1799. preceding day, the Childers had arrived with deMay. spatches from lord Keith. On the 6th the ships of war in Cadiz were observed with their topgallantmasts struck, and their topsails loosed to dry; a proof that they were not then, however they may have been before the gale commenced, ready to proceed to sea. At noon lord Keith proceeded off Cape Spartel, and at noon on the 8th was cruising within five leagues of it. The fleet shortly afterwards stood back nearly to the entrance of Cadiz bay, and one or more of the ships were sent close in to reconnoitre the harbour. Finding the spanish ships, now counted, as it appears, at 22 of the line, still in port; and, we believe, receiving on the evening of the 9th an order to that effect from earl St.-Vincent, lord Keith steered for the bay of Gibraltar. Admitting the number of lineof-battle ships in Cadiz to have been correctly reported, of which we have some doubt, one of the three beyond the 19 known to have been in the port, was the french 74 Censeur; which ship had lost her fore topmast, and been otherwise disabled, in the gale of the 4th, and had since slipped in unperceived by the british fleet. Notwithstanding the assertion of a contemporary, we confess our inability to discover, either that the french fleet of " twenty-six" sail of the line "wished to enter" the harbour of Cadiz, or that the british fleet of "sixteen" sail of the line "offered battle."* We believe it was not the intention of admiral Bruix to enter Cadiz, but merely to show himself off each of the three spanish ports, Ferrol, Cadiz, and Carthagena, in order that the ships within them might sail out and effect their junction. The Ferrol ships had actually quitted port with that object in view, and, by a mere accident, had missed the Brest fleet; and, if the weather had permitted them, the Cadiz ships, or 17 sail of them at least, would in all proba * Brenton, vol. ii. p. 475. bility have put to sea. No doubt, in such a case, 1799. lord Keith would have been bound to make a re- May. treat; and there can be as little doubt that, should the british fleet have been forced to engage, all that a fleet so inferior in force could accomplish would have been effected. Beyond this it was idle to hope; and we can only suppose that earl St.-Vincent, when in a letter to the secretary of the admiralty he used the expression, "the french squadron eluded the vigilance of lord Keith by the darkness of the atmosphere," was unacquainted with the real strength of that french squadron. The Childers brig, immediately upon her arrival at Gibraltar from lord Keith, was despatched to bring away the Edgar 74, captain John M'Dougall, lying in Tetuan bay. Rear-admiral Frederick, who was staying on shore at Gibraltar on account of extreme ill health, took this opportunity of hoisting his flag on board an effective line-of-battle ship. Vessels were also despatched by the commander in chief to rear-admirals Duckworth at Minorca, and Nelson at Palermo, and to captains Ball off Malta, and sir Sidney Smith off Alexandria. Several expresses had also been sent to lord Keith; but, owing to the continuance of the south-west gale, the vice-admiral did not receive his order of recall, we believe, until the evening of the 9th. On the 10th, at 9 A. M., , lord Keith anchored in Gibraltar; as, on the same afternoon, did the Edgar from Tetuan. Every despatch was now used in victualling the ships; and on the 11th, at sunset, earl St.-Vincent shifted his flag from the Souverain guardship to the Ville-de-Paris; as did also rear-admiral Frederick, from the Edgar to the Princess-Royal. On the 12th, at 11 A. M., the british fleet, consisting of 16 sail of the line, weighed and bore up for the Mediterranean. On the 17th and 18th the ships encountered a severe gale of wind, but escaped without much * Brenton, vol. ii. p. 358. 1799. damage. On the 20th, at noon, when off the island May. of Minorca, the fleet was joined by the gun-ship (Leviathan Centaur Bellerophon Powerful... On the same evening the fleet anchored in PortMahon; all except the Edgar, who had run aground to the south-east of Hospital island. Here the ship remained until midnight on the 21st; when, having removed all her guns into some transports, and been assisted in heaving off by the Barfleur and Defence, the Edgar got afloat, and dropped her anchor in the harbour. The departure of lord Keith from before Cadiz, on the 6th, enabled the Spaniards, by the 14th, to put to sea with 17 sail of the line, of which six were three-deckers. On the 17th this fleet passed the Straits, and, not being in very good trim for withstanding foul weather, suffered considerably by the gale of that