8o6 Ann. Naval Expeditions , &c of the Englilli, Book

1706. Provisions, ’till he met, off of Cape St.Vincent , the Pembroke, Roebuck andFaulcon, with a welcome Supply fromEngland.

Mviceofthe. Upon Intelligence, that the Spanishtow' Gallions were preparing to lail out 01

the Harbour of Cadiz , for theIndies, it was resolved, in a Council ofWar, on the sixteenth of February, toendeavour to destroy or intercept them.(S)

fauf^vith T he five and twentieth, Sir Johna Design to got under Sail; But, to his great Sur-attack them. TprizQ, when he came near the Bar ofthat River, several Shot were fired athim, from St. Julian's Castle, and theother Forts, which obliged him to cometo an Anchor, the commanding Officerdeclaring, that he had Orders, from theDuke of Cadaval, to stop all Shipswhatever; And tho’, upon Complaintmade at Court, he was suffered to de-But is pre - part the next Morning, this Loss of fourvented by the and twenty Hours proved the OverthrowPortuguese. G f Design ; For, in the mean Time,the Gallions and Flota, to the Numberof six and thirty Sail, got out of Cadiz,and escaped, (c) Sir John made allthe Sail he could after them, all thatDay, and the ensuing Night, steeringS. W. by S. and S. W. but with littleHopes of coming up with them, unlessthe E. Wind had left them, when theygot the Length of Cape St. Vincent.

The next Morning, they discovered 17°^' ;two Sail a-head, the Wind being still T ‘ uf0 ? Tt *'fresh at E. N. E. one of which was ta - taken 'ken by the Northumberland, and the o-ther by Vice-Admiral fVaJJenaer, beingSpaniards bound to the Canaries, andthe Wejl-Indies. These Ships havingsailed from Cadiz two Days after theGallions, Sir John found it was to noPurpose to pursue them any farther :

He therefore endeavoured to enter theStreights, but was detained in theOcean, by contrary Winds, ’till thethirtieth of March;' when he got to (

Gibraltar ; Having, some Days be- f.fore, received Orders from the Earl of GibraPeterborough, who was then at Valencia,to come with the Fleet off of that Coast,and sending the small Frigats, with theMen, Mony, Ammunition and Artille-ry, near to the Shoar, or landing themat Altea or Denia, to repair with thegreat Ships towards Barcelona, and to en-deavour to destroy a French Squadron ofabout twenty Men of War, then ridingbefore that Town.

The third of April, Sir John was . ■ jffjoined at Gibraltar, by Commadore jlPrice, with six Englijh, and six Dutch price'A^Men of War ;{d) And, the fifth, he dron ,received farther Dispatches from theEarl of Peterborough, and the Honourof a Letter from the King of Spain him-self, (e) Upon this it was resolved,

in

Burchett.

.Annals of

L Ann '

(b) It was resolved to proceed directly to Ca-diz , with all the Ships then ready, viz. nineThird-Rates, one Fourth-Rate, two Frigats, twoFireships, and one Botnb-Vessel, of the Englijh JAnd, of the Dutch , fix of the Line of Battle, oneFrigat, two Firelhips, and a Bomb; And if theyfound the Gallions in the Bay, they were, ifWind and Weather would permit, to go directlyin, and endeavour to take or destroy them. Therewere, at this Time, some Ships of War andTransports expected, with Forces from Englandfor Catalonia , and it was determined, if they ar-rived in Time, to take the former, and to leavethe Transports at Lisbon , lince it was not safe tolend them up the Streights without a Convoy ca-pable to protect them.

In another Council, held three Days after, itwas resolved when this Service was over, to ap-point as many Ships as could be spared for the Se-curity of the Portugal-Brazil- Fleet, and, with theRest, to remain in Gibraltar , 'till the Ships andTransports from England should join them.

(c) There was a very strong Suspicion of foulPlay, on this Account, in Portugal: For tho' anEmbargo was laid, at the Desire of Mr. Methu-en, that so no Advice might be given to the Ene-my ; And, by a pretended Mistake, Sir John,himself, was unfortunately stop'd, under Colourof this Embargo, yet five Ships were suffered togo over the Bar, after the Embargo was laid, twoyf which were Danes , by whom, it was suspect-

ed, the Design was discovered: And this was con-firmed by the Masters of the two Prizes, who saidthey had certain Intelligence at Cadiz , of SirJohn Leake’s Design, and had taken Care to fru-strate it.

(d) They had on Board Major General Stan-hope, Her Majesty's Envoy Extraordinary toKing Charles III. Colonel Rye hards, two EnglijhRegiments, and several Companies of Spanijh De-serters, which they had taken in at Lisbon.

{e) The KING.

Admiral Leake,

TAKE this Occasion to acquaint you with thegreat Hazard, to which this Principality, andMy Royal Person are exposed For, doubtless,to Morrow We shall be slreightned by the Ene-my, being already blocked up, by a Squadron, bySea, and their Army having by their speedyMarches, gained some Passes, almost in Sight ofthis Capital City, in which We might have re-tarded their Progress. I am resolved not to leavethis Place, altho' My Garrison consistt of so smallNumber, as One Thousand Foot, and four Hun-dred Horse, regular Troops, apprehending thatif, in this Juncture, I should leave this CapitalCity, it would be lost, and consequently all theRest, which, in the last Campaign, was, by somany happy Successes, reduced to My Obedi-ence ; For which Reasons I have thought fit to

venture