with the Trade to Eng-land.

(n) After, this unlucky Accident (fays theMarshal de These, in his Letter to the FrenchKing, concerning Monsieur Ponti ’s Misfortune)seing the Place was supplied anew with Refresh-ments, and all other Things, I gave Orders foran Intrenchment to be made ; And I dispatch theEngenier Renaud to represent to Your Majesty,as also to the Catholick King, the Impossibility ofcontinuing the Siege. The Troops are fatigued ;A great many of the Besiegers are sick, and Am-munition begins to be wanted. Accordingly theSiege was railed on the twenty-fecond-, alter it had?lasted above five Months.