and the following day. Eleven of the ships were more or less dismasted by it; but, on the 20th, the whole, except one ship which arrived afterwards, succeeded in gaining Carthagena. In order to show how differently the same gale could treat an english and a spanish fleet, the names of the dismasted ships of the latter, as officially announced in the Madrid Gazette, are here subjoined: 34 Matilda lost her foremast, and very leaky. totally dismasted; four men killed, &c. totally dismasted. lost her main and mizen masts. ditto, and sprung her foremast. do. mainmast, and sprung her foremast. lost her mainmast. totally dismasted. It appears, also, that the Santa-Ana three-decker made 20 inches of water per hour,and that the San CADIZ FLEET IN CARTHAGENA, AND M. BRUIX IN TOULON. 379 Francisco-de-Paulo and San-Pablo 74s had sprung 1799. or carried away their tillers. One of the brigs, too, May. had lost her foremast and bowsprit. Just a week previous to the arrival of the spanish fleet at Carthagena, the french fleet, consisting, according to the french accounts, of 25 sail of the line, five frigates, and four or five corvettes, entered Toulon. In passing the Straits, two of the ships had run on board each other, and received considerable damage. On the 22d of May, at noon, earl St.-Vincent got under way from Port-Mahon; and on the 23d, at 5 A. M., the Edgar, who, highly to the credit of her officers and crew, had since early on the preceding morning reshipped and remounted the whole of her guns, weighed also, and joined the admiral off the harbour. Having now under his command 20 sail of the line and a few smaller vessels, earl St.-Vincent made sail in the direction of Toulon. On the 26th, when in latitude 42° north, in consequence, we suppose, of information that the spanish fleet had arrived at Carthagena, the british fleet steered to the westward, and at noon on the 27th was about 35 miles to the east-north-east of Cape San-Sebastian, waiting to intercept the spanish fleet in case it should attempt to effect a junction with the french fleet in Toulon. On the 30th, while cruising off Cape San-Sebastian with this object in view, the admiral received intelligence of the sailing of the french fleet from Toulon three days before. On this, earl St.-Vincent at 2 P. M. detached rear-admiral Duckworth, with the Leviathan, Foudroyant, Northumberland, and Majestic, to reinforce lord Nelson at Palermo, and at 6 P. M. was joined by the gun-ship 100 Queen-Charlotte 74 Defiance rear-adm. (w.) Jas. Hawkins Whitshed. sir Richard John Strachan, bt. Captain .. sir Thomas Boulden Thompson. The british fleet, thus augmented to 21 sail of the June. 1799. line, steered along the spanish coast, and at noon on the 1st of June was about 40 miles to the eastward of Barcelona. Seeing no enemy in this direction, the fleet put back to the northward and eastward, under all sail. On the 2d, when about 70 miles south-west of Toulon, earl St.-Vincent, finding his health getting worse, parted company in the Villede-Paris; and Lord Keith took the command of the fleet, now deprived of the use of the heaviest ship in it, by her departure upon a service for which a frigate would have answered. On the 3d, in the afternoon, having arrived close off Toulon, the two advanced ships of the fleet, the Centaur and Montagu, opened a fire upon a brigcorvette and several settees standing into the road, and took possession of four of the latter, which they dismantled and burnt. The french forts fired at the two british 74s, but without effect. From the prisoners intelligence was obtained, that the french fleet on quitting Toulon had steered to the eastward; and to the eastward the british fleet accordingly bent its course. On the 5th, in the afternoon, when the fleet had just crossed the gulf of Fréjus, the british hired armed brig Telegraph, lieutenant James Alexander Worth, joined company, with intelligence of having, the preceding evening, seen the french fleet at anchor in Vado bay. The british fleet immediately made all sail in that direction. On the 6th the forts on the small islands of Sainte-Marguerète and La-Garoupe, near Antibes, fired at the fleet in passing, particularly at the Espoir brig, who was nearest in shore. The french papers boasted of having dismasted an english ship of the line and frigate; but it does not appear that any vessel was injured. On the 8th, Cape Delle-Melle at noon bearing north-north-east distant 31 leagues, lord Keith received three despatch-vessels (all within seven or eight hours) from the commander in chief at Minorca, containing orders for him, after detaching two 74s as an additional reinforcement to lord Nelson, to |