Ann 1 * Naval Expeditions , &c. of the English, Book V.‘

i7 t0 *

ger of a

Eight largeBarks withAmmunitionSec. taken.

*T1:e Fleetreturns toBarcelona..

Cette andAgde.taken ;

Bat abandedrain.

Rebellion . on that Side, theTroops they had landed were re-ern-barked, the seventh.

The Admiral now resolved to go in-Qu,est of the Duke of jturfis, who, hewas informed, was gone into anotherGulph, on the other Side the Ifland, toland the Rest of his Forces. The eighthsthey got into the Canal of Bonifaccio ;But the Duke was failed, the Night be-fore, from thence, and was retired intothe Gulph of Ajazzo, in Corjica, whi-ther they followed him. They got in-to that Gulph, the next Day ; Butfound he had again given them the Slip,and was retired, with his Gallies, Heleft, however, eight large Barks, withfive or six Hundred Soldiers on Board,and the greatest Part of his Ammunition,Artillery and Provisions j The Men goton Shoar and escaped ; But all the Restfell into the Hands of our Squadron, (ji)

The Design of the Enemy being thusdefeated, the Fleet set Sail again forBarcelona where they arrived, theeighteenth. The next Enterprise was,by particular Order from England, onthe Town of Cette , on the Coast ofLanguedoc. The Fleet departed fromBarcelona, on this Undertaking, theninth of July, and arrived on that Coastthe thirteenth. They soon made them-selves Masters of the Town and Fort ofCette, and those of Agde ; (o) But wereobliged to abandon them again, in a few

Days. (p) This Expedition being thus I 7 I0 ‘ended, Sir John Morris failed again thenineteenth, and having strewn himselfoff of Toulon and Marseilles, stood intothe Road of Hyeres, where they found a shiTblo'^French Ship, of fifty Guns, arrived, up.richly laden, from Scanderoon, lyingunder the Cover of three Forts. SomeBritish nn&Dutch Frigats, under the Com-mand of Captain Stepney, were orderedin to attack her, who beat the Men omof her, and one of the Forts; But whilethe Boats were boarding her, she un-happily took Fire, by Means of a hid-den Train the Enemy had left, and,blowing up, kill’d or wounded five andthirty of Our Men.-

T h e fourteenth of August, Sir JohnMorris came off of Port-Mahon, and, the-seventeenth, ar rived in the Road of Bar-celona. . A Design on the Coast of Va-lencia was next projected ; But, on Ac-count of several Hindrances, not beingput in Execution, the Britijh Fleet re-turned to Port-Mahon. and the Dutch -Vice-Admiral failed homewards. The T y ee py,thirtieth of OBober, the Ships being Newfoundcleaned, Sit John proceeded down the l^dShipStreights, and, on the sixth of Novem - take *‘ber, took three French Ships, from New-foundland. The ninth, he arrived at Gi-braltar, from. whence he returned withthe Turky- Convoy, and arrived again atPort-Mahon, the fifth of December ,strengthned the Turky-Convoj with five

Men

the Count de Castillo , who had taken the ToWn of’Terra'Nova ; But upon landing some Troops, un-der General Brown , they all surrendered at Dis-.cretion, together with several Persons of Quality,Natives of the Place.

(*) The Duke imagined, as Corfica was subjectto the Genoese , a Neutral State, our Ships wouldacts, as they termed it, have violated the Laws ofNations; But he did not consider, that the Ge-noese were the Aggressors, in suffering this Arma-ment to be made in their Dominions, and him,-their Subject, to command it.

(0) The Troops, being about seven HundredMen, besides some Marines, were put on Shoar,the Day of their Arrival, and, the next Morn-ing, by Break of Day, marched towards theTown, while some Ships were appointed to bat-ter the Fort at the Mole-head, upon which theTown, after a very small firing, surrendered, asdid the Fort, m which were eighteen Pieces ofCannon mounted. A Detachment of three Hun-dred Men, being left to secure this Place, MajorGeneral SeiJJan, with the Remainder of theTroops, marched, the fame Day, to Agde, where,having taken a Post, which makes the Isle ofCette, the Town capitulated, that Night, andsurrendered without Resistance.

(p) The Duke of Roquelaure, with four Hun-,dred Dragoons, and two Thousand of the Militia,had formed a Design to recover these Places, the'fifteenth, by crossing the Lake unexpectedly into-

the Ifland of Cette ; But Sir John Norris , beinginformed of it, manned and armed all the Boats ofthe Fleet, and, going with them on the Lake,prevented this Attempt. However, being inform-ed, the seventeenth, that the Duke de Noailles,was arrived at Meze, and that two ThousandHorse, each with a Foot Soldier behind him,were come within four Miles of Agde And be-sides, the Detachment which was left to secur«the Bridge of Agde having, upon a false Alarm,abandonned it, which Post they now wanted Timeto regain, it was thought adviseable to re-embark.theTroops, and abandon their Conquest, which theydid, with the Loss only of an advanced Guard offifty Men, who did not retire as they were order-ed. In this all our Historians agree; But FatherDaniel pretends we lost between three and four A QaniesHundred Men in this Expedition- A Body offix Hundred of the Enemy (fays he) was defeatedon the Mountain of St. Clare. A Hundred weretaken Prisoners, and a great Number was drown-ed in the Re-embarkation: On our Side (continues ^

he) we lost but one Grenadier and some Horses. De Las ^De Larrey adds to this, that the Confederates Hist. dewere obliged to leave behind them the Arms and sous L°Ammunition which they had landed. He allows, XIV.however, that tho’ this Expedition had not all theSuccess expected from it, it had this good Efiecifor the Allies, that it favoured Count Staremberg'%

Designs.