Chap. IX. during the Reign of §yeen Aim 81 r

1706. in several more; Insomuch that beingbattered, with such uninterrupted Fu-ry, both by Sea and Land, great Partof their Cannon were dismounted beforeNight, and the Place almost entirelyruined.

: i'tlTj erS The five and twentieth, the Besieg-i e Illes ‘ ed, not being able to hold any longer,against so continual and great a Fire,

! beat a Parly, at nine in the Morning,

and the Capitulation being concluded,the same Night, the next Morning, the, Allies took Possession of it, in the Name

I of King Charles III. But found it a Heap

j of Rubbish, (x)

| This Affair being over, Sir Stafford

Fairbom proceeded to Spithead, withs pithead. the Engli/h and Dutch Transport Ships,and Troops designed for a Descent inFrance , with the Earl of Rivers , ofwhose Expedition, with Sir CloudefyShovel, I shall now give an Account, (y)

Proceedings of Sir Cloudesty Shovel,with the Fleet under his Command.

intended Besides the other Ways, whichtn were 3 this Year, made Use of, to di-“ ce - stress the Common Enemy, it wasthought expedient to attempt a Descentupon France , where the Persecution ofthe Protestants, and the heavy Oppres-sion of all the Subjects, had preparedthem to a general Insurrection. TheStates General readily concur’d in this

the small Frigats to get under Sail, and stand asclose in with the Shoar as possibly they could, andfire their Broadsides into the Town, which theyeffectually did, receiving themselves littleDamage ; And this he intended they should dai-ly have done, but they were prevented by theBadness of the Weather.

(x) They found, in the Harbour, two Menof War, one of eighty, and the other of fiftyGuns, and about five and forty smallVeffels more,which were not comprized in the Capitulation.

F. Daniel fays the Place was well defended, bythe Count de la Mothe ; But above ten ThousandBombs having been thrown into the Place, whichhad made it a Heap of Ruins, the Menaces of theInhabitants, that they would revolt, a Mis-intel-ligence between the French and Spanish Garrisons,and a Want of Arms for the Soldiers, obliged theCount de la Mothe, at Length, to capitulate,twelve (he should have said nine) Days after theTrenches were opened- Tho’ but four Days af-ter the Batteries began to play.

(y) Sir Thomas Hardy,_ who was with Sir Staf-ford Fairbom, as well in his Expedition to Roche-fort, as in that against Of end, was afterwards ap-pointed to command a Squadron in the Soundings,of whose Success I shall say more below.

(z) Of this intended Descent in France , Mr.Secretary Burchett makes not the least Mention ;But supposes these Land-Forces to have been ori-

Design. About ten Thousand Men, 1706.Land-Forces, were to be employed inthis Expedition, and commanded by theEarl of Rivers, as General, and, underhim, by the Lieutenant-Generals, Erie,and the Marquis de Guiscard, and twoMajor Generals the Earl of Effete, andthe Lord Mordaunt. (z)

The Command of the Fleet was giv-en to Sir Cloudejly Shovel, who hoistedhis Flag, on Board the Britannia, atPortsmouth, the eighteenth of July.

All the English Forces being embarked,the Fleet failed to St. Helen’s, the sevenand twentieth, where the Generals em-barked the thirtieth, and lay in Expec-tation of the Dutch Squadron and Trans-ports, which were detained by contraryWinds in the Downs.

The tenth of Augusl, the Wind be-ing Easterly, and a brisk Gale, SirCloudejly, with the whole Englijh Fleet,set Sail in the Morning, believing theDutch could not be far off the Windhaving been fair the Night before: But,whatever was the Cause, they did notcome to St. Helen’s ’till the twelfth, inthe Morning, which fatal Delay proved Frufiratedhythe Overthrow of the whole Design; {a) a P e J a y °fAnd was the Occasion of the Project of the utch ‘a Descent being laid aside; Upon whichthe Marquis de Guiscard, and the LordMordaunt left the Fleet; (h) Whichwas now ordered, with the Land-Forces, for Lisbon, (c)

9 U The

ginally designed for the Assistance of the King ofSpain.

(a) When they arrived there, the twelfth in

the Morning, they were obliged to anchor a Tide, -dnnals of

to get Intelligence of Sir Cloudefy, and to take in -Ei Ann-

fresh Water. The Englijh Fleet, in the mean

Time, appeared off of Plymouth, that same Day,

about Noon, and laid by ’till the Evening; But

was not joined by the Dutch, ’till the fourteenth,

in the Morning, when the whole Fleet, being

come near the Mouth of the Channel , was forced

into Torbay, by a strong Westerly Wind, which

continuing several Weeks, in the same Corner,

the Ships of the first and second Rates were laid

up, and, as I have said above, the Design laid a-

side.

(b) This great Armament had, however, thisgood Effect, that it kept the Coasts of Normandy,

Bretagne, Poiffou, Xaintonge and Guiefine, in per-petual Alarm, and not only put the Enemy to avast Expence, but obliged the King of France togrant an Exemption of Taxes to his Subjects,within ten Leagues of the Sea.

(5) When Sir Cloudefy Shovel arrived at Lis-bon, he was to take under his Command the Squa- Burchett-dron left there by Sir John Leake, when he cattiefrom the Mediterranean, under the Conduct 0 £

Sir George Byng, who, in the Interim, had detach-ed a Convoy home, with the empty Transportsand Trade, and sent some Ships of War, off of

Carthagena f