ADMIRAL GRAYDON’S BOOTLESS EXPEDITION.

Nor were the arms of England by sea much more successful in the West Indies. Sir George Rooke, in the preceding year, had detached from the Mediterranean captain Hovenden Walker, with six ships of the line and transports, having on board four regiments of soldiers, for the Leeward islands. Being joined at Antigua by some troops under colonel Codrington, they made a descent upon the island of Guadaloupe, where they razed the fort, burned the town, ravaged the country, and reimbarked with precipitation, in consequence of a report that the French had landed nine hundred men on the back of the island. They retired to Nevis, where they must have perished by famine, had they not been providentially relieved by vice-admiral Graydon, in his way to Jamaica. This officer had been sent out with three ships to succeed Benbow, and was convoyed about one hundred and fifty leagues by two other ships of the line. He had not sailed many days when he fell in with part of the French squadron, commanded by Du Casse, on their return from the West Indies, very full and richly laden. Captain Cleland, of the Montagu, engaged the sternmost; but he was called off by a signal from the admiral, who proceeded on his voyage without taking-further notice of the enemy. When he arrived at Jamaica, he quarrelled with the principal planters of the island; and his ships beginning to be crazy, he resolved to return to England. He accordingly sailed through the gulf of Florida, with a view to attack the French at Placentia in Newfoundland; but his ships were dispersed in a fog that lasted thirty days; and afterwards the council of war which he convoked were of opinion that he could not attack the settlement with any prospect of success. At his return to England, the house of lords, then sitting, set on foot an inquiry into his conduct. They presented an address to the queen, desiring she would remove him from his employments; and he was accordingly dismissed. The only exploit that tended to distress the enemy was performed by rear-admiral Dilkes, who in the month of July sailed to the coast of France with a small squadron; and, in the neighbourhood of Granville, took or destroyed about forty ships and their convoy. Yet this damage was inconsiderable, when compared to that which the English navy sustained from the dreadful tempest that began to blow on the twenty-seventh day of November, accompanied with such flashes of lightning, and peals of thunder, as overwhelmed the whole kingdom with consternation. The houses in London shook from their foundations, and some of them falling buried the inhabitants in their ruins. The water overflowed several streets, and rose to a considerable height in Westminster-hall. London bridge was almost choked with the wrecks of vessels that perished in the river. The loss sustained by the capital was computed at a million sterling; and the city of Bristol suffered to a prodigious amount; but the chief national damage fell upon the navy. Thirteen ships of war were lost, together with fifteen hundred seamen, including rear-admiral Beaumont, who had been employed in observing the Dunkirk squadron, and was then at anchor in the Downs, where his ship foundered. This great loss, however, was repaired with incredible diligence, to the astonishment of all Europe. The queen immediately issued orders for building a greater number of ships than that which had been destroyed; and she exercised her bounty for the relief of the shipwrecked seamen, and the widows of those who were drowned, in such a manner as endeared her to all her subjects.